IFFHS: The World‘s best Goalkeeper of the First Decade (2001-2010)

Gianluigi Buffon was named by IFFHS the best goalkeeper of the decade. Iker Casillas is on the second place, while Petr Cech is third. The two first goalies can switch places by the end of the year, as annual votes from 2010 will be added to the total value of the points.

The ranking is based on:
- annual vote by different jurors (countires) on three top places (3 points to 1 point) in early years; in later years on four top places (4 points to 1 point),
- IFFHS annual ranking of the goalkeepers; points were given for the top twenty places (20 points for the first place, 19 for the second etc. to 1 point for the 20th).

	Goalkeeper	Country	Points (2001-2010)
1.	Gianluigi Buffon	Italy	170
2.	Iker Casillas	Spain	157
3.	Petr Čech	Czech Republic	120
4.	Oliver Kahn	Germany	99
5.	Edwin van der Sar	Netherlands	92
6.	Nélson de Jesus e Silva "Dida"	Brazil	90
7.	Jens Lehmann	Germany	72
8.	Roberto Carlos Abbondanzieri	Argentina	68
9.	Fabien Barthez	France	55
10.	Rogério Ceni	Brazil	53
11.	Francesco Toldo	Italy	52
12.	José Manuel Reina	Spain	50
13.	Victor Valdes	Spain	49
14.	Júlio César Soãres Espíndola	Brazil	44
15.	Jerzy Dudek	Poland	42
16.	Igor Akinfeev	Russia	41
17.	Santiago Cañizares	Spain	35
18.	Grégory Coupet	France	28
19.	Rüştü Reçber	Turkey	27
20.	José Luis Félix Chilavert	Paraguay	26
21.	José Francisco Cevallos	Ecuador	25
	Timothy Matthew Howard	USA	25
23.	Andonios Nikopolidis	Greece	24
24.	René Adler	Germany	23
25.	Bradlay Howard Friedel	USA	21
26.	Oscar Eduardo Córdoba	Colombia	19
27.	Andrés Palop	Spain	17
	Francisco Guillermo Ochoa	Mexico	17
	Justo Wilmar Villar	Paraguay	17
	Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis	Brazil	17
31.	Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira	Portugal	16
	Vítor Manuel Martins Baía	Portugal	16
33.	Heurelho da Silva Gomes	Brazil	15
	Timo Hildebrand	Germany	15
35.	Juan Carlos Henao	Colombia	13
	Woon-Jae Lee	South Korea	13
37.	Oswaldo Sánchez	Mexico	12
38.	Ruslan Nigmatullin	Russia	11
39.	Andreas Isaksson	Sweden	10
	Carlo Cudicini	Italy	10
	Doniéber Alexander Marangon "Doni"	Brazil	10
	Hugo Lloris	France	10
	Ivan Pellizzoli	Italy	10
	Óscar Pérez	Mexico	10
	Peter Schmeichel	Denmark	10
	Samir Handanović	Slovenia	10
	Séamus John James Given	Ireland	10
48.	Magnus Hedman	Sweden	8
	Mark Schwarzer	Australia	8
	Pascal Zuberbühler	Switzerland	8
	Ricardo Tavarelli	Paraguay	8
52.	Nigel Martyn	England	7
	Sergey Ovchinnikov	Russia	7
	Agustín Julio	Colombia	6
	David Seaman	England	6
	Roberto Óscar Bonano	Argentina	6
	Tony Mario Sylva	Senegal	6
	Vyacheslav Malafeev	Russia	6
59.	Artur Boruc	Poland	5
	Carlos Fernando Navarro Montoya	Argentina	5
	Fabián Carini	Uruguay	5
	Sander Westerveld	Netherlands	5
	Sebastián Saja	Argentina	5
64.	Germán Adrian Burgos	Argentina	4
	José María Buljabasich	Argentina	4
	Manuel Rivero	Spain	4
67.	Thomas Sørensen	Denmark	3
68.	Grégory Wimbée	France	2
69.	Carlos Idriss Kameni	Cameroon	1

Source: http://www.iffhs.de/

Conclusions:

- I'm almost sure Iker is going to outrun Gigi, as Buffon lost half of the year due to an injury,
- interesting to see that Ricardo and Vitor Baia occupy the same place,
- only two Polish goalkeepers made to the list - Jerzy Dudek and Artur Boruc,
- the fact that El Hadary of Egypt is completely missed in this ranking suprises me the most
- really curious if any African goalkeepers are going to make on the list after the final vote.

