Finally, Goal for Keepers : Soccer: The best players at the position in this summer’s competition, like Thomas Ravelli and Bodo Illgner, will vie for the Yashin Cup.
He was known as “The Black Spider.”
He wore black from head to toe: black jersey, black shorts, black socks, black boots and black gloves.
He was born in Moscow in 1929 and grew up to become one of the Soviet Union’s most beloved sports figures of all time.
He made his club debut for Dynamo Moscow in 1951 and his debut for the Soviet national team in 1954.
He won an Olympic gold medal in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia.
He helped the Soviet Union win the first European Championship, in France in 1960.
He played on Soviet teams that reached the quarterfinals of the 1958 and 1962 World Cup tournaments and the semifinals of the 1966 tournament.
He represented his country 78 times in international competition and was awarded the Order of Lenin and the title Grand Master of Sport.
In 1963, he was voted European player of the year.
In 1970, when he retired, a crowd of 100,000 gathered at Lenin Stadium in Moscow to honor him at a testimonial match between Dynamo and an all-star team representing the rest of the world.
And when he died in 1990, at age 61, he was remembered by soccer fans worldwide as one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of the game.
His name was Lev Yashin.
In a sport such as soccer, which is forever reliving the exploits of its heroes, there was little chance that Yashin would ever be forgotten. Now, there is no chance.
FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, has created a new award, the Yashin Cup, that will be presented for the first time this summer to the best goalkeeper in the 1994 World Cup tournament. Awards already are given to the best player and the top goal-scorer, but there has never been one for the player whose job is to prevent goals.
Among the 24 participating teams, there are a number of likely candidates to win the Yashin Cup and the honored player will not necessarily be the goalkeeper of the World Cup-winning team.
If the award had existed in 1990, for example, it undoubtedly would have been presented to Sergio Goycochea, whose brilliant penalty-saving exploits helped a below-average Argentine team advance to the final in Rome. Goycochea will be back this summer and, if the two-time Copa America winner can recapture his form of four years ago, he is going to be difficult to beat.
There is talk in the Argentine camp, however, that Goycochea’s inconsistent form of late might result in Luis Islas winning the starter’s role. Coach Alfio Basile has yet to announce his decision.
Then there are the Germans. As defending world champion, Germany comes into the tournament as the second-favorite behind Brazil. But it was only a couple of weeks ago that Berti Vogts decided on his first-string keeper.
Germany’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper at Italia ’90 was Bodo Illgner. But Illgner’s fortunes took a turn for the worse at the 1992 European Championship in Sweden, where Germany yielded eight goals in five matches and lost to the Netherlands in the first round and to Denmark in the final.
Vogts demoted Illgner after the championship match and made Andreas Koepke his No. 1 choice. Over the last year, however, Illgner has regained his form and the two players have alternated as the starter, with mixed results.
Lately, a third name has surfaced. Oliver Kahn enjoyed an excellent season in the Bundesliga and was voted the best goalkeeper in the league. The 24-year-old’s reward was a spot on the German World Cup team, but his chances of starting for the national team lie in the future.
Having to make a choice between Illgner, 27, who has the World Cup experience, and Koepke, 32, who is more aggressive and assured, was not a simple task for Vogts, and he wrestled with the problem. Finally, two weeks ago, he settled on Illgner.
“It was the most difficult decision that I have ever had to make in my career as national team coach,” Vogts said. “The deciding factor was that Bodo has the experience of being in goal during the 1990 World Cup campaign.”
Much the same problem faces Vogts’ Brazilian counterpart, Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Parreira is the type of coach who stands by the players who have served him well in the past. With that in mind, Taffarel would appear to be his first-choice goalkeeper. But Taffarel is only the second-choice for his Italian club team, Parma, and his national team form has been inconsistent.
Last summer, in the U.S. Cup ’93 tournament, Taffarel gave up three goals in the second half as Germany came from behind to tie Brazil, 3-3, at Washington.
