Jonathan Wilson: Milutin Soskic leaves indelible mark on U.S. goalkeeping technique

[Jonathan Wilson]

Being honest, there isn't much about U.S. soccer that people in England envy, but we do wish we had a similar glut of goalkeeping talent. Over the last 10-15 years the U.S. has produced an extraordinary number of high-class goalkeepers, so many, in fact, that it's begun to spoil Sylvester Stallone's performance in Escape to Victory (because there, of course, half the joke was that he was an American who played football and had to play in goal so he could use his hands).

More...

 

[curtis290]

More than plenty of Americans play soccer and we are great at sports, but unfortunately we're pretty terrible at it (mainly a combination of the lack of good soccer culture and the poor youth development system here, and the lack of funds doesn't help either, especially in it preventing us from attracting the best athletes into the sport). Keepers, however, aren't really affected by these problems and it's a completely individual position. They aren't brought down very much by the **** players, coaches, and style of play around them, and they develop later. The fact that a poor footballing nation has produced such great goalkeepers is remarkable at first glance but only shows how much potential we have and how good we would be if we changed a little bit (grew a soccer culture, got good coaching, maybe paid our players more).