Welcome to the
very first edition of “Clean Sheet”, an inside look at the greatest position in
World Football… “Goalkeeper”.
Love them or hate
them, goalkeepers are known as being just a little bit left of centre. Books
have been written about them. There’s my personal favourite handed to me by my
father at the tender age of 12 “Goalkeepers Are Different” penned by the well
respected Brian Glanville. The novel
follows the career of Ronnie Blake, a young goalkeeper, and his journey from
the ups and downs of injury and rejection through to experiencing the enormous
thrill of running onto the pitch in front of a roaring Cup Final crowd. A ‘must
read’ for any young keeper wanting to reach the dizzy heights from park
football right up to the big time. Sadly life didn’t imitate art in my case
study.
As the great
strikers always seem be front and centre in the tabloids and broadsheets for
all the right and wrong reasons, goalkeepers are often their poor cousins.
That’s where my blog hopes to come into its own - by highlighting and promoting
the stand-out goalkeeping performances from each round of the very best
competitions in world football. I hope it will be the nerve centre, covering
everything about those lonely and terminally frustrated individuals who stand guard
over that sacred goal, deep inside the 18 yard box.
My love of
football goes way back to my childhood, when I was asked by our under nine
coach at the time, “Who wants to play in goals”? I sheepishly raised my hand
thinking that perhaps this action would transform my sporting career into the
stratosphere of greatness. I was right - it did transform me, but not as a
brilliant and talented football god!
Despite this my
love of the game has never waned and as a staunch armchair critic I continue to
watch, read, listen, live and breathe all things football. This includes
getting up in the middle of the night to watch World Cup tournaments, endless
qualifiers, Euro Championships, UEFA Champion’s League & Europa League, FA
Cup, EPL, La Liga, Classico, Serie A, Bundesliga, NPower Championships games
etc and of course our very own burgeoning A-League competition. I guess at the
tender age of 42 if you’re getting up to make use of the facilities you may as
well stay up and catch the odd game on the box.
For now I will
concentrate on the local A-League competition and report on how the top keepers
are faring with respect to clean sheet stats. I hope to extend my expert analysis
to performances elsewhere around the globe, in particular the English Premier
League. I will also try to cover any weekly clangers of note, highlighting the
odd brain-fades or mix-ups that are bound happen in the high pressured world of
professional football.
To make things
interesting, it’s my commitment to award an exclusive brand new 1000 plus Thread
Count Queen-sized sheet set to the lucky A-league keeper with the best clean
sheet record at the conclusion of the regular season. Here’s hoping I can “bed”
down a high end sponsor like Sheridan.
A-League
So far in the
A-League after four rounds, Central Coast Mariner’s Matt Ryan continues to
stake his claim for back-to-back “A-League Goalkeeper of the Year” titles with
another impressive week in the box. Round Four saw him keep his 3rd clean sheet
of the season with a combined total of 10 saves overall. At this rate he’s on
track to eclipse his total clean sheet tally for 2011-12 of eight by the end of
the calendar year. Close behind Matt are Adelaide United’s Eugene Galekovic,
Glory’s Danny Vukovic and WSW’s Ante Covic on two clean sheets. One of the
stand-out keeping performances of the weekend would have to be talented young
keeper Mark Birighitti from the Jets who pulled off some magic glove work to
deny the Victory some much needed confidence in front of goal. He is certainly
a keeper on the rise and possesses some wonderful reflexes as shown by his efforts
on Friday night at Hunter Stadium being awarded two points towards the
prestigious Alex Tobin Award.
The clanger of
the week would have to go to Sydney FC’s keeper Danny Vukovic. After keeping
Sydney FC to one goal, Vukovic committed a memorable brain fade after
sheepishly rolling the ball out to Liam Miller who was comfortably dispossessed
by Grant. A quick pass to the awaiting Brett Emerton followed, who performed a
deft chip over a red-faced Vukovic to give Sydney
the lead and eventual win in front of a healthy crowd of 22,128 at Stadium Australia. Tune
into Fox Sports next week to see how many times Danny will roll the ball out of
the box against the Mariners at Blue Tongue Stadium this Saturday.
Well that’s all
for this week’s wrap. Enjoy the lead up to Round Five. I’ll be heading out to
Suncorp Stadium to see the Brisbane Roar host Adelaide United. Last year’s
fixture proved to be a goal fest after “Super” Dario Vidosic scored in the
fifth minute only to see the Roar go on to score seven unanswered goals
courtesy of a Besart Berisha hat-trick and Henrique double.
My Goalkeeper
quote of the week:
“My colleagues spend most of their time with their backs turned towards me. I don’t believe it’s because I am unpopular – honestly”
(Brad Friedel) The evergreen 41 year old keeper for Tottenham.
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