Second chance goals or goals off of deflections sometimes saves that you make are some of the most frustrating as a goalkeeper to give up. It’s pretty obvious why there’s such a let-down with these goals. You actually did make the save, but it didn’t matter in the end because the ball found the back of the net. Now, we have to be realistic with some of these situations. A lot of times we as players, or coaches and especially fans have a really tough time setting that bar. At the end of the day though when you’re the one between the sticks you know better than anyone when a second chance goal was avoidable or not.
I don’t want to talk about that, what I truly want to do here is give you some solutions for when you could do better. That’s a lot of the first step that we have to take. You have to own up to the mistakes that you know you made and find ways to improve that part of your game. That can apply to any goal that you wrongfully let by. With second chance goals I think that there are at least a couple of tangible ways that we can prevent a lot of them. Especially in the lower league level. What’s hard though is that some of these tips contradict each other. In true goalkeeper fashion there’s no one perfect way to get the job done. As I’ve said many times on this site, that’s why we have goalkeepers of all different shapes, sizes, and styles doing their thing. Let’s get going with the tips though.
Being A Good Judge Of Your Own Catching Ability
For me this is the key and I don’t see anyone really talking about it. You want to develop your catching ability of course. So when you’re training you should be taking some chances and some shots that are on that borderline for you. Where it’s coming in hot, and you don’t know whether to make the clean catch or guide it away. When you get in a game you should know where that line is for you. That way you can judge correctly when you’re dealing with an incoming shot. My advice is usually to play it a bit safer in a game. Especially if you’re going to be able to deflect the shot out to a safe area.
What I see happen as well is that coaches want to tell their goalkeepers what balls they should catch and what they shouldn’t. That’s “ok” for practice. Why would you want to put extra pressure on your goalkeeper during a game though? If he or she gave up the second chance goal it’s usually more because they tried to make a clean catch that went bad. Then it would be if you deliberately put enough on the ball to deflect it towards a safe area. This border between catching and deflecting is personal! You need to know where those borders are for you. There’s really only one way to be able to find where your limits are.
You Should Still Look To Improve Your Catching Ability
I’m not saying that the key to everything is to find where those limits are for you and then just stick to that. You should always be looking to improve your catching ability and with that you’ll move those limits further. The best way to do this is to be hyper aware of how you’re going to make saves in every drill that you’re doing. Of course, staying after practice and deliberately trying to make catches on shots that you would normally deflect is a good idea. In many ways we’re missing out on opportunities to get better at making clean catches in just the normal drills that you’re doing in practice. In fact, I never like to force a goalkeeper to deflect the ball in a drill.
If you can make the catch, make it! Even if that slows down the drill a bit. Some of these drills where we’re trying to build leg strength, speed, reflexes, agility whatever it may be, are sometimes causing some of these bad habits of giving up second chance opportunities. What we’re telling goalkeepers is just to leave the ball there and move on. When really you should be able to work on all of the elements at once. Even if I want you to let’s say get up faster if I see you diving wrong I’m going to stop the drill because you’re going to get hurt. In agility drills we still need to take care of the ball like we would our diving technique.
Don’t Be Afraid To Go Off Script
What I mean by this is, you think you need to punch the ball to get it to where you need it to be? Don’t be afraid to do just that. I see it for example in plays where the ball is coming right at you, but it takes a bounce right in front of your face don’t be afraid to try and deflect it to the side however you can. If you can’t cradle that ball into your body you’re going to end up giving out the rebound right in front of you. Those end up in the back of the net more often than not. What I’m saying is, not all saves are going to look pretty.
This is perhaps one of the toughest parts about goalkeeping to be able to teach. Many of the saves that you can end up making when you do in fact go off script tend to go against everything that you’re taught when it comes to proper technique. What happens is that a lot of goalkeeper coaches want you to forget about some of these “bad habits”. At some point though it may pay off if you’re able to use your elbow to deflect the ball in the right direction. It’s a delicate balance between getting rid of some of these bad habits and keeping some ideas in your bag for when the play requires it.
Warming Up On The Field Of Play Before The Match Is Key
I’m going like 180 degrees with this advice. A lot of the errors that I see at all levels could’ve been avoided if you get a sense for how the ground is going to impact a low incoming shot. When you first play for example, on turf the bounce can be an issue. So if you’re going to be playing a game particularly in unfamiliar territory you’re going to want to make sure that you test out the field. That way you won’t be surprised by what we love to call the “bad bounce”. A lot of times these second chance goals come off your hands because you were not ready to deal with the bounce that you got.
We could actually go back to the last point I made as one of the best remedies for this type of situation. When you do get a bad bounce you may need some type of reaction that goes away from what you usually do. Now, as the title of the section suggests, the best case scenario is to be expecting that bad bounce to come your way. Once it does what you’re going to be able to do is have a more natural reaction. Even with some of the worst bounces I’ve seen, if you’re kind of expecting it, it’s going to be easier to be able to have a reaction set up. Even if the reaction is kind of subconscious in a way.
Aim Where You Want To Deflect The Ball
This is going to seem like the most obvious of the tips that I’ve talked about. I also understand that a lot of times you just can’t aim the deflection. In some of these cases the second chance opportunity is going to be inevitable, so you don’t want to beat yourself up about that. Of course, you could always try and deflect the ball with another part of your body like I talked about earlier. In any case, let’s get to those times when you can aim the ball. For example, you’re diving to your right, and you’ve miss timed it and the ball is at your chest area, but coming in too hard to catch. You’re going to want to come in under the ball and almost with your wrist or your fists punch the ball out towards the right.
You’re going to have to deliberately alter the way that you’re attacking the ball. If you just let it go off your hands it’s going to bounce back towards the goal. What’s worse in this case is that you’re going to be falling away from the ball. So trying to get up and make a play on it is almost impossible. As you can probably guess by this point there are a ton of things that you need to be on top of when you’re trying to make a save. If you limit yourself to just trying to reach the ball you’re losing half the battle a lot of times.
What To Do When You Really Can’t Aim The Deflection
I kind of glossed over this a bit. Really there are a couple of things that you can try. One is of course trying to hold onto the ball. That may not be the worst idea even if you fail in a close range situation. The ball may fall right at your feet, and you could do something to get on top of it. The second option is the one I talked about with using other parts of your body to make the deflection. Even closing your fist as you reach the ball can give you a chance to try and make a stronger deflection that’s going to go past the attacker that’s in your face waiting for the rebound.
Really another thing that can help and this comes with time is being hyper aware of where people are on a given play. At first, you really want to keep your eye on the ball because if you don’t, you’re not going to make the initial play. As you grow you do start to get a feel for where people are in a play. What I’m saying is you can try and give up what may be a bad rebound, but have it fall at the feet of your teammate. Of course all of this is a ton of information to process on a play that can last fractions of a second.
How To Stop Giving Up Second Chance Goals As A Soccer Goalkeeper – Conclusion
There’s no one solution to this issue that plagues all at one point. I think the first and most healthy thing to do is just work on these situations constantly. Understanding those limits that I was talking about where you feel comfortable catching the ball cleanly is key towards reducing the goals you give up on second chances. Like I said this is something that’s going to be an ongoing process. The last thing that you want as a goalkeeper is to think that you can’t get better. There are always things that you can tweak about your game. Even the pros make this mistake of thinking they’ve got it down, and that’s just never the case.
