six finger demon

Chapter 318 The Development of the Goalkeeper

What is a goalkeeper?
Or what exactly is a goalkeeper?
The young coach Mourinho is sitting at the table, holding a "History of Modern Football Development" in his hand.

A little further away from the Portuguese is a 26-inch color TV, and the picture on the screen is fixed at the far corner of a camera.On the green field, together with the referee and the goalkeeper, a total of 22 people can be seen.

One person missing is the visiting goalkeeper.

Since losing to Liverpool in the second half of the league, an absurd idea has planted a seed in the heart of the Portuguese coach-whether he is falling behind!

The game video played on the screen was the match between Liverpool and Leverkusen just now. Next to the video recorder, there was a video tape printed with "Liverpool VS Chelsea".

Mourinho never felt that selling Tang Wu was a mistake.In the opinion of the Portuguese young coach, no matter how good a player is not suitable for his own tactical play, he will be eliminated from the starting list.

However, Liverpool's games refreshed his perception time and time again.

What is a goalkeeper?
What does a goalkeeper do?

These days, the Portuguese coach thinks more about this issue than the team, so that the team not only lost to the Magpies in the FA Cup and was eliminated, but also lost 1-2 in the first round of the Champions League at Camp Nou.

The consecutive defeats made the Blues fans wonder-is the team for the league and not for any cups?
Or will the defeat in the cup represent the current state of the team?Will it be the turn of the league to lose next?
Mourinho is a person with a flamboyant personality and alone. Instead of answering questions from fans and the media, he shrank himself in the room and carefully studied his opponent in the next game.

bang bang bang.

"Mr. Jose, are you looking for me?"

A handsome young Czech general stood at the door.

"Peter? You came just in time, let's take a look at this." Mourinho said, and pressed the play button on the remote control.

The players frozen on the screen immediately moved.

The Liverpool players were making a close press from a high position, while Tang Wu continued to retreat after kicking a free kick.

"His running posture is really ugly!" Mourinho shook his head and said with a smile.

Tang Wu had six fingers on his left hand, and he couldn't see anything when he was sprinting.Even myopic eyes can see the difference in his running form as the straight-line distances he runs get longer.

"And the speed is not fast." Cech also commented.

Petr Cech, who is 1.9 meters six, is still confident in catching up with Tang Wu even though he is running hard under the same physical strength.

"But Leverkusen don't even have the ball, do they?" Mourinho asked rhetorically.

Indeed, even the possession of the ball is not selected, let alone a counterattack shot.

In this way, Tang Wu tried his best to "slowly" run back to his side to defend the penalty area.

"He reminds me of the previous goalkeeper! It was a long time ago." Mourinho hugged his shoulders and began to tell Cech what the previous goalkeeper was like.

More than 100 years ago, there was no distinction between goalkeepers and non-goalkeepers, and handball was allowed.It wasn't until 1871 that handball by a non-keeper was considered a foul.

Despite this, the goalkeeper is still a "normal position" in the team.

There is no specific goalkeeper uniform, no gloves, and there is even a taste of changing goalkeepers during the game.Most outfield players simply put aside their temporary goalkeeping experience after being goalkeepers and don't care anymore.

But there is always an alternative to everything.

Gardner of Scotland chose a different path.

He chose to continue on the road of goalkeeping and has since become a top goalkeeper.

At that time, he developed a new goalkeeping technique based on the experience he gained from the field: rushing out to block the ball can make the goalkeeper face a smaller shooting angle.The other goalkeepers in the same period are still sticking to the goal line.

A reporter who saw Gardner in the game described the goalkeeper who was born halfway through the striker: the best player of his era.

With the development of football, football began to be professionalized.Coupled with the development of football leagues, goalkeepers began to be recognized as professional technical players.

A series of star goalkeepers began to emerge, such as Preston's Jimmy Trainor, Sunderland goalkeeper Ted Doig and Sheffield United's William Falk (the world's fattest goalkeeper).However, goalkeepers and outfield players are still confused at this stage.

In the 1888 FA Cup final against Preston, West Bromwich Albion sent Bob Roberts as goalkeeper.

The six-foot-four former mason has played as a defender, midfielder and striker.

After the defensive position was shifted between the goalposts, he used his size to great effect.Roberts made a series of important saves in this final, and West Bromwich Albion won 2:1.

