Wimbledon is running alongside the European Championships again. There is a connection between goalkeeping and tennis that runs a little deeper than England’s near miss at Euro 96…
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Twenty-eight years ago, England’s footballers were basking in a far more enjoyable reaction to their European Championship performances. They had come within a whisker of making it to the final on the back of a five-star performance against Holland and spot-kick heroics by David Seaman against Scotland and Spain.
The pain of defeat to Germany in front of a captivated Wembley soon evaporated as England’s (semi) heroes were greeted like winners. One of the most enduring images is Seaman receiving a standing ovation in the Royal Box at Wimbledon just three days later.
It’s the kind of love that rarely, if ever, happens to a goalkeeper on the pitch. They are branded as emotion killers, the breed that stops the fun for those trained to think goals are the only currency that make the heart leap or the beautiful game shine. Great for penalty shoot-outs though. They are allowed that small change.
Nevertheless, tennis and goalkeeping share a deeper connection than the spontaneous applause for Arsenal’s former custodian in 1996. The lone eagles on grass both have to keep the ball out of the net, making strategic and reflex decisions in every set and set-piece. The need for total focus is intense. Goalkeepers just don’t get to sit down between games.
Jose Mourinho alluded to the extreme isolation that tennis stars had to endure. “A lonely man or women on the court is responsible for their success, responsible for defeat, and I think this capacity to deal with huge pressure…is something I try to learn with them and bring it to my job and my sport,” said the former Chelsea and Real Madrid manager back in 2015.
The Special One went on to say that 'In tennis they [players] can't hide behind anyone. It's them on the court, it's one against one.” This is the essence of the number one in extremis, an individual who is playing within a team ethic but with a glaring and singular responsibility.
A goalkeeper is ultimately sparring alone while conducting his team to move in time to a solo drumbeat. Iker Casillas, who famously fell out with the Portuguese, knows only too well how it feels to lose on Mourinho’s Centre Court of control.
Tennis – and Wimbledon, in particular – creates a certain visceral image with the art of diving.
The spring of a 17-year-old Boris Becker winning his first title at SW19 in 1985 was dominated by leaps of faith. “At Wimbledon, he (Becker) often looked like a green giant after matches, his all-white outfits stained green, and his knees and his shins bloodied from reckless play,” said the New York Times in a retrospective piece. Seaman’s multi-coloured ‘96 shirt would never have got past All England Club security.
Look to the land of the tennis Gods and the dives are controlled rather than reckless. When Andy Murray’s former coach Ivan Lendl tried a passing shot in the 1986 final, Becker lunged for the ball to cover his near (net)post.
Lendl’s return hit the top of the net chord and dropped sharply with the German prone on the floor. Becker scrambles quickly up to reach it like a keeper who has parried the first hit but needs to smother the rebound. He celebrates like a striker.
The movement of a tennis player at the baseline and that of a goalkeeper are very similar. Both start in the athletic position and thrust off, using the leg muscles to change direction and the split-step to get into position to hit back or get ready for the next save. There is symmetry there and also in the reading and anticipation of the game. Ask Hugo Lloris.
The LAFC stopper showed huge promise as a child, inspired by seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras. What was – and still is - striking about the former Tottenham stalwart was his acceleration in sweeping up, a bit like Novak Djokovic speeding to the net to reach a drop shot. Lloris is as athletic as they come, displaying an incredible reflex ability to meet the ball with the panache of a Pistol Pete stop volley.
Fans might use them as an instrument of protest from time to time but tennis balls have developed as a simple tool for keeper drills. Not only do they improve hand-eye coordination, especially as the elevation and dip of balls can be alternated, they introduce a much more focused piece of training as the object ball is much smaller. There’s nothing like sharpening the reflexes with a spectacular dive volley.
Goalkeepers never switch off. They don’t have a changeover. Becker’s formative coach Gunther Bosch noted that his charge was the only one in the group of children whose intense stare was on the ball. “He knew when the opponent was about to hit a short ball and left early, so he got to all of them”, said Bosch. Sounds like he would have made a heck of a goalie.
