If you are minding the nets for your soccer team, at times, you barely have time to do more than instinctively stick out a gloved hand or cleated foot to prevent a goal. At other times, even in competitive soccer, the ball comes straight toward your torso and into your cradling arms for an easy save. You often will have to judge the trajectories of much more troublesome shots. Concentration and experience help you to do an effective job in assessing where the ball is headed.
Step 1
Watch the shooter closely if she is bearing down on you in an undefended breakaway or has made a move to get free of her defender to take a shot. Look for signs such as eye and head movements for a clue as to what direction the shot will take. Look especially at the shooter’s final glance up before shooting; her eyes tend to go to the spot she intends to aim for. Also, watch the direction of her leg swing and follow-through.
Step 2
Gauge the ball on its long traverse in toward the goal area if you are facing a corner kick or cross. Observe whether the ball is rising or falling, sharply struck or gently lofted, or bending in toward or away from the goal. Check whether the ball is headed for an area not crowded with attacking players so you can safely make a save. Make a decisive move if you decide to collect the ball. Otherwise, stay back on the goal line and let your defenders do their jobs.
Step 3
Observe the seams of the ball as it comes in on a free kick. Prepare for the ball to knuckle -- meaning to drop suddenly -- if you observe no spin, which results from a kick with a straight-ahead follow-through. Anticipate a straight and reliable trajectory if the ball has the typical underspin. If you notice side spin, the ball is likely to curve inward or outward because the kicker has contacted the ball off center for a swerve or banana kick. While you can still do your best to block the shot, swerve kicks flummox even elite keepers in top international competition.
Step 4
Defend a penalty kick based more on educated guessing than waiting to see where the ball is going, which is too late for these powerful, close-range shots. If you have no past experience with the shooter, go to your right if you are facing an experienced, on-form striker or midfielder, who is likely to pull the shot across his body and send it to what is his left and your right, recommends Timothy Mulqueen in “The Complete Soccer Goalkeeper.” Go to your left if the striker or midfielder has been having an off game and may want to play it safe with a simple shot to his right. If you are facing a defender, wait to see the shot without guessing, as you are likely to receive a hard-hit shot that may go anywhere.
Tips and Warnings
- Take as many repetitions as your goalkeeper coach can provide of shots to the corners and the middle of the goal, at high, medium and low levels. Practice improves your judgment of incoming soccer balls. Don’t feel bad if you can’t handle a swerve kick. Researchers at the University of the Mediterranean in France have tested top-tier goalkeepers on their ability to predict the direction of swerve kicks and have concluded that human vision has limited ability to accurately track balls that change speed and trajectory in midflight.
References
- Jeff Benjamin's Goalkeeper Coaching; Breakaways; Jeff Benjamin; 2004
- "The Soccer Goalkeeper"; Joe Luxbacher, et al.; 2002
- Handle It! Goalkeeping; High Balls and Crosses; Peter Mastrogiovanni
- Naturwissenschaften; Judging Where a Ball Will Go: the Case of Curved Free Kicks in Football; Cathy M. Craig, et al.; 2005
- "The Complete Soccer Goalkeeper"; Timothy Mulqueen; 2010
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