There are many players like Roberts, such as Arthur Wharton, an African player born in Ghana who is the first black professional player in football history.

Wharton is an all-around athlete and a former world record holder in the 100-meter sprint.

Given his advantage in speed, coaches generally played him as a winger until his never-ending shooting skills allowed him to be transferred to goalkeeping.

Initially playing for Darlington and Preston, it wasn't long before he switched to goalkeeping that Walton was hailed as one of the best early goalkeepers in football history.

One newspaper described him this way: "In terms of goalkeeping skills, no one is even half as good as him."

Many teams have tasted the benefits of a relatively high-level goalkeeper, or suffered from a poor one.

Gradually, the idea of ​​immobilizing the goalkeeper was born and put into practice.

By the middle and early twentieth century, almost every club had a dedicated goalkeeper and a backup goalkeeper.Moreover, special goalkeeper uniforms appeared at this time to distinguish them from other players on the field.

It's just that the goalkeepers of this period are still at the initial stage.The vast majority of goalkeepers are just stuck in the corner of the goal line, either because of their huge size or their outstanding reaction speed, which is quite similar to many college students who are guest goalkeepers today.

In those days, due to the inability to change players during the game, when the goalkeeper was injured during the game, it was likely that a "reluctant outfield player" would put on the goalkeeper's clothes and keep the goal.

In football, everyone is willing to run on the green field to score a goal and enjoy the joy of scoring.No one wants to stand in front of the backcourt and watch other people play well.

"Do you know whose guest goalkeeper is the most famous?" Mourinho asked suddenly.

"Uh" Cech tilted his head, and his mind didn't turn around for a while.

"It's Bailey!" Mourinho laughed like a child whose friend didn't answer his brain teaser.

It was 1963, and Pele's Santos team had a fierce battle with Gremio.Pele scored a hat-trick to give Santos a 4-3 lead before the end of the game.

However, seeing that the game was about to end in 5 minutes, Santos' main goalkeeper Kemar was unfortunately injured and left the field.Bailey, who was in good form, had to retreat from the frontcourt to his own penalty area and played the goalkeeper as a guest.And made several key saves, which allowed the Santos team to retreat.

It is quite interesting that in the same year (1963) when Pele was a guest goalkeeper, the legendary superstar Yashin of his generation actually won the Golden Globe Award as a goalkeeper.

Yaxin has also become the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d'Or so far.

The reason why Yashin can win the Golden Globe Award naturally has his reasons.In addition to his goal-line technology worthy of the nickname "Octopus", he also has a concept ahead of his time.

Compared with those colleagues who stick to the goal line and dare not cross the threshold, Yashin has a huge range of activities and frequently rushes out of the penalty area to make a clearance.

At the same time, Yashin also plays the role of the organizer of the defense line, reminding his teammates to arrange defense through gestures and shouting, and from time to time, he can throw precise passes with his hands, allowing his teammates to switch from defense to offense in the first place .

He can not only rescue danger on the goal line, but also rush out of the penalty area to play the role of an extra defender, and he can also command the defense of the whole team and wait for an opportunity to launch a counterattack. Back then, Yashin undoubtedly had the prototype of a modern goalkeeper. He has earned the title of "Father of the Modern Goalkeeper".

After the end of World War II, FIFA began to implement new rules allowing substitutions in the international arena, which means that injured outfield players can be taken off the field in the first half, and goalkeepers can also be replaced at any time after an injury.But at this time, many countries, such as the United Kingdom, still do not allow substitutes in domestic games.

Until 1965, all national football leagues finally introduced the substitute system, although it is still rare to allow goalkeeper changes.This means that outfielders are still occasionally required to be goalkeepers.

Even after the number of substitutes on the sidelines has increased, outfield players still have to keep the goal.Because the head coach would rather bring a few more outfield players on the bench than deliberately bring a goalkeeper as a substitute.

When the Premier League gradually came into people's attention in 1992, due to injuries, red cards and an immature substitute system, fans could still often see outfield players standing in front of the goal line as heroes.

"But it's different now. The goalkeeper's goal-line technique and other rules of football make it hard to score goals. If a goalkeeper is not professional, then most of them will fail with a big score."

"And this is not allowed by the fans!" Mourinho finally said, "I don't allow it either!"

(End of this chapter)