Re: German Goalkeeper Appreciation Thread

[Bellabong]

I think it comes down to the tradition of current greats inspiring youngsters which has become a never ending cycle amplified by the German Youth system kicking into high gear.

[The Messiah]

Someone is certainly using their powers, one can say it's Power-Happy.

[rwo power]

@Idrisozet

Well, you might just play it nicely and argue in the Right Back section and discuss in the General Section. If you try to derail a GK thread, I take it personal.

@Huntsman

BTW, I think mentality very likely comes into it, too. A GK like Neuer for example usually seems to emanate the belief that he can't be beaten easily and many strikers get insecure when they run at him. If you look at the first leg of Schalke vs ManUtd last CL season, even players like Rooney appeared desperate when they went into a 1:1 with him. ^^

[The Messiah]

sometimes a simple nice word is the hardest of punishments.

So what's so special about German goalkeepers, and why are they best in every generation? Is it their physique and build, the winning mentality or both and more?

It's a tradition, younger generation learn from the older ones. Say for example most young German Goalkeepers might have Neuer as their idols anhd target.

But in England they might look up to Jeo-Hart

Plus younger Germna players, if they don't really admire Neuer, there are other goalkeepers that they can also look up to. But whereas in some countries they only have just one guy or no one at all.

[huntsman]

This is a real captain. I wish Madrid has a captain like him. Instead of looking for a right back and a left back and a center back, all we need is a composer behind the backline, someone who can inspire and encourage the backline and push them into doing their best.

The first look can be deceiving and that's what keeps the madrid fans deceived, sure we might do better with a new right back but to do best, we need a new composer imo. Mourinho knows that, but he also knows he can do nothing about it.

[rwo power]

Well, that reminds me of an interview when Mehmet Scholl was asked "What are you most afraid of?" And Scholl replied "I'm afraid of war and Oliver Kahn."

I really wonder if the current day GKs are actually able to inspire that into their team's backline still.

BTW, the younger German GKs usually name either Oliver Kahn or Jens Lehmann as their idols. Neuer isn't there yet.

[The Messiah]

Well, that reminds me of an interview when Mehmet Scholl was asked "What are you most afraid of?" And Scholl replied "I'm afraid of war and Oliver Kahn."

I really wonder if the current day GKs are actually able to inspire that into their team's backline still.

BTW, the younger German GKs usually name either Oliver Kahn or Jens Lehmann as their idols. Neuer isn't there yet.

Didn't Leno say that he tries to learn from Neuer.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/15/germany/2011/11/14/2756390/bayer-leverkusen-goalkeeper-bernd-leno-i-model-myself-on


Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno: I model myself on Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer

The 19-year-old shot-stopper has admitted that he tries to emulate the Germany international, and says that he is happy with his progress so far


Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno has said that he models his game on Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer.

Leno joined Robin Dutt's team on loan from Stuttgart in the summer and has impressed with his performances, earning a call-up to the Germany Under-21 side.

[i]Speaking to the official German association website, the 19-year-old was asked who his goalkeeping influences are - and he was in no doubt.

"For me, it is Manuel Neuer. He is a complete keeper who controls everything. He catches everything securely and is great on the line. I model myself on him."

Leno also said that he was pleased with the progress he has made in his career so far, and revealed that he has already learned valuable lessons in his short time with the BayArena side.

"It was a great experience to win the [2009] Under-17 European Championship, and I have learned that as a substitute one should be patient. Sometimes it takes time to reach a goal.

"That wait has paid off. Now I play in the Champions League. There, you notice a difference to the Bundesliga. Teams like Chelsea or Valencia take advantage of every mistake."

[Bellabong]

Philosopher Kahn



transcribing the question & answer @ 0:39

9th grader:" In the finals of the 2002 world cup you made a mistake. How does one feel after that? Before that you were the best keeper and then in the final... The big loser."

Kahn:
"Sport teaches best what means to win, and what it means to lose.
Everybody can win, winning is easy, I cheer and the other guy just stands there because he lost.

But we wont always win. You wont, not me, nobody will. We will lose a lot, and that's much more important in life. When you lose you see who you are. How do I react? Can I live it with? Can I live with the frustration of my loss? That's very decisive in life.

Winning is easy, losing is an art."

[The Messiah]

Philosopher Kahn



transcribing the question & answer @ 0:39

9th grader:" In the finals of the 2002 world cup you made a mistake. How does one feel after that? Before that you were the best keeper and then in the final... The big loser."

Kahn:
"Sport teaches best what means to win, and what it means to lose.
Everybody can win, winning is easy, I cheer and the other guy just stands there because he lost.

But we wont always win. You wont, not me, nobody will. We will lose a lot, and that's much more important in life. When you lose you see who you are. How do I react? Can I live it with? Can I live with the frustration of my loss? That's very decisive in life.

Winning is easy, losing is an art."

and the Titan is not only rich, good looking and talented, but he's also intelligent...

[rwo power]

@Idrisozet
When I said the younger GKs *usually* name Kahn or Lehmann as idols, that doesn't exclude one or the other going for Neuer's example, too.

And Oliver Kahn sure is intelligent - he's currently studying management at the university, IIRC.

[The Messiah]

@Idrisozet
When I said the younger GKs *usually* name Kahn or Lehmann as idols, that doesn't exclude one or the other going for Neuer's example, too.

And Oliver Kahn sure is intelligent - he's currently studying management at the university, IIRC.

Who would want to follow in Kahn and Lehman's foot-step when they have Neuer.

They are most likely to watch youtube video, which doesn't make sense.

Neuer is the benchmark of Germany goalkeeper right now and most young German goalkeeper probably look up to him.

