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Mark Schwarzer has been the proverbial Rock Of Gibraltar for the Australian national team for much of the last decade, but a recent back injury has proved that even goalkeepers start to feel the pinch eventually. The door to the goalkeeper role, thought to be under lock and key, is slightly ajar.
At 38 years of age, Schwarzer has stated his desire to go to the 2014 World Cup and there is no reason to believe he can’t be there should the Socceroos qualify for Brazil.
However, if the rigours of a twenty-plus year career do start to take their toll on Schwarzer’s body, at the moment, Holger Osieck is spoiled for choice.
In round one of the A-League, four locally-based keepers caught the eye, and yet none of them were considered for the recent qualifier against Oman.
Ante Covic, Liam Reddy, Matt Ryan and Michael Theoklitos opposed each other in the weekend gone by, and all of them showed that a Socceroo call up might be in their futures.
Ante Covic has been there already. Third choice for the 2006 World Cup, he had a brilliant first half against Sydney FC after being signed by the Victory as a last minute replacement.
Many have commented that Brett Emerton “missed” his penalty – not on your life!
Covic’s brilliant one-handed save ignited Melbourne who finished the stronger of the two in the Big Blue.
Covic’s work in the air was also exemplary, cutting out crosses that strayed into his six-yard box, and giving the defenders in front of him confidence in his ability to sweep behind them.
At the other end of the park, Liam Reddy had the best game I’ve ever seen him play. It seemed that in the past, Reddy was been a brain explosion away from costing his side a win. Not necessarily in the fundamentals, but in the nature of his short fuse, which ignited briefly last Saturday during the melee following Mark Bridge’s red card.
But what was more evident was his magnificent one-on-one saves at the feet of Victory opponents, his agility and lightning speed off his line, and his aerial dominance. Reddy has expressed a desire to play for his country.
He is now under the tutelage of Zejlko Kalac and if Kalac has been able to fine-tune Reddy’s game in the pre-season, a Socceroo call-up may not be beyond the grasp for the son of former rugby league great Rod Reddy.
Matt Ryan has been a revelation. Kudos to Graeme Arnold for having faith in the 19 year old – an absolute babe in the woods in “keeper years”, where it is generally accepted that keepers reach their best in their early thirties.
On Saturday night, Ryan gave a display of shot-stopping that almost denied the Brisbane Roar a victory in the Grand Final replay. Ryan has a wonderful ability to make the “double save” – his ability to get back to his feet quickly and make a second block is astonishing.
A much-replayed double block from last season’s preliminary final against the Gold Coast is an outstanding example. He is fearless, as are all the keepers listed here, but Ryan has that aura of being indestructible, despite just returning from a knee injury. His distribution from hand and foot is also mature beyond his years.
The influence of goalkeeper coach John Crawley is evident in Ryan’s “South American” kicking style (Crawley played for Colo Colo in Chile for close to a decade) which delivers the ball to a striker at a flatter faster trajectory than a drop kick.
Matt Ryan is destined for great things and if he stays healthy and continues to improve, he is a certain future Socceroo number one.
Michael Theoklitos had probably the quietest game of the four but his class and ability was still on show. A crucial late save after a relatively quiet game says a lot about his powers of concentration and his ability to “stay in the game”.
Agile, strong, a great defensive organiser and talker, Theoklitos is almost the silent partner in the Roar’s fantastic run of success. He has a cool head and has ability with his feet to initiate attacks and not get flustered if pressured which feeds right into Ange Postecoglou’s ethos.
Four great local custodial examples should Mark Schwarzer begin to show signs of being human. And yet even they probably need to wait behind the likes of Adam Federici (my personal choice to replace Schwarzer should the need arise), Nathan Coe, Brad Jones and Mitch Langeraak.
While there has been much hand-wringing over the replacement of the so-called “golden generation” Socceroos, the last line of defence seems covered by a wealth of talented safe hands.
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October 14th 2011 @ 11:31am
Fussball ist unser leben said | October 14th 2011 @ 11:31am | Report comment
Really enjoy your articles, apaway – always good to hear technical assessment of pro-footballers from someone, who was there on the park with the best of them.
Sincerely, I hope you will write for The Roar your “memoirs” of your days in the NSL playing against the likes of the V-Bomber et al … heck even the grumpiest ex-NSL types would have to post a positive comment if you did this!
Now, in relation to your article, I agree 100% – those GKs were outstanding.
Additionally, whilst I only watched the first half of Newcastle v Heart, I thought Nikola Roganovic, who made the leap from Green Gully in the VPL to the HAL, also made some excellent saves and he exhibited that “air of authority in the box” that seems to be built into the genes of anyone, who has the”ic” suffix in their surname!
One final question, whilst you still have your “GK-gloves on” …
Whilst I was impressed by Reddy’s shot stopping (ok, on the night, I was more annoyed than impressed!) I felt Reddy’s decision-making when distributing the ball was not that great? I thought he unnecessarily put his defenders under pressure at critical moments when he tried to play the ball out after a back pass.
Am I being overly critical or was this your observation, too?
October 14th 2011 @ 12:08pm
apaway said | October 14th 2011 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
Fussball
It appeared Reddy was “under instruction” to play out from the back at every opportunity, the same way Theoklitos does for the Roar. I think Reddy should utilise his throwing ability a lot more – he has a great throw which delivers to a wide player or midfielder quickly and accurately. However to do this he has to have players who are aware of an early throwing opportunity.
I also think your observation was correct to an extent, in that keepers need to be aware when a defender is too tired to receive the ball under indirect pressure, which quickly becomes direct pressure if they take a touch and try to slow the game down. Reddy at times appeared to not come to grips with this. By the same token, in the second half, after Bridge’s red card, there was not a lot for Reddy to aim at with a long ball.
