Goalkeeping Tips, Tidbits and Random Thoughts

Measuring effectiveness

How do you measure the effectiveness of a goalkeeper? In a sport like soccer, there aren't a lot of stats anyway, so it's harder to get some objective measure of a player. Even with goalkeepers, where you have objective stats like Goals Against Average and Save Percentage, there are other factors that can affect these numbers. How good is the defense if front of the keeper? How many of the shots faced are routine versus difficult to save?

If you're statistically minded, there's an interesting thread on the subject over at BigSoccer in the "Statistics and Analysis" board: Making Sense of Save Percentages. It discusses how you can try to take these other factors into account to get a "true" objective measure of how good a goalkeeper really is. I doubt you'll ever get there (for example, the ability of a keeper to deal with crosses is critical but never factors into shot statistics at all), but it's a start.

Labels: Miscellaneous

Campeones!

Gotta have some championships on your resume, even if it's just in your local coed indoor league. We managed to pull of the league championship tonight with just five players:



What's the big deal about just five players, some of you might ask? Well, it's a six-a-side league, so we played short-handed the entire match. We had to play smart, and even in goal I handled the ball with my feet more than my hands, which was a key to keeping possession and controlling the tempo of the game. Keepers, work on those footskills too! I actually only played in goal half the time, and finished the season with six goals (in just 4-1/2 matches worth of field time) and three assists (all while in net).

Labels: Miscellaneous

Group of Death

Now that the World Cup draw has been completed, many folks think that Group E, with Italy, Ghana, the USA and the Czech Republic, is the "Group of Death". It certainly will not be a cakewalk for any side.

Goals may be at a premium, too, not just due to the Italian's catenaccio system of play, but because arguably three of the top ten or so keepers in the world will be minding the Group E nets: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Petr Cech (Czech Republic) and Kasey Keller (USA).

The only other group even close is Group A, with Oliver Kahn (Germany) and Jerzy Dudek (Poland).

Labels: Matchday observations