Sweeper-Keepers | Using Their Heads And Their Feet

Under nearly every garishly colored jersey worn by a goalkeeper (yes, we are talking about you Jorge Campos) is a striker struggling to get out.

“I used to joke with [U.S. head coach] Bob Gansler when we were getting ready for the 1990 World Cup that I’m a center forward trapped in a goalkeeper’s body,” said Tony Meola, now the coach of the NASL’s Jacksonville Armada FC who used to be a national team goalkeeper. “Athletes want to be musicians. Everyone wants to be something they’re not. All defenders want to be forwards.”

In recent years, the term sweeper-keeper has elbowed its way into the soccer lexicon largely because of the often over-the-top exploits of the Germany and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

“All my interventions are quite risky, but I still believe it is smarter to intervene early instead of waiting for a striker to get there first,” Neuer told Bundesliga magazine. “Today’s world-class strikers make very few mistakes. That’s why I try to intercept long passes to the strikers, even if it means having to venture far outside my penalty area.”

Neuer’s exploits, live and in color on TVs around the globe, have made impressions on young goalkeepers and prompted discussion, both positive and negative.

“I’m a big fan of Neuer,” said Brian Sylvestre, 23, who has returned to the Carolina RailHawks after playing 12 games on loan last year with the Philadelphia Union of MLS. “Bayern Munich and Germany wouldn’t be as solid in the back without him. He’s actually a center back. He’s so confident and good at reading the game.”

While Neuer drew attention, both positive and negative, for his pre-emptive dashes off his goal line during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil (particularly against Algeria), the wandering goalkeeper has been a familiar sight for years to many fans in South America. For better or worse, René Higuita of Colombia and Jorge Campos of Mexico are two guys who simply could not abide waiting for the action to come to them.

Higuita is infamous for one play in a game against Cameroon in the 1990 World Cup in Italy. He earned the nickname el Loco, the Madman, after he dashed upfield near the halfway line, settled a ball and noodled around before being dispossessed by Roger Milla. Milla waltzed in on goal alone in Cameroon’s 2-1 Round of 16 victory that eliminated Colombia.

While Higuita’s howler sent Cameroon to the quarterfinals, the record low goals-per-game average and the defensive tenor of the entire tournament prompted a key rule change in 1992 that prohibited goalkeepers from picking up a back pass from a teammate – and usually wasting time. From that point on it became more important for goalkeepers to develop foot skills akin to those of outfield players.

“I haven’t always been a ‘keeper,” said the Cosmos’ Jimmy Maurer, who helped the team win last year’s NASL title. “I played a lot in the field in high school [St. Pius X in Atlanta] and was named an All-American as a forward. I don’t know if that’s a clerical mistake! I love playing with my feet and I think it’s helped teams I’ve played on.

“With the Cosmos, the coaches push me to play out of the back, even under pressure. But there’s a balance. The coaches here have been really good about giving me the confidence to make my own decision about when to come out. You have to make a decision in real time. They want me involved as much as possible so we can press as high as possible. But it’s also about not being too crazy. You have to know your limits. At the end of the day it’s about keeping the ball out of the net.”

Maurer admits to being lucky to not have been caught out of goal the past few years, saying there have been “no drastic mishaps when I’ve come out 40 yards.” He did say that the cardiac moments are more prevalent between the goal line and top of the penalty where a goalkeeper can miscalculate and be undressed by a chip shot over their heads.

“Mistakes are going to happen,” he said. “Even Neuer has given up some bad goals. Maybe in another time the coaches would have tried to rein him in, but how many times has he helped his team and broken up a breakaway? If you save 100 breakaways but get caught once the mistake is worth it.”

For Meola, whose career spanned the back pass and the rule change, his experience as a goalkeeper is now being put to the test in his first job as a head coach.

“I thought it was great they changed the rule,” Meola said. “Guys would throw-in the ball from the sideline and the ‘keeper would be able to pick it up and play around. Now you have to play with your feet.”

In Jacksonville, he has been working with Miguel Gallardo, who played in 22 games last year and had a 1.68 goals against average for an expansion team that finished at the bottom in the NASL Combined Standings.

“I have actually talked to Miguel about this because I thought last year he was a bit too adventurous,” Meola added. “What a ‘keeper can’t do is someone else’s work. Last year he did some of the work that should have been done by defenders. It’s a fine line when you’re on the edge of making a mistake. I’d like to see him have play come to him more. Athletically, he’s very good. He’s not afraid, he’s good with his feet. But I’ve told him to use his feet to get out of a mess, not to put yourself into a mess.

“What struck me is that he told me that’s how he was instructed to play last year. They showed him video of Neuer and told him they wanted him to play that way. It’s a risky thing. It’s hard to compare Neuer to anyone. You’re playing with fire. I’m asking him to play like Miguel Gallardo and be the best he can be. It’s fine to tell someone to play like [Lionel] Messi, but I mean, let’s be realistic.”

What is clear is that in today’s games, goalkeepers often get to display some elegant, and sometimes their inelegant ability with the ball at their feet. Neuer is far from the only adventurous goalkeeper, a list that could include Tim Howard, David de Gea and Thibaut Courtois, among others. It is easier to be prone to roam when you play for a dominant offensive juggernaut like Bayern Munich, though it would be hard to imagine any goalkeeper, be it Howard or Neuer, venturing far from goal in a game like the United States’ against Belgium in the second round of the 2014 World Cup – when Howard made a record 16 saves.

“The change in the back-pass rule really changed the way teams play and now the goalkeeper is part of trying to keep possession of the ball,” Maurer said. “Now all the teams in the world have goalkeepers who have to be good with their feet. The sport now demands good foot skills to make smart passes.”

No mad men need apply.