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Group F: Argentina, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Iran, Nigeria

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
Just quickly off the top of my head, since it's half time at the moment, the amount of non-European keepers who have looked totally out of their depth is pretty high. Pretty much all of the African teams' keepers have been awful. The majority of South American teams' keepers have been questionable. Australia's keeper was hopeless. South Korea as well. Japan not great either...
In some cases surely it's just big tournament nerves etc. I mean if you judged purely off performances in major tournaments you'd think Cech was a pretty average keeper. Pretty easy for one mistake to sour a whole performance in a short tournament etc.

But yeah keeping standards have seemed low, relatively few strong saves, a lot of basic errors etc. There are notable exceptions though, like the Mexico and Colombia keepers who have both been really good.

edit: And Howard was good too, and Casillas was probably the worst keeper. Not sure it's a non-European issue honestly.
 
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sledger

Spanish_Vicente
In some cases surely it's just big tournament nerves etc. I mean if you judged purely off performances in major tournaments you'd think Cech was a pretty average keeper. Pretty easy for one mistake to sour a whole performance in a short tournament etc.

But yeah keeping standards have seemed low, relatively few strong saves, a lot of basic errors etc. There are notable exceptions though, like the Mexico and Colombia keepers who have both been really good.

edit: And Howard was good too, and Casillas was probably the worst keeper. Not sure it's a non-European issue honestly.
It's not just been errors though, which could be put down to nerves. Some of the keepers just look like they've not been coached properly. That Barry guy who dived out of the way of the ball last night being a prime example of this sort of thing.

Like I said, there are exceptions to this rather unfortunate general rule, but it's seemed to me that the majority of really suspect pieces of keeping, and not just errors that have directly lead to goals, have come from non-European sides. I'm not deliberately picking on them, but that's really how it's seemed to me.

In any case, my comments weren't meant to be exclusively confined to the World Cup. Teams from Africa and South America in particular haven't had any trouble with producing world class players, but when has any nation from outside Europe produced a goalkeeper who would at the very least arguably be one of the best players in the world in his position at his time of playing? Without being extremely generous I'm not sure I could think of one off the top of my head.
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Julio Cesar was definitely up there a few years ago, was considered one of the best coming into the last World Cup.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Julio Cesar was definitely up there a few years ago, was considered one of the best coming into the last World Cup.
He's a strange one. Ironically he's grown on me in recent years, but I've never really found him especially convincing. His silly baggy shorts no doubt to blame for this in no small part.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Taffarel was up there. There were some good keepers around though.
He was good, but I don't think there was ever any suggestion he was in the same bracket as the best of his peers. I'd have rated Toldo, Canizares, Van der Sar, Seaman, Schmeichel, Khan, Lehmann and possibly even Barthez and de Goey as being comfortably better than him.
 

Uppercut

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In some cases surely it's just big tournament nerves etc. I mean if you judged purely off performances in major tournaments you'd think Cech was a pretty average keeper. Pretty easy for one mistake to sour a whole performance in a short tournament etc.
Well you'd think he was an absolute monster in 2004 before trailing off once he got his scrum cap, which isn't a million miles from the truth.

Ecuador keeper was great tonight.
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
I always thought him too error-prone and rated too highly for his goalscoring (not the priority for a 'keeper) but in the late '90s Chilavert was ranked among the very best.

Going way back, there's Gilmar. But yeah, there are relatively speaking far fewer great South American 'keepers than any other position.
 

Burgey

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Have there been any of the de rigeur "Messi has been **** for vast parts of the game" posts today?

Because I thought his job is to score goals, and he's bagged four in three digs, which ain't too shabby really.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Have there been any of the de rigeur "Messi has been **** for vast parts of the game" posts today?

Because I thought his job is to score goals, and he's bagged four in three digs, which ain't too shabby really.
It's been the opposite over here from what I can tell. The commentators literally called him a "deity" earlier on. Hate it when people say crap like that, it's just as annoying as those people who constantly bag on him.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
I always thought him too error-prone and rated too highly for his goalscoring (not the priority for a 'keeper) but in the late '90s Chilavert was ranked among the very best.

Going way back, there's Gilmar. But yeah, there are relatively speaking far fewer great South American 'keepers than any other position.
There are even fewer African ones. Thomas N'kono seems to be the most highly rated African keeper of all time. I can't really think of any other African goalkeepers who have really gained any recognition. Carlos Kameni is quite decent I suppose.
 

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
Disappointing, we were way too defensive. It's as if Queiroz forgot we needed to win.
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
It's not just been errors though, which could be put down to nerves. Some of the keepers just look like they've not been coached properly. That Barry guy who dived out of the way of the ball last night being a prime example of this sort of thing.

Like I said, there are exceptions to this rather unfortunate general rule, but it's seemed to me that the majority of really suspect pieces of keeping, and not just errors that have directly lead to goals, have come from non-European sides. I'm not deliberately picking on them, but that's really how it's seemed to me.

In any case, my comments weren't meant to be exclusively confined to the World Cup. Teams from Africa and South America in particular haven't had any trouble with producing world class players, but when has any nation from outside Europe produced a goalkeeper who would at the very least arguably be one of the best players in the world in his position at his time of playing? Without being extremely generous I'm not sure I could think of one off the top of my head.
Be interesting to see how many have been playing regular football.
 

BeeGee

International Captain
Bad keeping when you see it en masse annoys me though, it really does stand out far more than crap defending or attacking. One off errors, even really bad ones, happen to even the best of players but what we've seen in this tournament is an epidemic of really poor performances. These are meant to be international footballers on display here, but a lot of the duffers we've seen would be substandard in the Championship.
The keepers really need to start asking themselves "What would Bruce Grobbelaar do?"
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
There are even fewer African ones. Thomas N'kono seems to be the most highly rated African keeper of all time. I can't really think of any other African goalkeepers who have really gained any recognition. Carlos Kameni is quite decent I suppose.
Grobelaar.
 

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