Internation friendly: USA vs Poland 2-2 9 Oct 2010, video highlights and photos

That was a really good game to watch. I must admit I didn't believe Poland was going to show something interesting here. So good that my predictions never come true.

USA was fast and dangerous as always, and was leading the game for the most time, but Poland managed to equalize two times. Both teams committed mistakes in the defence and the ending was really dramatic, especially for Poland, which was inches from losing a goal in the injury time.

It was nice to see ambition and involevment on both sides, as if it was not a friendly but a game for points.

Jozy Altidore made a good job, scoring one goal and coming close to score another.

In Polish team Jakub Błaszczykowski showed an excellent shape, and his actions on the right wing were very dangerous. Ludovic Obraniak also did good job, and had assists in both goals.

Ok, get to the point, what is the performance of the goalkeepers. Artur Boruc, as always, saved situation in crucial moments. Had to make the first save at the very beginning of the match. The most dramatic was of course the one in the injury time, when he made a save from just a few meters distance. He made 3 saves in total.

Tim Howard had a lot of work to do. He saved a situation one on one (however, Robert Lewandowski could do better than kicking the ball straight on the goalkeeper) and Obraniak's shot from the distance. Very fine performance of him. Liked his self-confidence and that he never lost focus. Strange feeling, to fell happy that the goalkeeper made a save, and sad at the same time, that Polish team wasted an opportunity ;) Howard made 5 saves in total.

Watch the video highlights

Portugal vs Denmark 3-1!

It's 60th minute of the game and Portugal is leading the game 2:0 after two goals of Nani scored in three minutes span.

So far Portugal has been dominating on the pitch, plays fast, effective and efficient at last.

There was one change on Denmark side, Thomas Sorensen was replaced by Anders Lindegaar, who made already at least two fine saves.

Eduardo is also not without an occupation in this game and stays focused.

As we all now winning 2:0 against Denmark doesn't guarantee Portugal is not going to lost 2:3 so better to keep fingers crossed till the final whistle.

Edit: Portugal finally registered their first win in the European Championship 2012 qualification campaing. They controlled the game and won 3-1 with Denmark.

All goals were scored by Portuguese as Ricardo Carvalho scored an own goal in the second half. Fortunately Ronaldo added thrid goal in the final minutes of the goal.

Paulo Bento achieved what Carlos Queiroz could not, a win. Hope that is how Portugal matches are going to look like now. Except for scoring own goals of course.

Picspam of the game later.

Polish national team during training session

Polish national team druing training session. Poland is going to play a friendly game against US at 9 Oct in Chicago.

Tim Howard in Birmingham vs Everton 0:2 photo

Goalkeeper Tim Howard and Sylvain Distin (left) of Everton compete for the ball with Cameron Jerome (right) of Birmingham City. English Premier League, Birmingham City vs Everton, St. Andrews stadium, Birmingham, England, Saturday 2 Oct 2010.

Everton won the game 0:2.

Premier League: Chelsea vs Arsenal 2:0, 3 Oct 2010

Łukasz Fabiański played the whole 90 minutes of Chelsea - Arsenal game and it was a really good performance of him. He made 5 saves in total, and allowed goals were not his fault.

However, I think he is going to be second-choice when Almunia comes back after the injury and therefore the Carling Cup matches will be the only ones he can be sure of the place in the starting 11.

Euro 2012 qualifiers: Portugal call-up list for the match against Denmark

Goalkeepers: Eduardo (Genoa), Beto (FC Porto), Rui Patricio (Sporting)

Defenders: Silvio (Braga), Rolando (FC Porto), Bruno Alves (Zenit), Joao Pereira (Sporting), Ricardo Carvalho (Real Madrid), Fabio Coentrao (Benfica)

Midfielders: Tiago (Atletico Madrid), Raul Meireles (Liverpool), Carlos Martins (Benfica), Joao Moutinho (FC Porto), Paulo Machado (Toulouse), Pepe (Real Madrid), Miguel Veloso (Genoa)

Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen), Nani (Manchester United), Danny (Zenit), Helder Postiga (Sporting), Liedson (Sporting), Varela (FC Porto).

Miguel Veloso and Liedson droped out the list due to injuries and the coach Paulo Bento called up two midfielders: Ruben Micael (FC Porto) and Manuel Fernandes (Valencia).

Rui Patricio is back to the team after a long break. Don't think he is going to play, however.

Portugal is going to face Denmark at 8th October.

