Jerzy Dudek's farewell

The players of Real Madrid formed farewell corridor for Jerzy Dudek, who is going to leave when his contract expires at the end of June. He was honoured by his colleagues for the four years he spend in the club as well as by the spectators gathered on Bernabeu who gave him standing ovation.

Jerzy Dudek injuried

Jerzy Dudek is ruled for six weeks after fracturing his jaw in Champions League Real Madrid - Auxerre match which took place on Wednesday.

Official information from realmadrid.com:

"Jerzey Dudek was examined by maxillofacial specialists at Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital on Thursday. After confirming the diagnosis of a fractured manidble made by Real Madrid-Sanitas Medical Services on Wednesay, the goalkeeper was successfully fitted with an intemaxillary fixation device. He will be evaluated over the next 7-10 days by Real Madrid-Sanitas Medical Services and may be healthy enough to return in 4-6 weeks depending on his progress."

What a bad fate. He has so rarely a chance to play. This time he was supposed to play in that one game of Champions League, replacing Iker Casillas.

He did extremly well, in the first half he saved his team twice from losing a goal. Unfortunately, when in 43' he run out of the goal to clear the ball he crashed with Contout. Had to leave the pitch and Antonio Adan replaced him.

Hold up, Jerzy. Hope you will recover quickly.

Video highlights of the game, Real Mardid vs Auxerre 4-0

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.

What is happening with those Polish goalkeepers?

Football in Polands seems to be reaching the very bottom. It's nothing new. It's getting worse and worse, and without serious reforms nothing is going to be better.

The system doesn't produce exceptional players. Only a few names of Polish footballers might ring a bell to football fans aboard.

For long time goalkeepers were an exception, thanks to the good coaching system, which helped to discover the talents. A lot of Polish goalkeepers started to make a career aboard.

At least it was like that a few years ago. But now it seems that most of them faces the bad time in their careers.

Artur Boruc has to compete with Frey in Fiorentina. The transfer from Celtic was a good move, but the position of Fiorentina's no. 1 is strong. He doesn't seem to be national team's coach favorite, so he needs to make really good impression to be at least considered.

Łukasz Fabiański, who seemed to be one step from becoming no. 1 in Arsenal, is again reduced to the second choice, as the coach decided to count on Manuel Almunia. Wojciech Szczęsny is third in the row. Tomasz Kuszczak has been waiting for his chance in MU since years, but there is still Van der Saar between the sticks. Only Łukasz Załuska in Celtic is now no. 1, but how long it's going to last?

I don't count in Wojciech Kowalewski, because I don't think he was considered to be a part of Euro 2012 team. He is not lucky, was called-up only several times.

There is also Przemysław Tytoń, a new face in the national team. He is the first-choice in Roda Kerkrade. May it be his advantage?

So far it seems that it's Jerzy Dudek who had the most sucessful career of all Polish goalkeepers.

Two years ago I could name who is the unquestionable no. 1 in Polish goal. Now I'm not sure who is going to be called-up for the next friendly match...

Quote of the day

Found this quote in an article about the most effective way of scoring penalties:

"When it comes to the penalty shoot-out the most disturbing element is the goalkeeper."

It is thought that the best chances to score have the players who focus on shoting the goal, not on a goalkeeper and what he is doing.

Is that true? Probably partially. Remeber than in Portugal - England penalty shoot-out at World Cup 2006 the only English player who scored was Hargreaves, who actually didn't look at Ricardo.

Goalkeepers can disturb players and win that way the battle of nerves which is penalty shoot-out. Who doesn't remember the famous Dudek dance in the Champions League final Liverpool - Milan in 2005?