In the Copa America tournament in Ecuador, Parreira used three goalkeepers in the first round. Taffarel shut out Peru in a 0-0 tie; Carlos was disastrous in a 3-2 loss to Chile and immediately was dropped from contention; and Zetti defeated Paraguay, 3-0.
Zetti, a two-time world club champion with Sao Paulo, played against Argentina in the quarterfinals and, while he did well to keep the score to 1-1, he was nowhere near as adept as Goycochea when the game went to penalty kicks and Brazil was eliminated.
Parreira has yet to make up his mind between Taffarel and Zetti and it could come down to who is in better form when Brazil opens its World Cup campaign against Russia on Monday. No such worries are troubling Colombia’s coach, Francisco Maturana. Having decided that 1990’s idol Rene (El Loco) Higuita, is no longer in his plans, Maturana has placed his faith in Oscar Cordoba.
Cordoba played well in the Copa America tournament in Ecuador and even better in the World Cup qualifying matches. If he and Colombia enjoy a good tournament this summer, he easily could be in the running to win the Yashin Cup.
Another possible candidate is Mexico’s Jorge Campos. Campos is a good and capable goalkeeper, but he is prone to making reckless mistakes in his quest to be recognized. Against world-class opponents, that could prove costly for Mexico.
Europe, meanwhile has a handful of other top goalkeepers who have been around a long time and whose experience makes them likely challengers for the award.
There is, for instance, Sweden’s Thomas Ravelli. Ravelli is noted for his intense and angry stare and his constant shouting during matches. Now 34, he has been Sweden’s first-choice keeper for 18 years.
Then there is Ireland’s Pat Bonner, another veteran with vast international experience. In the 1990 World Cup in Italy, it was his save of a Romanian penalty kick that earned the Irish a place in the quarterfinals.
Another European keeper who should not be overlooked is Italy’s Gianluca Pagliuca, who comes into the tournament having inherited the No. 1 job from Walter Zenga. If he can accomplish what his predecessor, Dino Zoff, did in 1982--that is, win the World Cup--his status as an Italian hero is assured.
Spain has a hero in the renowned Andoni Zubizaretta, who has a good shot at winning the Yashin Cup if he can recapture the form that made him an idol for so long with Barcelona, the club that released him last month after it lost the European Cup to AC Milan of Italy.
“Zubi,” as he is known, this year became the most-capped Spanish player of all time and now has played 86 times for his country. Nevertheless, he dismisses such statistics as irrelevant.
“Confidence is a major factor for goalkeepers and you need luck in your early games for the national team,” he said. “Goalkeeper is one of the positions where the fans get used to seeing the same face over a period of many years.”
Does that mean he is not interested in joining the select few goalkeepers who have played more than 100 international games?
“I think that (the number of appearances) is something for when you retire and you can look back and see your name alongside the greats like (England’s Peter) Shilton, (Germany’s Sepp) Maier and (Northern Ireland’s Pat) Jennings,” he said.
And one more name: Russia’s Lev Yashin.
Whoever turns out to be chosen the best goalkeeper of 1994 World Cup cannot help but pay tribute to the man in black.
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The Starting Goalkeepers
These are the 24 probable starting goalkeepers in the World Cup tournament that begins Friday.
Argentina Sergio Goycochea Belgium Michel Preud’homme Bolivia Carlos Trucco Brazil Claudio Taffarel Bulgaria Borislav Mikhailov Cameroon Joseph-Antoine Bell Colombia Oscar Cordoba Germany Bodo Illgner Greece Antonis Minou Ireland Pat Bonner Italy Gianluca Pagliuca Mexico Jorge Campos Morocco Khalil Azmi Netherlands Ed De Goey Nigeria Peter Ruffai Norway Erik Thorstvedt Romania Florin Prunea Russia Stansilav Cherchessov Saudi Arabia Muhammad Al Daeyea South Korea Choi In-young Spain Andoni Zubizarreta Sweden Thomas Ravelli Switzerland Marco Pascolo United States Tony Meola