Before the game: three basic things you need to know about the Polish team [comics strips]

All those three pictures were published in weekly magazine "Angora" some time ago. They show quite adequately what the coaches had to endure when it comes to coaching the Polish team ;)

The former coach...



"I'm not going to repeat it again. Our goal is here and you are suppose to score over there!"

The new coach...



"Let's start from the beginning. This is a ball."

Author: Tomasz Wilczkiewicz

How the previous friendly game with USA looked like



"Take it easy, Leo. We are going to get equal with Americans during the European Championships..."

Author: Paweł Wakuła

Poland and USA squads for the friendly at October 9

Poland

Goalkeepers: Artur Boruc (AC Fiorentina), Grzegorz Sandomierski (Jagiellonia Białystok), Przemysław Tytoń (Roda JC Kerkrade).

Midfielders: Rafał Murawski (Rubin Kazań), Bartosz Salamon (US Foggia), Jakub Błaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Adam Matuszczyk (1 FC Koeln), Ludovic Obraniak (Lille OSC), Radosław Majewski (Nottingham Forest), Grzegorz Bonin (Górnik Zabrze), Adrian Mierzejewski (Polonia Warszawa)

Defenders: Łukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund), Kamil Glik (Palermo), Michał Żewłakow (Ankaragücü), Łukasz Mierzejewski (Cracovia Kraków), Dariusz Pietrasiak (Polonia Warszawa), Hubert Wołąkiewicz (Lechia Gdańsk),

Forwards: Andrzej Niedzielan (Korona Kielce), Kamil Grosicki (Jagiellonia Białystok), Euzebiusz Smolarek (Polonia Warszawa), Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund), Ireneusz Jeleń (AJ Auxerre)

USA

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Étienne), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Michael Parkhurst (FC Nordsjaelland), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

Midfielders: Alejandro Bedoya (rebro), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers), Jermaine Jones (FC Schalke), Brek Shea (FC Dallas)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Eddie Johnson (Fulham)

My predictions: 3:0 for USA.

Premier League: Birmingham vs Everton 0-2

Everton finally win a game, first time in this season. Finally they moved up, and now are on the 17th place in the table with 7 points. At least it's not the relegation section!



First goal for Everton was Birmingham's own goal. The second was scored by Tim Cahill in the injury time.

Tim Howard didn't had too much work to do. Ben Foster made 2 saves. Hard to blame him for that own goal.

Champions League: Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal 1:3, Fabiański photos

Few photos with Łukasz Fabiański from the game and from the trainings.



A training session, Arsenal's training facilities, London Colney, England, Monday, 27 Sept 2010, a day before the match with Partizan in Belgrade on Tuesday.







Arsenal team



Celebrating after saving a penalty.

Champions League: Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal 1:3, 28 Sep 2010 video highlights

Watch video highlights of the game, including penalty saves made by both goalkeepers.

Stojković made 10 saves, Fabiański 4, mostly in the last minutes of the game. Pity that we can only see few of them in the video.

'We saw the Fabianski we see in training', said Arsene Wenger

Quote from a post-game interview with Arsenal's coach Arsene Wenger, after
Chempions League Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal match.

"Fabianski had a good game, we have seen the player tonight who we see in training. He had a faultless game. I know it is in him. He got it out in the game tonight and hopefully that will give him the needed belief and confidence. I am confident he will come out as a great keeper, I have always said that. We have to keep confidence in him and he needs to gain experience from games like this. At the moment Almunia is injured, we will have to see how his injury goes but at the moment it is too early to say."


Source: Arsenal.com page.

Champions League: Partizan Belgrad - Arsenal 1:3, 28 Sep 2010

They were saying Fabiański is finished in Arsenal. They were saying nobody trust him any more. The press was especially harsh on him lately. Well, the coach said that he trust him, but Fabiański wouldn't be in the goal if not the elbow injury of Manuel Almunia.

Today Fabiański had a faultless performance, saved a penalty and made important saves in the last minutes of the game.



Wish I had seen this! Looking forward to see the highlights of the match.

Now I hope that it's is not going to be a sole good performance of him, but it's going to continue in the next matches!

Premier League: Blackburn Rovers vs Everton 1-0, 14 Aug 2010

It was not a lucky day for Tim Howard. Unfortunately his mistake cost the team a lost goal. In 14' he raced out goal to clear the ball. He catched it but it slipped out of his hands and Nikola Kalinic, who was right behind Everton's goalkeeper, used the opportunity and send the ball into the empty goal.















Blunders happens to all goalkeepers from time to time...