Who doesn't need a goal keeper?

It's hard to watch you kid get blamed by his teammates and the parents for letting one in (even when sometimes its not their fault), by the other team (like in the video we all saw) for challenging the forward, and to risk injury while doing it, or to be asked to do the near impossible (like stopping a penalty from a striker that knows what he/she is doing). You have an off day as a midfielder, maybe someone else steps up. You have an off day as a keeper everyone sees it and doesn't let you forget it. Just ask Diop after his performance this weekend.
 
Grace T. said:
It's hard to watch you kid get blamed by his teammates and the parents for letting one in (even when sometimes its not their fault), by the other team (like in the video we all saw) for challenging the forward, and to risk injury while doing it, or to be asked to do the near impossible (like stopping a penalty from a striker that knows what he/she is doing). You have an off day as a midfielder, maybe someone else steps up. You have an off day as a keeper everyone sees it and doesn't let you forget it. Just ask Diop after his performance this weekend.
Click to expand...


I guess we are fortunate (or just lucky) but my daughter has never mentioned to us any finger pointing in her direction after a goal by her teammates. Maybe it's a gender thing, club culture thing or individual team thing. She fees highly respected and valued by her teammates. Parents are great on the sideline too.
 
NorCal said:
I guess we are fortunate (or just lucky) but my daughter has never mentioned to us any finger pointing in her direction after a goal by her teammates. Maybe it's a gender thing, club culture thing or individual team thing. She fees highly respected and valued by her teammates. Parents are great on the sideline too.
Click to expand...
Agree here. Unless a goalie really clearly makes a mistake rarely is there finger pointing at the goalie. Generally, it's the other way around lol.
 
Here's a story. So my sons team won the Jrs. Ribbon at Two Rivers Soccer Camp 4 v. 4. Their team was ranked dead last at the beginning of the elimination rounds. DS went up as a striker and attended striker clinic because I wanted him to get some of the touches he normally misses as a keeper and because his 2nd position is on the wing. DS and his teammates unexpectedly woke up and quite brilliantly battled into the finals. He faced his cabinmate who did the GK clinic and who is a very classic big keeper...the 2 of them had some rivalry thing going all camp long too and not just on the field. Final game tied 4-4. Went to penalities and tied 5-5/8. So they went into sudden death penalties only they made them strike with their nondominant foot. DS's rival missed his, but DS had been trained by his field trainer in taking left footed shots repeatedly so it was a piece of cake into the corner of the quartersized goal. DS's team wins. His rival cabinmate, the keeper, takes it very hard and is inconsolable despite all the kind words from the counselors about how impressive both teams did. If DS had missed that shot and lost he would have shrugged and said oh well. If DS had been the keeper he'd be pounding his fists into the ground. YMMV.
 
GoWest said:
Agree here. Unless a goalie really clearly makes a mistake rarely is there finger pointing at the goalie. Generally, it's the other way around lol.
Click to expand...

Assume that the finger pointing is equal when a field player makes a clear mistake, like missing an easy shot? :)
 
NorCal said:
I guess we are fortunate (or just lucky) but my daughter has never mentioned to us any finger pointing in her direction after a goal by her teammates. Maybe it's a gender thing, club culture thing or individual team thing. She fees highly respected and valued by her teammates. Parents are great on the sideline too.
Click to expand...
Completely agree. Coaches, players, and parents all want her in front of the net, have never blamed her for anything. In a recent game she was kicked in the head and down on her knees, backup keeper starts warming up. One of the girls comes over and whispers something to her, she gets up resumes her position. The girl later tells us she told our daughter "so in so" is warming up and you can't come out of the game. The coach occasionally puts other girls in goal during practice, which gives them all an additional appreciation for her.

My DD is a 05 keeper. 1.5 years experience. Was a forward, still one of the fastest players on the team. Coach stresses and coaches playing back to the keeper, and she practices field play at least half the time. Plays with a great set of girls. Also stressed to her to come off her line and clear balls outside the 18 using her speed. Plays basketball all the time which really helps giving her great hands and practice jumping for balls(great sport to cross train in, just hope she doesn't like basketball too much). Starting to ramp up keeper training with camps and an outside trainer. Might start looking at guest playing as well to get more touches.
 
