Football’s Best Keepers

In football, there is a saying that you need to be a little mad to be a goalkeeper. I say that is an understatement. Close friend and Don Bosco batchmate and Nestle’s Nigel Wenceslao is a clear example of this madness. While playing keeper for San Jose Recoletos in college, he dove for the ball with the opponent about to kick it. Oh yes, the foot mistook his head for the ball and he got several stitches on his lunatic cranium. If that was not insane, I don’t what else to call that.

To be in this position, a keeper has to have several attributes to prevent opposing teams from scoring. Quick decisions are a given and you have to be agile. Being tall and strong is also a factor and the best qualification of all is that you have to be ridiculously brave.

Let’s go overseas and observe really balletic suicide dives. Remember Chelsea’s Petr Cech when he fractured his skull during a match? That was simply horrible. But the accident has not diminished his game and is in fact more intimidating with the protective helmet he wears. Another guy in this mold is Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon who plays for Juventus in the Italian Serie A. He was an inspiration during Italy’s victorious run to the 2006 FIFA World Cup that fans insist Italy could not have won without Buffon.

The Euro League has all of the best keepers and the high profile teams pay insane amounts for these mad men between two posts. Iker Casillas of Real Madrid in the Spanish league has been credited for bringing the glory back to Bernabau Stadium. Likewise, Manchester United’s Edwin van der Saar has the fans roaring much louder at Old Trafford.

These four people mentioned are without question, in a league of their own but there are emerging young keepers who are also frighteningly exciting to watch. If you religiously follow football action, check out the games of Sunderland’s Craig Gordon, Blackburn’s Brad Friedel (a rarity on this mad club as I think he’s the only American higly rated as a keeper), and Inter Milan’s Julio Cesar.

Of course, even the best make occasional high-profile errors, well, who doesn’t anyway? But undeniably, teams get their money’s worth because of the dependability of these vaunted modern gladiators in knee socks and gloves.

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The internet has been a wealth of information that a great percentage of my materials come from the world wide web. 2008 has just begun and one item I had on my inbox was something about how to stay happy. Maybe most of us have recieved this message as it has been repeatedly forwarded even up to Neptune and Uranus, but to those who have limited access to the web, I would like to share this with you.

Five simple rules to be happy:

1- Free your heart from hatred - Forgiving is the most Christian and humble thing to do. God does, so why can’t we?

2- Free your mind from worries - Most of the things we worry about never happen anyway so why cultivate all those frown lines on our foreheads?

3- Live simply and appreciate what you have - We all know life is unfair but if we could only be content with whatever little we have, then everything else will be pleasant.

4- Give more - It is not only thru material things that we can share with our least fortunate earthlings. Giving them a little of our our time and effort already means much to them.

5- Expect less - Why do we always expect something in return the moment we give to someone? And when that someone fails to do so, we feel offended. If giving truly comes from the heart, we won’t be expecting anything. God always acknowledge acts of generosity.

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I had several feed backs, both negative and positive, on my piece last Sunday. Thank you guys, that proves that you patronize The Freeman, and yes, my column. I will be biased today. In all fairness to the declared MVP of the recently concluded Guv Cup, my top three personal MVP choices were Milan Taneo, Susana Yuson and Arlyn Maloloy-on, in that order. To Rowen and Edsel, “duwa lang gud ta coach”.. ;-)