Goalkeepers: Always in the line of fire

An outlier in a perpetually busy game, a goalkeeper leads a lonely life and does a thankless job

Amidst 20 players motoring across the pitch and furiously hacking at the ball, and each other, for the better part of an hour and a half, there are two outliers.

In some ways, they are unaccounted for, so much so that AFC mandated that they be named in the formations. The old-school 4-3-3s and 4-4-2s did not represent them. The 1, a number synonymous with the position, was missing.

But they are the 1(s) who find themselves in hot water the most. It’s been a tough year for the goalkeepers. The Indian Super League has seen its fair share of fumbles and mistakes which has been followed by the usual wave of criticism and vitriol on social media. Vishal Kaith, the Chennaiyin FC keeper, had a bad day against Bengaluru FC on Thursday. His opposite number, Indian national team keeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu also made an error in the same game. Amrinder Singh, another international, fumbled just the day before.

Fans have questioned their ability, wondered if the change in the foreign player rule affected them or been flippant. The phrase ‘even I would have saved that’ is perhaps the most oft-used expression in football, and everyone is guilty of at least having thought it.

‘Who wants to be a goalkeeper?’ goes the famous quote. It’s an interesting question.

Goalkeepers are different. They hold the ball in a game where the objective is to kick it. They try to draw the ball - to cradle it - while the rest go about smashing it away from themselves.

In India, on the playgrounds the unspoken code dictates that it’s often the last pick, the least athletic or interested who reluctantly trudges down to goal as his/her mates go about galavanting across the field.

“Of course there is a stigma about goalkeeping, especially with younger kids,” says Gurpreet. “No one wants to be a ’keeper because there is huge glory in scoring goals. Maybe one way to look at it is you can save goals and help your team…”

There is some fun in flying around and making saves but is it worth the time spent watching rather than playing? It became such a sore topic that the idea of ‘flying goalkeeper’ is big in local games.

In Brazil, a culture notorious for nicknaming their players in a prosaic depiction of their extended adolescence when it comes to football, goalkeepers are an anomaly; almost never bestowed a nickname. The fans trust them less as well. After all, who would trust a player without a nickname?

In the 1950 World Cup, Brazil had painstakingly built the stage to crown themselves world champions in front of their fans at the brand new Maracana stadium. For a country, still looking to find their identity, this was supposed to be a defining moment.

Instead, Uruguay won. That moment of collective pain remains to this day in Brazil. The goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa was the fall guy, blamed for a 'mistake' in that fateful game and lived the rest of his life in infamy.

“The maximum punishment in Brazil is 30 years imprisonment, but I have been paying, for something I am not even responsible for, by now, 50 years," he once said.

Cleiton Silva, Bengaluru FC’s Brazilian forward, born 37 years after this event, recites the country’s collective pain.

“They had almost 1 million people (at the stadium) and unfortunately we lost the game,” Silva narrates. “They accused the keeper, Barbosa, of making a mistake. We were not very kind to him for all his life. Football, sometimes, is passion... people sometimes don't understand about the guy on the other side…”

That is an extreme case but such experiences are not uncommon for goalkeepers. The last line of defence is the first one people remember.

“It’s typical,” says Hyderabad FC goalkeeper coach Marc Gamon. “If there is a goal, you think the keeper can save. No one thinks the defender could have done better or the striker should not have lost the ball. It’s because the keeper is part of the last action and that is what you remember. It's a thing we define every time. I think keepers have accepted it.”

Laxmikanth Kattimani has lived it.

In the 2015 Indian Super League final, playing for FC Goa against Chennaiyin FC, he made a mistake in the last minute. Just when it looked like his team had won, it literally slipped from his fingers.

“It was the worst moment in my life,” he says. “I couldn’t sleep for a few days. I was disturbed a lot mentally. It was hard to forget that ISL final moment.”

In some ways that moment had defined his career. The fact that he twice saved penalties - one of which was scored off, from the rebound - or that he was a key figure is hardly important. But he’s now rebuilt himself in Hyderabad and has the best defensive record in the ISL this season.