Kahn and Lehman are now history, but yeah they might see them as Legend and you can say they still loook up to them, becuase Neuer had them as his idol.

The link goes on and on

[BAYERN_MUNICH]

Does anyone of you has the video where Buffon says Neuer is the best goalkeeper atm? Can't find it just saw in on TV

[rwo power]

I'm sorry, I haven't found that video, although I found a lot of very yummy Gigi vids on the way

But I can remember that story, too. It was also published in some German magazines and Manuel Neuer was very flattered when he heard about it.

[rwo power]

Manuel Neuer won the "Weiße Weste" Award for the most clean sheets in the 1st Bundesliga (17 in 2011/12). He follows Roman Weidenfeller who won the award last year with 14 clean sheets.

Spoiler:

[Kick]

Congrats Manuel!

[rwo power]

BTW, the record is still held by Oliver Kahn in 2001/02 where the Titan kept 19 clean sheets in the 32 BL matches he played then (that is 59.4%).

Manuel Neuer also started in 32 matches and thus reached 53.1% of clean sheets. Another cool stat: In his career so far, he held 9 penalties of 29 penalties that were so far given against him, that is a pretty cool 31.03% (this doesn't account for penalties in penalty shoot-outs, though).

As comparison (again, only penalties during matches):

David de Gea - 36.84%
Hans Jörg Butt - 33.33% - penalty killer *and* scorer!
Manuel Neuer - 31.03%
Jens Lehmann - 30.38%
Tim Wiese - 27.03%
Gigi Buffon - 26.19%
Iker Casillas - 23.08%
Roman Weidenfeller - 22.88%
Petr Cech - 22.73%
Joe Hart - 22.22%
Oliver Kahn - 21.79%
Víctor Valdés - 17.02%
Yann Sommer - 16.67%
Maarten Stekelenburg - 13.51%
Tim Krul - 8.00%
Hugo Lloris - 6.45%

(Data taken from transfermarkt.de)

I have to admit, some of the penalty stats really amazed me. On the other hand, it seems that German keepers have indeed a slight edge on penalty saving, with the notable exception of David de Gea. BTW, these are only keepers with > 20 penalties. Bernd Leno, Ron-Robert Zieler and Marc-André ter Stegen only had 17 (saved 5), 7 (saved 1) and 10 (saved 1) against them so far.

[guest7]

rwo, I think the Brazilian keeper Diego Alves has a 60% save %.

That's probably the highest.

EDIT: Indeed, Diego Alves has held 11 of 18 penalties (61.11%).

[rwo power]

Let's see... Wow! Indeed 61.11%

I think that's a guy whom I'd like to have between the sticks in a penalty shoot-out!

http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/diego-alves/elfmeter/spieler_42373.html

Although, I just noticed that he is below the 20 pens (saved 11 of 18), too. But nonetheless... Really cool stats!

[dostoevsky]

That statistic for Buffon is quite surprising given that penalties have always been seen as one of his personal weaknesses however it's still an admirable percentage.

Importantly though, congratulations to Neuer for his achievement.

[Bellabong]

By weaknesses do you mean not German?

[rwo power]

Now that 1.FC Köln were relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga,. they decided to release Michael Rensing and instead promote 19 year old Timo Horn as Nr.1. Obviously, Michael Rensing got too expensive for Köln as they lose a lot of money due to the relegation.

I hope that Rensing will find a good team soon again - after all, he wasn't at fault for the relegation at all. As a matter of fact, he and Podolski were probably the only players who actually put in a fight to try and keep the club afloat, but even they couldn't do anything against the collective failure of the rest of the team.

Great tribute to Michael Rensing:

Spoiler:

[rwo power]

I just stumbled over this - a tribute to German GKs from 2007:

Spoiler:

Kudos to the creator who was obviously convinced of Manuel Neuer pretty early, too, and put him up as hot prospect in 2007 already! (But then, I always considered him as upcoming Nr.1 after Lehmann, too ^^)

[rwo power]

As of today, Ron-Robert Zieler is the Nr.2 in the German NT behind Manuel Neuer. Joachim Löw and GK coach Andreas Köpke want to rejuvenate the goalkeeper position and thus they want to use the younger goalkeepers instead of Tim Wiese. Tim Wiese isn't fully out of the NT, though. According to Löw and Köpke he still might be invited to the NT if need be.



For the international friendly match against Argentina, Löw called up Manuel Neuer and Ron-Robert Zieler as GKs.

http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/nationalelf/startseite/573142/artikel_loew-beruft-zieler---wiese_wenns-brennt-stehe-ich-bereit.html

[Rev]

So ter Stegen as 3rd choice?
Altough his only game in the Nationalelf came against Switzerland, where he was meh, he is far my favourite german goalkeeper.

[rwo power]

Either Marc-André ter Stegen or Bernd Leno will be the Nr.3, I think - although I would say that ter Stegen has the edge on Leno at the moment. And I wouldn't hold the friendly against Switzerland against ter Stegen - there the NT missed all Bayern players, that is half or even 3/4 of the usual defensive line, so one couldn't expect the defense to be properly working.

Meanwhile, Rainer Adrion called up Bernd Leno and Oliver Baumann for the U21 match against Argentina: http://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=500109

By the way, right now you can watch Ron-Robert Zieler in action in the EL qualification match of Hannover 96 vs St.Patrick's. It's on TV at Kabel1, so finding a stream shouldn't be too difficult.

[rwo power]

As Joachim Löw called-up René Adler for the Netherlands friendly this Wednesday, he was interviewed in Amsterdam and talked about his feelings that he was back with the NT after two very hard years.



Interview at DFB.de: http://tv.dfb.de/index.php?view=5225 (Language: German)

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