Footy Blog!!

This is perhaps not the perfect moment to speak well of Brazilian goalkeepers to an English audience - and it is for exactly that reason that I will attempt to mount a case for their defence. After all, when things are going well results speak for themselves and there is no need to cite mitigating circumstances.

It was hard not to feel sorry for Liverpool’s Diego Cavalieri at Tottenham last week. On his biggest opportunity to date he let one goal go in through his legs and, perhaps over-anxious to make amends, charged rashly out of his goal and gave another one away.

He was surely suffering from lack of playing time. Keepers need to be in rhythm in order to have a clear mind and sharp reflexes. Cavalieri, though, was signed to act as a back up. The same is not true of Heurelho Gomes, a big-money recruit at Tottenham who seems to be throwing away a silly goal per game.

When Dunga took over as Brazil coach after the last World Cup, Gomes was his keeper for the first four full internationals. He did little wrong, conceding just two goals, but he was quickly discarded. The coaching staff concluded that he was suspect on crosses and poor with the ball at his feet - both defects have cost goals at Tottenham. His first season in the Premier League is the classic case of a player’s flaws being found out when he steps up a level - and as a consequence his confidence has taken a pounding. Can he come through it?

Nearly five years ago, before he had moved to PSV in Holland, I wrote in World Soccer magazine that he had a tendency to flap at crosses. But I also noted that he was tall and athletic, capable of superb reflex saves. He has shown some of that at Tottenham as well, but the nature of the position means that he will only be remembered for his saves once the mistakes have been ironed out.

Convincing Italian readers of the value of Brazilian goalkeepers is probably an easier task. A footballing culture known for its appreciation of good defence appears to have no qualms about entrusting its last line to a Brazilian.

Dida is no longer Milan’s first choice. But despite the odd embarrassing clanger he has given the club good service, and was one of Brazil’s few success stories in the last World Cup. He has now been replaced at international level by Julio Cesar of Inter Milan. I have to confess that I wasn’t at all sure about him when he was making his name in Brazil with Flamengo. He has proved me wrong with consistently excellent displays over the last few seasons, and is Brazil’s first choice on merit. His international back-up is Doni of Roma, a club who have two other Brazilian keepers on their books - and Serie A also features former Brazil Under-20 keeper Rubinho at Genoa.

Diego Alves became the first Brazilian to keep goal in Spain’s La Liga when he joined Almeria in 2007 and he managed to go a record 678 minutes without conceding a goal. He has now been joined in Spain by Renan, signed by Valencia after playing so well in the Olympics.

There is also the elastic Helton of Porto in Portugal, while back home there are other good keepers to be found. As well as the veterans Rogerio Ceni and Marcos, Fabio of Cruzeiro is a good keeper, Bruno of Flamengo and Felipe of Corinthians are very talented, Victor of Gremio is having a splendid campaign, and the teenagers are represented by the promising Renan of Botafogo.

Such strength in depth has not happened by chance. In his autobiography, Bob Wilson recounts that he was alerted to the possibilities of specialist goalkeeping coaching when he saw the Brazilians do some of it while preparing for the 1966 World Cup - yet another example of how Brazil were ahead of the pack in terms of scientific methods of preparation.

Brazilian legend Mario Zagallo nearly fell off his chair when I told him that England went to the 1962 World Cup in Chile without so much as a doctor. Four years earlier he had gone to the 1958 World Cup as part of a Brazil squad aided by doctors, a dentist, and even an early (and unsuccessful) attempt with a sports psychologist. Having an open mind to the possibilities of progress made it inevitable that Brazil would look at specialist goalkeeping preparation.

But advances were not made overnight. The local footballing culture carried the stigma that, in informal kickabout games, the worst player went in goal. But during the 1980s the methods of preparation improved and - especially with the excellent Taffarel as a role model - more kids were attracted to the position. And when Brazil’s economy opened up at the end of the 80s, sophisticated machines could be imported and the specialists were better able to measure and thus improve the physical attributes of their keepers.

But even the most advanced methods are unable to teach judgment - especially important in English football where the game is played at pace and the ball is thrown into the box so early. For unaccustomed keepers, it can provoke the ’should I stay or should I go’ dilemma that proved so costly last week for both Diego Cavalieri and Gomes.

Comments on this piece should go in the space below - other questions on South American football to vickerycolumn@hotmail.com, and I’ll pick out a couple for next week.

From last week’s postbag:

Q. I wanted to ask you about Lenny from Palmeiras. There is a rumour that Arsenal have signed him to a pre-contract (which for some reason I am sceptical of), but can you tell me about him?
Raheem Dawodu

A. I share your scepticism. With all the fantastic youngsters they have, I can’t see what Arsenal would want with Lenny. He looked like a prospect when he first appeared as a 17-year-old with Fluminense three years ago, a little gnat-like striker not afraid to take people on. But he’s done nothing since. The 1970 great Tostao, Brazil’s best football writer, really has it in for him - Palmeiras were losing recently and when Lenny came off the bench Tostao wrote that it was a sign that all hopes of saving the game were over. I’ve just got back from Palmeiras’ latest game - he was not even on the bench. Do Arsenal really want him, or is this just agent talk?