4th International Goalkeeper Congress in Cologne

The fourth edition of the International GOALKEEPER CONGRESS was held over the weekend of July 9/10 at the German Sports University in the City of Cologne. The world's goalkeeping elite met under the patronage of the German national goalkeeping coach Andreas Koepke. Prominent speakers such as Jean-Marie Pfaff, Claus Reitmaier, Dimo Wache and Lutz Pfannenstiel passed on their knowledge and insights through lectures and practical workshops into current developments in world football.

It is often said that goalkeepers are a special bread and once more the Congress proved this point as goalkeepers are part of the team, but are in a special positions amongst the eleven playing members of a team. Goalkeepers can make tons of great saves, but one mistake can lose their team a match.

This year once more the focus was on the latest trends in goalkeeping and what methods high profile goalkeeping coaches like Andreas Koepke apply in their training. Koepke focuses in his training on being capable to play with both feet, anticipating long balls, taking charge of the 18 yard box, being charismatic in goal which can rub of onto the defenders and to guide the defence as a sort of libero.

Another goalkeeping coach in Lutz Pfannenstiel, the only goalkeeper to have professionally played on all continents, showed different ideas and approaches from around the world. One thing which I saw and liked were the elements from the Brazilian school of goalkeeping which look strange to European goalkeeper coaches, but are effective in their own way and something which Lutz has integrated into his training of goalkeepers.

An interesting element was the ball machine, which is similar to a ball machine in Tennis, which simply fires the ball at the keeper with such speed and precision that it makes the life of a keeper difficult; but it is an excellent tool in training to prepare keepers for matches.

One thing that most participants agree on is the lack in goalkeeping coaches education as there is no system of licences for goalkeeper coaches. This is something the German Football Association (DFB) is working on and which hopefully will be carried forward by UEFA and FIFA in the future.

On both days the first half of the day was spend in classrooms to listen to theory, while the second half of the day was spend on the field to see practical demonstrations.