3 ms·

Goalkeepers perceive the world differently

3 points by skilled 3y ago

PaulHoule 3y ago
No doubt. I spent three years in youth soccer and found a hard time staying present in the games but I look back with a lot of fondness in that it was an activity that I never got bullied doing. I got into a fight with my RSS reader over whether or not soccer was interesting and my RSS reader won so I got a Peacock subscription to watch Premier League games (World Cup Rugby is an extra that I appreciate a lot though!) I also picked up sports photography as a hobby because my office overlooks the sports complex and why not? So I've been going to soccer games where I enjoy the crowd because it attracts a lot of international students, plus students that are generally engaged with sports, and students who played the youth game as well as a contingent of kids who play the game, show up wearing their jerseys, are as engaged as anyone, whooping it up, and even understand details of the games such as "offsides" that I still need to fully grok. I don't feel like it is just going to "a game" but it is being part of a huge soccer universe that goes all the way down to kindergarten soccer and pickup games to the college games to leagues like the MLS, Premier League, Champions League (which are themselves usually part of a promotion/relegation hierarchy) and all the way up to the winners of the World Cup. There's the enjoyment of a fan which I am deepening but also the analytical thinking that goes into effective photography, so I am thinking a lot about the quality of play at various levels and one thing I note is that at the lower levels a player can frequently kick the ball at the goal from a distance and score a goal but the higher up you get the better the goalie is at covering it so in the Premier League most of the time you see a very complex situation around the goal where both teams have gotten into place and the striker has to find an open path through the opposition that confounds the goalie. I'd contrast that to the attention of the players in the field who are often running one way while looking back over their shoulder to see where the action is developing. At the games I go to the story I am looking for and find are individual players contesting the ball but the best teams in the Premier League such as Man City have a "system" and it is very clear every player knows where they are supposed to be and where the other players are supposed to be so they can keep possession of the ball for long period of times. Games like that hinge on one team being able to disrupt the other team's system or a the system team being foiled by a goalie that they can't quite outsmart and the non-system team just finding opportunities and scoring goals that are good if not "beautiful".

3 points by skilled 3y ago

No doubt. I spent three years in youth soccer and found a hard time staying present in the games but I look back with a lot of fondness in that it was an activity that I never got bullied doing. I got into a fight with my RSS reader over whether or not soccer was interesting and my RSS reader won so I got a Peacock subscription to watch Premier League games (World Cup Rugby is an extra that I appreciate a lot though!) I also picked up sports photography as a hobby because my office overlooks the sports complex and why not? So I've been going to soccer games where I enjoy the crowd because it attracts a lot of international students, plus students that are generally engaged with sports, and students who played the youth game as well as a contingent of kids who play the game, show up wearing their jerseys, are as engaged as anyone, whooping it up, and even understand details of the games such as "offsides" that I still need to fully grok. I don't feel like it is just going to "a game" but it is being part of a huge soccer universe that goes all the way down to kindergarten soccer and pickup games to the college games to leagues like the MLS, Premier League, Champions League (which are themselves usually part of a promotion/relegation hierarchy) and all the way up to the winners of the World Cup. There's the enjoyment of a fan which I am deepening but also the analytical thinking that goes into effective photography, so I am thinking a lot about the quality of play at various levels and one thing I note is that at the lower levels a player can frequently kick the ball at the goal from a distance and score a goal but the higher up you get the better the goalie is at covering it so in the Premier League most of the time you see a very complex situation around the goal where both teams have gotten into place and the striker has to find an open path through the opposition that confounds the goalie. I'd contrast that to the attention of the players in the field who are often running one way while looking back over their shoulder to see where the action is developing. At the games I go to the story I am looking for and find are individual players contesting the ball but the best teams in the Premier League such as Man City have a "system" and it is very clear every player knows where they are supposed to be and where the other players are supposed to be so they can keep possession of the ball for long period of times. Games like that hinge on one team being able to disrupt the other team's system or a the system team being foiled by a goalie that they can't quite outsmart and the non-system team just finding opportunities and scoring goals that are good if not "beautiful".