Mistakes as a goalkeeper are something that you’re going to have to conted with your whole career. Even some of the greatest of the game have failed in the biggest moments. Oliver Kahn was named the best goalkeeper at the 2002 World Cup before the final was even played. What did he proceed to do in the final? He literally gifted Ronaldo a goal that lost Germany the World Cup. Does that make him any less of a legend? No, soccer goalie mistakes are part of the game. That being said, when you’re standing between the sticks you’re going to want to avoid them at all costs. Luckily there is a way to try and minimize the mistakes that you make, and it’s called practice, practice, practice!
Now that we’ve established that you can minimze soccer goalie mistakes through practice we also have to be honest and say that if you’re not working on the right things you may not be getting better. That’s a big problem that I’ve had with many of the goalkeeper coaches that I’ve come across over the years. Don’t be like that school teacher that just wants to complete the lesson plan and doesn’t care if the students learn or not. Watch your goalkeepers write down what you see them struggling with and make an emphasis on working on those issues throughout the next sessions. What are these common issues though? Let’s take a look at some of the things that we commonly see both in the pro game, and Sunday leagues.
Soccer Goalie Mistakes – Having The Ball Slip From Your Fingers Like A Bar of Soap
This one is an issue that you never want to have happen to you no matter how you look at it. There are many reasons or shall we say excuses as to why this can happen. For the most part though, these errors go back to one key flaw that many of us have committed time and time again. That is not attacking the ball or looking the ball all the way in as they say. Here is a very recent clip of an error by Sebastian Jurado of Cruz Azul. What happened to him on this play is something that I see happen a lot in youth leagues Sunday leagues, and training.
The ball is coming in kind of “hot”. It’s not a comfortable ball by any means because of the spin that it get from the minor deflection that the shot takes. You can’t be overconfident with a shot like this and expect the ball to find its way to your gloves. This is a ball that you have to attack, and if you don’t like the spin on it don’t be afraid to put both forearms out there and volley this one away. That’s a last ditch option of course, but I’d rather be having a conversation about why I deflected such an “easy” ball than be having a conversation about why they ball is in the back of the net. The lesson here is don’t get too confident with any shot.
Giving Up Second Chance Oportunities
Another one of the issues that lead to soccer goalie mistakes is not being able to make the right decision on wether to deflect the ball or try and catch it cleanly. This issue is very similar to the one that we just explored in the sense that you have to a make decision again on how you’re going to attack the ball before it gets there. The last thing that you want to do is be caught in the middle. Second chance opportunities are given up for one of two reasons either you made a weak save and left the ball in a prime spot for a second shot, or you tried to make a clean catch and the ball just didn’t quite come into your hands like you expected it would.
I talked about practice practice, practice being the only remedy to soccer goalie mistakes, and in this case it’s no different. Essentially what you need to do is learn to judge an incoming shot with just one look. What I mean by that is that, that your decision is going to be made once you move towards the ball wether you want to try and catch it or you’re going to put some power behind the deflection. There’s basically no inbetween with something like this. Everyone’s confidence level is going to be different, and I’ve talked about trying to increase your confidence level to catch more shots cleanly. In a game atmosphere you have to go with what you feel is the safest option for you in that moment. A lot of times that’s putting a strong hand on the ball, and making sure it runs off to the side.
Diving Wrong In Any Way Imaginable
I’ve talked about the dreaded dolphin dive on other articles on the site. What this is, is trying to dive to a low ball starting out diving upward. When you do that you’re essentially losing a step and it can ultimately lead you not reaching the ball. Also, what can happen is that the ball will just roll right under you into the back of the net because you didn’t have your arm or hand on the ground to be able to make the save. This piece of advice that I’m going to give out is actually stolen from someone who I saw on IG I can’t remember who it was. What they were saying though is that your hands are what is going to lead the dive. I always was tought it was more your feet and your center of gravity.
