FCD Gonzalez

Sometimes That Spotlight Burns

I love this kid...he's a star being born before our eyes. But like so many precocious young stars, he's flawed, and it showed on the biggest stage this fall. The great news is that if he's coachable and determined to learn (and it's very reasonable to expect he is; how else did he achieve so much so young?!) nothing noted in this space is of any real concern as it's all eminently fixable.

However....Jesse Gonzalez does prove the point that athleticism is not nearly sufficient to be a GK. The old saw of putting the team's best athlete in goal is a recipe for disaster.

Gonzales gave us some what-not-to-dos in leg one of the western conference finals against Portland (read/watch here) and he did it again in leg two:

In super-slo-mo (below), we can see where the brains have to trump the athleticism....A GK has to trust that he's at the right angle (which Gonzales is) and just stay low and big once the attacker goes endline.  And once an attacker is on the end line, because of the geometry of the situation, the GK need only stay on his feet, under control and BIG to block the narrow angle to the net.  

From the way Gonzales flinches in this case, I expect he was worried about the cut back pass to the runner in the middle...but that's on the defender marking him; if the GK can snag the cross, it's huge....but if he leaves his feet, he MUST win the ball; stay on his feet and he still has a chance to block the central player's shot, plus he has help from the defender marking the runner.  Not a great situation, but nerves of steel and cool composure are traits a GK must have.  Hard to find young guys with those characteristics.

By way of a final thought, this is one of extremely few times I've ever seen a GK beaten 1v1 in this location.  And it's too bad because he'd done everything right up to this point and just needed to be patient.  Credit the Portland attacker for some clever work, too!  There is, also, a moment where Jesse could have burst forward and attacked the ball carrier just as he beat the defender to get to the endline...but that's a highly risky move which would need to be timed to perfection.  That sort of decision is a deeply personality-driven one, too...not all GKs are equally aggressive, or able to anticipate, so it's not a panacea to say he could/should have smashed the attacker just outside the corner of the 6 yard area.

It's a nightmare scenario, and the kid lost his cool and flinched...which is why kids are kids and Edwin Van Der Sar played into his forties...and Gigi Buffon...Friedel...Howard....Schwarzer...it goes on and on.  Brains and maturity matter.  Big time.