My goalkeeper Injuries

Throughout my goalkeeper days I have had couple of injuries

1. Broken Chest
2. Broken wrist
3. Broken fingers (many times!)
4. Broken toe
5. Broken nose
6. Broken elbow

Luckily I'm still in one piece. I hope this injuries wont haunt me when I gets old because my father and my mother are feeling it now. If anybody has any advise how to minimise the pain please let me know..:)

Arent they beauty?

PETER SCHMEICHEL

Peter Schmeichel....remember this name.. the profilic goalkeeper I have ever seen. Big, tall, fierce, good commanding. He is totally a great keeper. A great dane indeed. He is one on the top list of my goalkeeper favorites. Imagine him confronting head to head Oliver Kahn! The world would shake hard if those guys fight with each other.

Schmeichel of goalkeeping technique is new to me. Very unconventional...Strange but effective. You wont see any no nonsense "camera save" from him...He is direct..He would use his WHOLE body to try to stop the ball. Hands, legs, chest, head, whatever is allowed in the rule book for goalkeeper to use he would use. He is so damn good..

Under him, Denmark won the Euro 92. Now Denmark is just mediocre....Denmark can now play badminton :)

PEPE REINA

José Manuel Reina Páez or most famously known as Pepe Reina replaced my favourite Jerzy Dudek after Liverpool won Champions League Final. There is nothing wrong with Jerzy but I guess the new coach Rafa Benitez favours him over Jerzy. Both are good keepers but you can only have one keeper at a time in a game. And you cannot change keeper just like you change defenders, midfielders or strikers throughtout the season so poor Jerzy had to sit on the bench.

I have some reservation about Pepe Reina. People said that he is a penalty specialist in spain. Okay I agree with that. He had shown it many times. So not to bad. But he is not THAT good in the air. You can see Liverpool struggle with set pieaces of crosses these days. Because Pepe Reina is quite short for a keeper. And he always in a hurry to release the ball back as soon as he catch it. Well you can do it couple of times in the game for tactical reason but not EVERYTIME?? hold your horses pepe reina...you have 6 seconds to hold the ball...But I let you get
away with it. As long as the liverpool keep winning. I dont have any quarrel. You should give credits to your defenders for working hard to keep you in a clean sheet.

Goalkeeper Gloves

Okay, lets take a break today. Lets talk about gloves.

This gear is the most important thing a keeper should have. Its something that makes keeper looks cool. Looks extraordinary and looks to have something big to carry on his responsbility. Thats why I like to be a goalkeeper. In games I always tell the strikers, "Hey you! Gimme what u can? Give me ur life threatening and powerfull shot! I will catch it easily.

The first glove I wear was a diadora glove. It was just a simple and basic glove. Nice design. Got some sticky latex and thats all. I have broken my fingers many times trying to catch balls using the glove! At that point in time it was really scary to be a goalkeeper. Every single part of your body is bound to be broken if not carefully protected especially goalkeeper's fingers. Imagine damaging your fingers beyond repair and imagine the consequence.

But now, with technology, there is a huge evolution in goalkeeper's glove. There is many types of gloves nowadays. Among them are boned gloves, roll finger gloves, surround cut gloves, negative cut gloves, astro gloves and the basic gloves.

Personally I like the boned gloves like the one pictured above. The adidas fingersave gloves. I bought my first Edvin Van de Sar black and yellow stripe Adidas FingerSave gloves 4 years ago and like it ever since. I've never had any single damage to my fingers even since I wear that gloves. You feel much more confortable and you will grip the lightning travelling balll with ease. Totally! Go buy adidas fingersave and you will know what I mean

JERZY DUDEK

Ahh..Jerzy Dudek...Who could ever forget Jerzy Dudek? He is class....he who became a Champions League-winning hero in 2005. He who imitates Bruce Grobellar wobbling legs. He who saved the then AC Milan striker shot, Shevchenko. He is miracle i tell you!

He was born in Poland on 1973. He is currently with Real Madrid. I guess he is destined to be with great clubs. Previosly Liverpool, Real Madrid. He is a living legend.

He is good in the air..but one on one is not his specialty although he made one exception during the European Champions League final in 2005. But that was not really one-one-one save..That was crazy. An extra force might have had a hand into that and his captain, Steven Gerard..really believe that.