From your base position though if you stretch your arms out towards the ground you’re going to be more likely to dive accordingly to a low ball. I have an article on this as well where I go into greater detail. Another of the main issues that I want to get to is diving backward. That’s also going to limit the range that you have. When you’re beat you have to dive backward to try and make the save. However, for most shots you want to dive forward to make sure that you are catching the ball at angle. That’s going to improve your range. You don’t have to make it to the top corner you can cut the ball off before it even gets there!
Soccer Goalie Mistakes – Wrongfully Coming Out To Cut Crosses
This is one of the most common mistakes out there. When it comes to soccer goalie mistakes one of the biggest issues with not knowing how to react in a cross is that hesitation can lead to a goal. Let alone dropping a ball that you should’ve caught or something like that which, by the way is also something that is known to happen often. These issues are only going to get better with practice and game reps. You have to try and come out to grab the ball from a cross in a game at some point. This is one of those issues that I’ve struggled with my whole career so I feel that I can certainly speak about it.
When you know that this isn’t your strong suit you’re going to try and hide it. By hide it I mean literally not want to come out and cut any cross for fear of messing up. Really that’s not a solution either. Training should help you develop not only catching skills, but your personal range for these types of plays. You have to know how far you can come out to cut a cross. If you never try it in games guess what’s going to happen. Smart teams are going to put all of their crosses right in the heart of the box and any corner or even long free kick can end up being a problem for you.
Positioning Errors
Most of the errors on crosses happen because the goalkeeper is out of position. When you try and jump for the ball you’re either too early or to late. Also, positioning errors are going to make easy shots hard, and challenging shots impossible. If there’s one thing you have to have down as a goalkeeper it has to be positioning. The biggest challenge is though the size of the field and the goal itself is going to make positioning all the more difficult. Where you have to stand in your base spot on a 7v7 field with a smaller goal is not going to be the same as where you have to be on a large field goal.
Also how far off the line you can afford to be is going to depend on your size, and your reaction ability. There are some very short goalkeepers out there that love to play very far off the line. What they are counting on is being able to shorten the distance between them and the shooter enough to never allow them to chip over them. That’s a good strategy when the shooter is inside the box. The big problem comes when you have a 1v1 with the shooter coming in from outside the box. Also, the steps you take to reach each side of the goal is something that you need to have a feel for. To know how much room you can afford to concede.
Trying To Do Too Much
You see that your team is not defending up to par so you try for example to make almost every single play a 1v1 because you have more faith in yourself than in your team. Maybe you’re someone who really likes to come out and cut crosses or play with your feet on the edge of the box. With anything in goalkeeping there’s always a fine line between playing your game and trying to play hero ball. We’ve all been there playing on a bad team when you feel like they need the extra help, or you’re just too confident and you want to take matters into your own hands.
I would remind everyone that you really can’t force goalkeeping. If you’re a defender and you want to force the action past midfield when you feel you’re going to be leaving a huge gap in the back line that the other team can exploit. The same exact thing can happen to a goalkeeper. If you want to force everything to be a 1v1 you’re going to end up losing some of those matchups and you’ll put the game out of reach. People always talk about letting the game come to you. When it comes to goalkeeping there really isn’t much else that you’re going to be able to do. Don’t force things and let the game come to you.
Soccer Goalie Mistakes Conclusion
I’ve talked about the fact that practice is the only real way that you’re going to be able to polish some of these issues. To be honest we are all going to go through spells where you’re lacking here or there. Goalkeeping sometimes seems a little like golf. There’s always something that you can improve upon and that you can make an extra effort to be working on. Other than practicing though I do believe that another key is to have someone near you that is able to point out some of the things that you may be doing wrong.
At first some of the issues are going to be evident. That’s ok, after all I just mentioned that you should always be looking to upgrade your game. Everything starts though with recognizing what the holes in your game are. What I hate about some goalkeeper academies is that they don’t change their lesson plans to match the needs of their players. That’s when even if you go to practice you won’t get better because you’re not working on the things that you have a problem with. Therefore, the first thing that you need is to locate your weaknesses to then make sure you make an effort to practice certain parts of your game more.
