By Tim Mulqueen When I first saw
Tim Howard at a camp I coached in Metuchen,
N.J., he was 12 years old. I may not have said to myself,
"Here's a kid who will play in the English Premier League."
But I really did see the potential for greatness.
Very few goalkeepers will stand out as Tim did at such a
young age. He displayed good footwork even before he began
regularly doing goalkeeper-specific training. Players that
young have much learning to do and will mature physically
and mentally in many ways.
Already a big kid with
exceptional athleticism, he displayed a healthy level of
competitiveness. How does a coach measure competitiveness?
Not by whether the player curses or gets upset after giving
up a goal. A sure sign is when the kid tries as hard to make
the save in the final repetitions of a rigorous drill as he
does during a scrimmage.
Even at that young age, Tim
always had the drive to succeed. He didn’t just go through
the motions during the more repetitive and less glamorous
aspects of training.
After the first camp Tim
attended, he started coming to my weekly goalkeeper training
sessions. He was always ready to give his best, always eager
to get better. I also immediately noticed that Tim showed
respect for the other players and for the coaches. No matter
how competitive or athletic a player is, a goalkeeper must
learn proper technique. And that requires listening to
coaches and taking advice.
Perhaps most importantly,
it was obvious that Tim loved soccer and he loved playing
goalkeeper. He continued playing in the field in high
school, which is one reason why he reads the game so well,
but from the first time I saw him it was clear that he
embraced the goalkeeper position.
The key to
spotting potential in young keepers is to look for their
strengths. When I look at boys or girls playing the
position, I don’t pick them apart, detailing all their flaws
to myself. I focus on what they bring to the table. I assess
what they do well and consider how to build on that. And I
ask myself some key questions:
Do they enjoy
playing the position?
Are they brave enough for it?
Do they have the athleticism goalkeeping requires?
Are they coachable?
Being “coachable” means
being eager to learn, ready to listen, and willing to work
hard. No other position in soccer demands as much one-on-one
time with a coach as goalkeeping does. Those youngsters who
relish the intense training are those with the best shot at
greatness.
(Excerpted from “The
Complete Soccer Goalkeeper” by Tim Mulqueen
with Mike Woitalla courtesy of
Human Kinetics.) U.S. Soccer Federation
coach and instructor
Tim Mulqueen has been goalkeeper coach for U.S. national
teams at the U-17 World Cup, U-20 World Cup and at the 2008
Olympic Games.