But it is really a sad one seeing down the pecking order of the man between the post right after he single handedly won liverpool the Big Ear for us. He was clearly not happy with that situation and cost him in a Poland squad where he was also the demoted from the first choice keeper.
He didnt play regular so is the reason behind his demotion.

But Jerzy Dudek will always be remembered as one of the famous keeper in the history of football. The world saw the most amazing thing in European Champions Leagea final 2005 and this man played a part in it.

SANDER WESTERVELD

SANDER WESTERVELD, is definitely one of my favorites keeper. But suprisingly after his successfull spell with liverpool winnig 3 trophies in one season namely FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup he only lasted for two seasons...

I just dont why...but I guess thats football. For me he is the best keeper I've seen after bruce and I so admire his composure..the way his stand in between the goalkeeper...the smoothness and the cleanliness when he rolls the ball to team mates...he is class!

But right after he was released to Real Sociedad, Liverpool knew that they let one of their gems away from them. Westerveld succeded in Real Sociedad taking the team to qualify for the champions league and finishing as a runners up in La Liga in 2002/2003 season...

For the record, he has won Liverpool League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup, Charity Shield, European Super Cup

DAVID JAMES

Right after Bruce Grobelar, David James came to replace him. Well, I dont have anything against him, but I do have some reservation about him. He is not my type of goalkeeper...He is prone to some unbelievable mistake....he does not have the composure of what a goodkeeper should have..He does not have any single traits that bruce had...and he is known as Calamity James...

David James was born in 1 August 1970. He made his debut into Liverpool club on 16 August 1992. Besides from the nicknames Calamity James, he is also known as the spice boys ..together with Steve Mcmanaman and Robbie Fowler....He is tall and has every physical attributes to become a great keeper but somehow his mind is not that strong enough...no composure...no focus... distracted to somethig going on off the pitch...yes the spice girls thingy...

All in all, david james will register as one of my worst keeper to have ever played for liverpool and it is no wonder Liverpool slump during his years as the keeper. David Calamity James...

BRUCE GROBBELAR

well... for those who follow english premier league football in the 80's will know bruce grobbelaar..I was just a young kid then...Being a innocent kid back then, I just followed whatever my big brother did...so one of it was him being a fan a bruce grobbelar....we were and still a die hard fans of Liverpool. Liverpool was top in the 80's...and bruce was in his finest form...

bruce grobbelaar was born in 1957...he was the keeper of Zimbabwe...(Zimbabwe?? can you imagine that...we never heard of any good players from Zimbabwe these days). Grobbelaar signed for Liverpool for £250,000 on 17 March 1981 as their reserve goalkeeper. At that point in time Ray Clemence was still the first choice keeper. But his move to Spurs paved the way to bruce to become Liverpool's first choice keeper

What I like about Bruce was his humor. Being a goalkeerper myself, I know that is good trick to get the defender to cooperate with you when you give instructions to them. Being defenders is not easy I must say....they need to keep their positioning, keep their lines, shove the opposition strikers, being knocked by the ruthless strikers...so the keeper really need to give some sympathy for them whenever it is due...you can scold them when they made mistake...but when they do something good....smile at them..give them pat at the back...I tell you...you will be surprise by the new energy they show when you did that and they will defend well...

My Life as a goalkeeper

Cut my veins open and I bleed goalkeeper's blood

Well literally..:) But thats how I decribe myself to this special position in football...I love to be a goalkeeper....its in the blood of my family.....I came from a family of six...I have 4 siblings with my eldest brother...my eldest sister...me and younger sister..

My father used to play goalkeeper in school...my eldest brother played keeper...and shockingly one day when I asked my mom about this topic...she said she too played keeper in her formative years in school...what is more shocking was she said she represented Malaysia!!! I couldnt belieave what I heard that day...but that was the story...

Once I heard that, I knew I had to play this position in football..I comes so natural for me...I was selected as the first choice keeper during my secondary school, first choice keeper during high school, second choice keeper during university days, first choice keeper for 5 years for my old boys alumni, first choice keeper for 5 years for my company. But, as my family does not encourage myself to take sport as a profesion...it all ended up as a hobby for me...

So I put up this blog, to pay tribute to the greatgoalkeepers out there and list down my favourites keeper of all time...