Let’s be honest now. From up near the press box of Hampden Park, Scotland’s equaliser against Germany, when seen in real time, looked very much like (for the sake of calling a spade a spade) a Neuer mistake. Something that is so rare in Germany matches that even Thomas Müller being kept quiet is a more frequent occurrence.
There are certain terms that are slowly dying out in the German language. 'Löschpapier' (blotting paper) is one such word, ' Wählscheibe' (phone dial disk) and 'Kreiswehrersatzamt' (military commissariat) others. In terms of the DFB team, there is another term which is in danger of disappearing from the German language: goalkeeper error.
Neuer: "It was a difficult situation"
As the ball rolled in to the Germany goal following Shaun Maloney’s (28') free kick, the reporters couldn’t quite believe what they had seen: "Did you see that too? He has to catch that, right?" They begun to quickly rack their brains for previous instances of this happening, the more experienced amongst them recalling past memories of old goalkeepers on black and white televisions – the days when German goalkeepers made mistakes. It was though, as is seemingly so often the case, simply an illusion. A mirage of grand proportion. The loud noise of the Scottish fans affected not only our hearing, but also our sight.
The ball did not slip through the keeper’s hands; the goal was in fact a concatenation of unlucky circumstances, of which Manuel Neuer was just a part. The man himself in fact can shed light on what happened: "It was a difficult situation. I was anticipating that one of the Scottish players would get something on the ball and direct it towards the corner. This didn’t happen. I had to get down as the ball bounced just in front of me. I tried to push it away, but Mats was trying to help and was standing right in front of me. I should have got rid of it better, but it was not an easy situation for me."
Upon self reflection then just a small error, but in objective criticism not even that. Whatever the case, Neuer providing analysis on a goal conceded does not happen that often. Moreover, he has in many ways changed the perception of what it means to be a goalkeeper. In an interview with Sport Bild, he elaborated: "Goalkeepers are becoming increasingly more important for teams, because they are being drawn into the game more and more. A keeper begins passages of play, as often it is he who plays the first pass."
Neuer: "You always have to provide an option as a goalkeeper"
Neuer doesn’t think this evolution is yet complete. He believes that the line between goalkeeper and outfield player will slowly become more blurred. More specifically, he says: "I think that the role of a goalkeeper will change a lot in future, in order to further increase the overall strength of a team." As an example he cites situations where attackers press the defenders in their own half: "As a goalkeeper you have to be confident on the ball, and always provide an option. Even outside the penalty box. In such cases, you can outnumber the opposition, and pull the attackers towards you, thus creating more space for your own players."
It doesn’t look good then for the longevity of the term 'Goalkeeper errors', particularly if Neuer’s prophecy that goalkeepers will start to act as an extra outfield player turns out to be correct.
