Everyone knows that eleven people from each team play football. Ten field players can vary in their roles: they can be defenders, midfielders and forwards who have their own classification. They are
can be flanking, central, defensive or attacking and so on. But there is one player who does not leave his penalty area, he is the whole match at the gates of his team, guarding them carefully.
This is the goalkeeper, who is the last frontier of defense. But it is worthwhile to dwell in more detail on who such a goalkeeper is.
Goalkeeper as a gatekeeper
The goal of football is to score as many goals as possible in the opponent’s goal and prevent him from hitting his own. The main goal of the goalkeeper is to be the last bastion of defense. To do this, he is allowed to play with his hands, but only within the penalty area. If he decides to play with his hands outside the box, then this will be followed by an instant removal from the field. Thus, the goalkeeper reflects all the attacks of the enemy on goal that the defenders allowed.
The better defense the team has, the less work the goalkeeper gets. But at the same time, he should not lose concentration, since at any moment the attacking enemy can break into the penalty area
and do a fatal blow. If the goalkeeper fought a dozen goals, but still missed the eleventh, he can be understood and forgiven. But if he was resting all the time, and the only time he needed to enter the game was wrong - all the cones would fly to him. Therefore, the football goalkeeper should have a number of qualities: concentration, speed of reaction, jumping ability and many others that will come in handy for him in his difficult work in the goal frame.
Goalkeeper as the eleventh field player
However, modern football does not stand still and develops, therefore, when asked about who the goalkeeper is, it is no longer possible to give a clear and unambiguous answer - “gatekeeper”. Yes, its main function remains to defend the framework from enemy attacks, but many coaches are increasingly seeing their goalkeepers as the eleventh field players. This does not mean that in big football the gate guard, instead of standing in the penalty area, runs into the field and tries to circle the opponent. This only means that the goalkeeper enters the game not only to interrupt the enemy’s attack, but also to help his own team build offensive actions. Previously, goalkeepers tried to knock the ball as far as possible in the field, where midfielders and attackers fought for it. Now this practice is losing its popularity, more often the gate guards do not send the ball into the distance, but give a short pass to the defender, which gives more opportunities when building an attack. So, wondering how to become a goalkeeper, you need to be prepared for the fact that you have to not only catch the balls, but also participate in the field game.
Is the goalkeeper half a team?
There is an opinion that the question of who the goalkeeper is can be answered: this is half the team. People still cannot come to a single decision. Some believe that this is actually so, because the field players act as a separate system, and the goalkeeper is a full-fledged last frontier, so it’s quite fair to write off 50% of his merits. But others contrast this with the fact that each player on the field performs a specific task and is important just like everyone else. So the question being examined at this angle about who such a goalkeeper does not seem to find an answer in the near future.