October 14th 2011 @ 11:44am
TomC said | October 14th 2011 @ 11:44am | Report comment
I think it’s a bit much to suggest Reddy may be in line for a Socceroos spot after one good game.
Matt Ryan, on the other hand, definitely has a bright future ahead of him.
October 14th 2011 @ 12:05pm
Steve said | October 14th 2011 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
Dean Bouzanis?????, Where is this bloke now, he had boundless talent as a keeper
October 14th 2011 @ 12:10pm
apaway said | October 14th 2011 @ 12:10pm | Report comment
I agree, Tom. There are a lot of keepers in front of Liam Reddy, but I stated that “it was not beyond his grasp” based on the excellence of his performance last Saturday. He needs to do it for the season.
October 14th 2011 @ 3:51pm
Rob Gremio said | October 14th 2011 @ 3:51pm | Report comment
Interesting article, Apaway.
I agree that we are pretty well blessed with keeper talent at the moment. What is particularly heartening is that we have a whole host of young keepers coming through, like Matt Ryan, who looks a real talent, and of course Langerak. I would not contemplate Liam Reddy for the Socceroos, even if he continues the form he showed last week, because of the regularity of his “brain explosions” over the years. As a Roar supporter, i have seen too many of them to be able to believe he has eradicated them. If he were able to control his temperament AND (and here’s the rub) maintain the standard he set against MV, then he might get a look in. However, he also is not as young as Federici, Coe, et.al, and therefore would have to be considered a long way down the list.
My list of keepers in the post-Schwarzer era would be:
Federici
Coe
Langerak
Vukovic
Theoklitos
Even Langerak is a bit of a risk, because he has not played week in week out for the past year or so, since his move to Dortmund. Sure, he has talent to burn, and he played brilliantly when called upon for the BVB, but until he gets that experience under his belt of being the no.1 over there, i reckon he should only be included in squads for experience. If it were based on experience and week in week out playing time, i would probably put Vukovic into the top 3.
Just some thoughts…
October 14th 2011 @ 2:08pm
Mattay said | October 14th 2011 @ 2:08pm | Report comment
I’d have Eugene Galekovic over any of those mentioned in the article.
October 14th 2011 @ 5:18pm
apaway said | October 14th 2011 @ 5:18pm | Report comment
Mattay
Haven’t forgotten about Galekovic who is one of the A-League’s most consistent keepers. He has the knack of making hard saves look routine and goes about his business with a minimum of fuss. For the purposes of the article, I concentrated on the four guys who directly opposed each other in last week’s opening round.
October 14th 2011 @ 2:10pm
pete4 said | October 14th 2011 @ 2:10pm | Report comment
Exactly right we seem to produce very good keepers so I have serious doubts Schwarzer will make it 2014. Federici, Langerak and I’m going to predict Matt Ryan are going to be the 3 keepers in the squad come WC time
October 14th 2011 @ 2:33pm
Kasey said | October 14th 2011 @ 2:33pm | Report comment
After seeing Federici’s performance in the June Home friendly to Serbia and the Oman game last week, I cant imagine that any of the local lads will get a look in ahead of him unless one of them gets a bit Tonya Harding on the Reading shot-stopper. Even young Nathan Coe was pretty impressive in the NZ game at Adelaide Oval.
If Schwartz was hit by a bus tomorrow, God forbid. The line of succession for me right now would be:
Federici
Coe
Galekovic
Langarak
Ryan
October 14th 2011 @ 3:40pm
Midfielder said | October 14th 2011 @ 3:40pm | Report comment
Kasey
I think the Mariners will loose Matthew Ryan & Bernie along with Musty soon… we all know Musty is off to Germany but I don’t think Matthew & Berine will be that far behind him…
October 14th 2011 @ 6:43pm
jack said | October 14th 2011 @ 6:43pm | Report comment
please do not say if shwartz was hit by a bus please use something more logical like if his injury kept him out for a year, would hate to have him hit by a bus.
October 14th 2011 @ 2:39pm
Bondy said | October 14th 2011 @ 2:39pm | Report comment
Personally i prefer Langerak after Schwarzer we’ve always been fortunate with the gloves .
October 14th 2011 @ 3:38pm
Midfielder said | October 14th 2011 @ 3:38pm | Report comment
Apaway
Excellent article and if I am not mistaken your were a goalkeeper in the NSL … so your opinion is praise worthy…
Just on Matthew Ryan, I have watched this kid mature and I have never seen the like of him playing in Australia… maybe its my yellow and navy blood but by heck Matthew is quick on his feet…
The stop against the Gold Coast or the second stop was unbelivable … we were right in line and that he had the presence of mind to recover and get to his feet but to hold his balance and position until the shot was taken was class I have never seen in an Australia club game… and if you look at the save against Danning last week and see Danning reaction to his shot being blocked it sorta says it all…
October 14th 2011 @ 5:13pm
apaway said | October 14th 2011 @ 5:13pm | Report comment
Thanks Mid
Agree with everything you say about Ryan – he is amazing, especially for his age.
October 14th 2011 @ 3:40pm
Johnno said | October 14th 2011 @ 3:40pm | Report comment
Get Bozza back lol. I still wonder of booze had of got an a league contract would he of gone to south africa 2010. I still can’t believe no a league club signed him up he was awesome in his cameo.
October 14th 2011 @ 5:15pm
apaway said | October 14th 2011 @ 5:15pm | Report comment
I seriously doubt it, Johnno, but Bosnich is one of the finest keepers to come out of this country. He almost inverted the usual path for keepers in that he was absolutely one of the best keepers in the world in his early to mid twenties.