As a goalkeeper coach that is about to strike 30 years training on the field, I can say that I got to see a lot!
I have had the chance to train for nearly a decade in Italy before I transferred to the United States and by doing so I got to see the massive differences that there are between the UEFA and USSF models on how to select the best goalkeeper for your team/academy.
Nearly all youth soccer clubs in the U.S. do not have their goalkeeper coaches (if they have one) select the goalkeepers destined to join the club, in the most it is the head coach that does that. Mostly because of their ego’s and they don’t want to look incompetent. This is why many solid and quality goalkeepers are left behind.
The head coach that in most cases has no clue how to choose a goalkeeper out of the pack will go for the goalkeeper that impresses him the most, the goalkeeper at the tryouts that will pounce like a cat and spectacularly dive on every ball. Big Mistake! That keeper will be harder to build for the future and during the game you’ll see a totally different goalkeeper, a keeper that can’t read the game and will not perform the way you thought. However he is tall for his 13 years of age, but you then didn’t realize that he’s 5’5″ and is as tall as both his parents, so the chances of him growing in height even an additional 2 inches is close to none. So now you’re stuck with a keeper that is capped in the most important element!
At that same tryouts, the head coach rejected another 13 year old, he as well 5’5″, he was not a spectacular goalkeeper, he didn’t fly like a tiger, however he was clean catching every ball shot at him, he was too calm and confident for the coach and his voice was squeaky, he was still with a child’s body. The goalkeeper was different from the keeper he selected, this keeper had not yet hit puberty, he had not initiated his sprouting. Again the coach never investigated the parents height. His dad is 6’5″ and mother 5’11. Add to all of this that the goalkeeper has a pair of Goalkeeper Gloves that he pulls out of his backpack that are carefully placed in its original packing, his cleats are clean and his kit looks clean…
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