OT- US Goalkeepers

Someone asked me in a thread why we have so many good goalies yet cant produce any world class players in other positions. I had no idea myself since I tried to play when I was little and the German coach told me to quit, never play again and go back to baseball. Anyway I was looking up the upcoming US goalies and found this article. So whoever asked me about this here is at least an attempt at an answer. If anyone really is interested in future goalkeepers we might want to sign apparently Klinsmann is considering skipping Guzan for the next world cup and instead picking either Bill Hamid or Sean Johnson if they leave the MLS and go to Europe. Both are current MLS keepers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Hamid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Johnson_(soccer)

The article I was talking about.

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/...finds-ways-to-foster-goalkeeper-talent-051613

There is apparently a theory about why we produce so many quality goalies.

"“It’s a very athletic position and so much of it is eye-hand coordination,” says Meola, who subscribes to the school of thought that American goalies benefit from having played sports with their hands in their childhoods. “I still think that the biggest benefit to me was basketball,” reasons Meola, who played baseball - was drafted by the New York Yankees out of high school, in fact, although he never signed. Howard was a star basketball player in high school as well. So was Sean Johnson.

"That exposure to various sports produces that hand-eye coordination," says Gaspar. "Overseas, you can toss a soccer ball to an athlete and most all of them will catch the ball with every body part except their hands. If you do the same experiment in the United States, most young athletes will automatically catch with their hands.

,,I don’t know what else you’d attribute it to,” argues Meola. “I attribute it to the fact that we did things in other sports and we’re very athletic. I say I started out as a great athlete and became a great goalkeeper as the years went on, with experience.”

 

I wouldn't class Tim Howard as world class. But I'd say he's on a par with Landon Donavon, who didn't really spend long outside of the MLS but was still a quality player.

 

Because all sports americans play to their maximum revolves around hand movement. So, in short, I agree with Nick.

 

Maybe what the US needs is one world class player, preferably a number 10 or a striker, to just emerge somehow. That'll excite the kids and then still further down the road you'll produce more. A bit like how in Germany there were very few tennis players and then after Boris Becker loads followed in his wake

 

I think they'll have one with Julian Green, the lad looks quality.

 

John Harkes would run rings around him. And Lalas. That just about exhausts my knowledge on US non-goalkeepers from more than 5 years ago. Oh and McBride.

 

You know that he still hasnt played 90 minuets of first team football including US national team appearances? Granted breaking into the Bayren Munich 1st team isnt exactly easy. He had 15 goals in 23 games for the B team last season and is only 19. He could be a great player but it will be a few years before we find out.

 

Rossi who was born and raised here plays for the Italian national team. He could have played for us but picked Italy instead. He would have been that striker that we have been missing all these years.

 

So does he sound American or Italian?

 

I played in the Southern California (LA area) mens leagues from the early 70's till the mid-90's, and coached in the boys youth leagues for the same period. Soccer as a sport for kids was just taking off in the 70's and coaching was transferring from US dads and moms with no previous playing experience to primarily English/Scottish ex-pats and Latinos who had grown up playing the game.

The everyone plays league (AYSO - American Youth Soccer) was for 6-13 year olds. Thats where all kids started. It quickly overtook American football in sign ups because of low cost of entry (uniforms, equipment) and low injury incidence. Even the physically less gifted (slow, fat etc) could enjoy it and the parents loved it. Goalkeeping was far and away the least popular position...usually it was rotated among the fringe players. I never met a kid at that age who just wanted to be a GK.

At 8 the better players were recruited to play in "All-Star" traveling leagues...in our area CYSA (California Youth Soccer Assoc). Our League in Ventura County covered 200 miles with teams from Santa Maria to LA's San Fernando Valley. In my town, Thousand Oaks, we had Eric Wynalda and Cobi Jones, both later US stars, on the same team. GK became a key position...any player who showed athletic ability and WANTED to be between the posts...was at a premium in the recruiting process. A top goalie was worth his weight in gold to a traveling team. Many played volleyball...hard court and beach. Those kids were amazingly athletic...and hard nosed from diving on wooden floors. Their reaction times were incredible. They could two hand punch a clearance with accuracy half the length of the field before they were in their teens. Volleyball in my opinion was more important than basketball/baseball in developing GK skills.

 

He has an Italian accent, he left the US to go play in Italy when he was 12 years old. He is from New Jersey.

[video=youtube;tBFfpf243XY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBFfpf243XY[/video]

 

That's weird, you'd have thought by the time he was 12 he'd be speaking a language clearly and fluently, having attended an American school. There are flashes of American in his tones though.

 

I think both his parents were from Italy so the language he spoke at home was probably Italian even though he grew up in the US. Its probably why he speaks it with an accent.

 

I played a few games in that league in the early 90's Canada. For the British and Dominion club in Long Beach/Huntington Beach. Quite a lot of ex pro's played especially in the vets teams. Did you ever play them?

 

I played for the Thousands Oaks team in the Ventura County league Chazz until 1992 when i finally hung up my boots at the age of 53. Most of the guys on my team were from Central/South America, average age in the 20's, so even though I'd dropped back from Striker to CH it was increasingly difficult to stay on the pace in that 80+ degree heat. We had a few pro quality players, including an Argentinian who'd played for Boca Juniors. Farthest south we played was the San Fernando Valley in LA. Played against Rod Stewart a few times...damn good little player.

The youth team I coached...Conejo Tigers...made the u-14 State Cup Final in 1985...we lost to the Huntington Beach Untouchables 1-0 in extra time. A lot of real good young players came through Huntington Beach HS and joined the Galaxy. Orange County is a real hot bed of soccer.

 

No problem.

You know what is funny about the playing on hard ground. The team that I was on that finished 3rd in the 18 year old world series used to train on a basketball court. Instead of regular gloves we used wooden planks with a rope tied to it and we took infield practice on the basketball court. If you have ever played ball imagine trying to catch a ball coming full speed off a bat while using a piece of wood for a glove on a court. The bruises we had from diving for balls lasted months. It was crazy though how quickly we got soft hands. We got so used to it that we were using the side of the gloves in the World Series instead of catching the ball. It made the scouts go crazy for a bunch of guys on the team.

 

I just assumed it was because the weaker defences meant they got more practice, against weaker forwards, which gives them more confidence.

 

I have to agree with fellow ex-pats and and US citizens that the American sports such as baseball, American and Canadian football, etc., all throwing and catching games, have produced a whole host of excellent goalkeepers. Most if not all the keepers in the MLS that you have never heard of in the UK play to a very high standard and this is reflected in the youth clubs around the country. This throwing and catching tough sports background brings me to another US innovation, the long throw in. In the UK the throw in was just a means of getting the ball into play in my day. In 1989 we brought two teams to the Sheffield area for coaching and some games. The UK coaches and players were astounded seeing 15 and 16 year old US players hurling the ball into the penalty area from throw ins.
It is now standard practice for all teams world wide to use the long throw as another attacking item.

 

O/T Question Yardley. Have you managed to buy a property near Hull yet?