“It’s important to have a short memory. It’s not an easy thing to deal with mentally,” says Gurpreet. “Over the years you find ways to move on because you can’t stick to that mistake and fall on that slippery slope where you start making more mistakes.”

“You always have to be switched on, all the time. It's mentally draining,” says Vikranth Sharma, former Dempo goalkeeper and now a coach. “You feel tired mentally after the game. You have to be able to read the game well to organise the defence, then you’ve to cover the blind space and make sure your own position is good. Only then can you rectify a mistake at the centreline. That only happens when you are on top of it. You have to keep thinking and be strong.”

Victor Valdes, the goalkeeper for the great Barcelona side under Pep Guardiola, has spoken about the pressure of guarding a goalpost that felt bigger than its dimensions, of being exhausted despite hardly facing a single shot. Of course, he was guarding a goalpost that symbolised Catalonia.

That’s quite a few notches above Indian football.

“There are different psychological characteristics. It’s how humans act because of how they think, react and conduct themselves,” says Gamon, who was at Barcelona himself.

“The stress on the goalkeeper is higher than others. The confidence you need to have is different because as an outfield player, you touch the ball many times. As a goalkeeper, you have to be ready and active for any action at any time. Emotional intelligence is very important because during games, and season, you will go through many emotions and you have to control. You will feel fear, happiness, sadness, doubt... You have to control all these to perform and try not to let the bad emotion affect you.”

Goalkeepers are crazy, they say in some countries.

Perhaps it’s the apotheosis of the colourful characters that donned the gloves. There were great goal-scorers like Brazilian Rogerio Ceni and Paraguay’s Jose Chilavert, eccentric and unpredictable dribbling menace and scorpion-kicking Rene Higuita of Colombia, roaring hardman like Oliver Kahn or a game transforming Manuel Neuer.

Conceivably, it could also be an exaggeration of their courage.

To jump at the feet of the attacker, the willingness to throw themselves in harm’s way for the sake of saving a goal with any part of their body necessary as the opponent smashes the ball with ungodly force from a handful of yards. It takes guts.

“It takes a lot of courage, it’s an underrated quality. All you are trying to do is to stop the ball going into the net with whichever part of the body. Obviously you have done it so many times in training you know that the ball is not going to hurt you. I mean it does hurt you but not seriously hurt you,” Gurpreet says, trying to rationalise the concept.

Even amongst their own, they are not at ease sometimes. Unlike outfielders, the goalkeeping position is usually nailed on bar injury or serious dip in form. The competition can be cruel at times.

“A lot depends upon the goalkeepers (2nd and 3rd choice) sitting outside and their psyche. You will find some who are always hoping the one playing makes mistakes and concedes a bad goal. There are those also who are just waiting for their chance and prepare to do well when it comes. It depends,” says a former keeper.

There are challenges rather tailor-made for India as well. The Indian grounds being what they are, away from the top academies, diving around in training as a young goalkeeper is a calling card for injuries. At the highest level, there are limited slots and everyone is looking for experience.

“Everyone wants an experienced keeper but where do you get one?” asks Sharma. “They are made only when you give them a chance to play, make mistakes and learn. But are we giving them enough chances?”

Even the concept of a goalkeeper coach is fairly new.

“In India it’s difficult to be a goalkeeper because the league is very short and the rest of the season you are preparing yourself but not training for competition,” says Gamon. “The mistakes are going to be more frequent because you are not training and competing constantly like other leagues. That's what we are seeing.”

The expectations are also sometimes writing cheques beyond their means.

“Goalkeepers, these days, need to be good with their hands and feet. They need to be mentally strong, stay focused and strong through the whole game. It’s the toughest position,” says Dheeraj Singh, FC Goa goalkeeper who played a starring role in the U-17 World Cup in 2017 and the AFC Champions League last season.

“You make a mistake and most of the time people are very critical. We have no margin for error. No one in other positions can understand what we go through in a game.”

It’s possible no one will. It’s probable that no one wants to. Every story needs a villain and a hero, a fall and redemption. In the story of football, in a goalkeeper, you have it all.

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