Cruyff, so advanced in everything, was the first who wanted his goal to be occupied by a guy skilled with his feet to start the game. That was over voleon to the other field so that the opposing centre-back and their own centre-forward could compete. Those duels were very frequent in England, where the director kept the camera watching the two of them while they waited, struggled and finally jumped to head. The fans kept accounts about it. I saw a father with two children in Hyde Park who, instead of playing a dribbled goalhe sent them high crosses from a distance so that they could compete with their heads.
I return to Cruyff, who for his Dream Team He entrusted that function to Busquets, father of the then phenomenal midfielder. It didn’t work. Between revulsion at the novelty, which was made more shocking by his long pants, and several errors in the essential function of avoiding goals in his frame, he did not settle down.
But the idea stuck and began to have followers, especially after 90, when the goalkeeper was prevented from collecting his teammates’ transfers with his hand. It has been a condition for a long time sine qua non for the goalkeeper to handle himself well with his foot, even to the detriment of some old demands of the position. For example, blocking.
Goalkeeper-player, goalkeeper who initiates the start, goalkeeper axis of a mess with the defenders and the midfielder to attract rivals and originate an attack in superiority. Or goalkeeper-player with a kick that is precise enough to move it 60 meters to the chosen teammate. An advance in football, of course.
The contraindication is given goals. This week it happened to Benfica and Salzburg against Barça and Madrid. In the first case, Trubin attempted a long pass, but did not lift the ball enough and crashed it into Raphinha’s forehead, who bounced it into the net; In the second, Blaswich tried to go out through the center of the area by dribbling past Mbappé, with fatal results. They are two close cases, but there are many. Benzema heist famous goals to Karius, Ulreich, Donnarumma and Mendy on solemn European nights. And the little history of football offers many more, which arm the classic fan who is scared seeing his goalkeeper with the ball at his feet with arguments.
And no matter how well he plays with his feet, the goalkeeper does not have all the assumptions mechanized nor does he value risks like field players. Sergio Ramos, for example, would never have tried to come out through the center of the area dribbling past Mbappé, and he would have a goalkeeper behind him, which Blaswich would not. Nor am I sure I would have risked a long pass over the head of an opponent so close to the area. Sometimes, goalkeepers want to appear easy with the ball (theatricalize naturalness, Valdano described it) which leads them to despise danger. But in one’s own area it is advisable to be pessimistic, as Ancelotti described Nacho in a flattering tone.
Robert Moreno spoke very well about the matter in a television talk show, following one of Unai Simón’s problems in this regard. He said that it is an essential issue to come out playing and that once admitted as such, the goalkeeper cannot be offered escape, because if he were not forced to do so he would always do it very rarely. And that it is better to accept the risk than to allow yourself to be relieved by kicking somewhere from time to time.
The question would be how many goals are given away like this and how much they compensate. One goal is nothing, given that the average per game does not reach three; but he served the good tun-tun It divides the ball, forces a hectic game to be played and is the opposite of what any self-respecting coach today wants for his team: an orderly start, on the right foot, to create superiority. The general idea is that the goals given away compensate, in the absence of the Big Data one day rule otherwise.
