By Patrick Morrison

RECENTLY while coaching a team in Dublin, I took a session that had been focused on working on one-versus-one situations.

The session focused on what the goalkeeper should do in a situation whenever an attacker breaks through and is in on goal. We discussed the principles of both the attacker and then the goalkeeper because as Sun Tzu teaches “know the enemy and know yourself and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.”

We went through the various footwork and techniques for each situation until mastered and then we brought it into focused scenarios. Once these had been perfected, we brought them into game situations and finally into the competitive games with the rest for the team for calibration.

When the session was finished one of the goalkeepers approached me and asked if there was anything that a goalkeeper can do when faced with a two-versus-one. They had faced it a few weeks prior and felt completely powerless and ignorant in regard to how to deal with this situation effectively.

My initial advice was simple, BUT important! “Stop being so hard on yourself and remember in those situations you are outnumbered and are not supposed to have any chance of stopping it.” That said what can be done to better your chances? As a goalkeeper you are going to do two things. You are going to BLOCK one thing and SHOW another thing.

When faced with a two-on-one situation, the attacker with the ball has two options. They can either PASS or they can SHOOT. It is these two things that you are looking to block and show. As the attacker is closing in you want to either ‘block the shot, show the pass OR block the pass, show the shot.’ By doing one of these two actions it’ll will increase your opportunity for making the save by decreasing the attacker’s advantage.

Now that we have discussed what to do in these situations, the next step is understanding when to do this.

So how do we decide when to block the shot and when to show the shot? We answer this by putting ourselves back into the attacker’s mindset. The attacker has the biggest advantage to score a goal whenever they are approaching the goal straight down the middle because they have the full goal to aim for and have the widest angles of score.

This means that the pass will push the ball to the angle at either side making it a tougher shot for that attacker to score. So whenever an attacker is bearing down on goal straight down the middle the goalkeeper must BLOCK the SHOT, SHOW the PASS. Wait until the ball-carrier passes the ball to the angle, literally until it leaves their hand, and then close the shooter by running at them and then diving across the ground (curtain dive) onto the shooter’s boot for the block. Be aware that they may try to dummy you and cut back inside.

Alternatively, if the attacker is approaching the goal from an angle (roughly between the corner of the penalty area to the end-line) as the goalkeeper you have a better advantage keeping the ball here rather than allowing the ball carrier to pass it central for a tap in. In this scenario the goalkeeper must BLOCK the PASS, SHOW the SHOT.

The goalkeeper does this by positioning themselves closer to attacker in the centre which in turn shows more of the goal to the ball carrier (at the angle) enticing them to shoot for goal (be careful to only leave a dives length of goal open). Once they go into the act of shooting for goal, swiftly close them down and dive across the ground (curtain dive) onto the boot of the shooter to make the save.

Situations like these can feel dauntingly hopeless and leave you thinking you completely helpless in stopping them.

By coming up with a process to following in these situations, it allows you to feel more confident in what you are doing by giving you more of an advantage through clear directive actions.

It is important to always remember that in any situation you are not hopeless and that you always have options. In any situation the pressure is on the attackers to score not the goalkeeper to save, meaning goalkeepers only need to put themselves in a more favourable position.

As goalkeepers it is important to never feel hopeless, never feel helpless and never feel powerless in any situation there is always actions that can be taken.

Always remember, as goalkeepers we are “Always outnumbered, but never outgunned!”

Email: pmgoalkeeping@hotmail.com

Facebook: @MSoG11

Twitter: @MorSchGk