My daughter had a couple of defenders get on her about a couple of misses (after stopping several) and she didn't respond back. I told her she should say to them..."Hey, when you get a chance can you show me how I could have done it better?" haha She had a great response in her head...they have no idea how hard this position is. I think it is hard for younger kids to grasp the fact that first the forward made a mistake and then the midfielder made a mistake and then the defender made a mistake and then the keeper made possibly made a mistake (there are just some balls that the keeper can't win) when there is a score. There had to be an accumulation of mistakes for a goal to be scored whether it be positioning errors, foot skill errors, decision errors etc. It takes a team to score and a team to have a goal scored against them.
 
timbuck said:
Here's a few things that I've seen:
1. At the youngest age (u8-u10) the best keeper is also the best field player. They are the aggressive kid that has no fear. They are good at any sport they play. The coach likes them in goal because it gives them a good chance to win, but also plays them on the field because they dominate on the field too. The parents don't want this kid being a full time goalie.
2. Or at these ages, a coach will rotate several players in goal. The lose some games because of it. Parents get upset and say "if we just had a full time keeper, we'd never lose."
3. Or during the first few weeks of a new season, the coach says "who wants to play in goal?" And 3 kids raise their hand. Not really knowing what it means to play in goal. They either really like the position or they don't really care for running or they are trying to be a team player. One of these kids winds up being a full time goalie halfway through the season but she doesn't really like it. The coach either doesn't know or doesn't care and keeps her in goal. The parents get mad because they spent $2,500 for their kid to move 14 yards every weekend, while they drive 30-60 minutes to watch her stand around in a long sleeved shirt for 85% of the game.
Click to expand...

My kid's team full-time goalie for last year was the worst player on the team. It was unfortunate, as at least 90% of the team was a better walk-on goalie with no practice than the team's full-time goalie. The goalie was also by far the worst field player. The parent pushed to have the kid on the team, and it was not fair to the goalie or the other players. It was difficult to watch.

This year, they have no full-time goalie and are rotating players. I agree this loses some games (versus a decent full-time goalie), but I think it is good for younger kids to learn the basics and gain an appreciation of the difficulty/responsibility of the position. At younger ages, a good athlete can be 90% of the goalie who has some training.

Last year, my daughter raised her hand for such questions (eg "who can play defense?" vs "who wants to play defense?"-- every kid can play defense). She learned the hard way on that one...
 
zebrafish said:
My kid's team full-time goalie for last year was the worst player on the team. It was unfortunate, as at least 90% of the team was a better walk-on goalie with no practice than the team's full-time goalie. The goalie was also by far the worst field player. The parent pushed to have the kid on the team, and it was not fair to the goalie or the other players. It was difficult to watch.

This year, they have no full-time goalie and are rotating players. I agree this loses some games (versus a decent full-time goalie), but I think it is good for younger kids to learn the basics and gain an appreciation of the difficulty/responsibility of the position. At younger ages, a good athlete can be 90% of the goalie who has some training.

Last year, my daughter raised her hand for such questions (eg "who can play defense?" vs "who wants to play defense?"-- every kid can play defense). She learned the hard way on that one...
Click to expand...

My only issue with the rotation system is that many times the coaches then don't give the rotating keepers proper keeper training. It's still fine, particularly in the youngers, if the coach is just expecting them to be a deterrent, block shots directly/relatively near them, get the lose balls, and distribute the ball. Given the sizes of the goals they usually play with and the sizes of the youngers, an athletic keeper isn't going to be very much less effective than the trained keeper. But if the coach is expecting them to dive, defend the cross, or worse, to close down the one v ones, without proper training a keeper substitute could get hurt very easily. That isn't fair to the keepers. If the coach is going to do that, it's incumbent on the program to provide the keepers with proper training beyond just the basics. Coach's like the rotational system as well because they might find a stand out player performs well and lo and behold they become the full time keeper.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top