Well, 

I've already said that I'm a Liverpool fan, but....

Ray Clemence was amazing.  I loved his penalty-stopping technique.  It should never have worked except for his great athleticism and intelligence.

He would stand dramatically to left of center.  This left a wide open goal to shoot at, except that Clemence would get to the ball most of the time it was shot on the long side!  If it was shot on the short side, Clemence would either be able to reach out and save it or it would score.  But almost everyone tried to prove that Clemence was an idiot not to stand in the center!   

Ok, so maybe I wouldn't coach my own goalies to do that.... then again.... 

I always thought that Clemence was better than Shilton, but that may have been my bias.  Clemence was certainly more fun to watch.  At the time, Liverpool's defense was hardly world class, but we had great midfielders and goal scorers.  Clemence was kept very busy and looked brilliant doing it!  Certainly Clemence belongs in the pantheon of great goalkeepers.

No. I cannot help thinking, that with either Van Beveren or Schrijvers in the goal the Orange team would have beaten West-Germany.
Cruijff more or less forced Michels to chose Jongbloed, because Van Beveren and Schrijvers at that time played for provincial teams: FC Twente and PSV (in 1974 not that important yet). As Cruijff was from Amsterdam, he looked down on them. Jongbloed played for another Amsterdam club, which does not exist anymore.
For about the same reasons the fantastic midfield Van der Kuylen from PSV had to stay home. Good luck that there were others equally good.
BTW there must be a reason, that so many English clubs prefer Dutch goalies to local ones.
Thanks for the website.

Quote:


Lets see if i can fill in the gaps here......hmmmm Germany to my mind has only 1 legend ie Maier. I dont think Schumacher was too impressive during his outings. Probably the only thing most of the world remembers him by was his HUGE foul on that French player (Baptiston or something like that). Probably only Kahn can add to the list of German goalie legends.

Russia had Yashin and Dasaev, Italy had Zoff, Spain has Arconada, Argies had Fillol but i dont remember too many heroics from him. Paraguay had Chilavert. I think Northern Ireland's Pat Jennings should also be considered a legend too.

On England, they had Banks. The thing i dont quite understand was why was Shilts preferred over Clemence for England?? I always thought Clem was the better player. ??? Definitely more class. Ya I think i have to agree with the others on the pt on Shilt's longevity due to lack of talent in the goalie dept cos the only one who could rival him was Clem, & when Clem finally retired from the international scene who else were there?? It was somewhat diffeerent in the 70's where there were Jimmy Rimmer, Phil Parkes & Joe Corrigan playing well too....but still very much betn Clem & Shilts though.

Coming to Van Breukelan & Shilts, I do have to go quite frankly with Van Breukelan. Definitely more talented & classy. I do remember seeing Van Breukelan in action for Forest & thought he was pretty good. His performances in the Euro Nations Championships was also outstanding. For someone in his mid thirties at that time, that was quite impressive.

I would like to thank Smyslov for bringing up the trivia on the word peruse. Looks I had the meaning all wrong. I  had always thought that the word perusal whose root word is peruse always referred to something that one had "use" for.  eg Pls find the attached for your records & perusal     hahahaha........

I must admit that I'm with MNb on this one.  Shilton's international career was certainly the more impressive, but I must admit I thought that Shilton's longevity reflected the sad state of English goalkeeping more than his own brilliance.  Though for a shorter period of time, Van Breukelen was the superior stopper--far more talented.  (cue: howls of derision).

Now that I think of it, though, there does seem to be a shortage of good goalkeeping these days.  I remember the heroics of the Belgian keeper, Jean-Marie Pfaff in the 1986 World Cup; Belgium allowed a lot of goals in that tournament--4 each against Russia and France if memory serves--but Pfaff was remarkable (and that was my look at Enzo Scifo, who might go down as the most underrated player in world history--simply amazingly talented).  Apart from an embarrassing hiccup during the 2002 World Cup final, Oliver Kahn is probably as good as it gets at the moment.  That said, I've not seen anyone who could hold a candle to Dino Zoff...

Alumbrado, 

The jungles of South America seem to have fried our friend's brain a bit. He's deluded into thinking one or two good outings can match the legendary career of one of England's most solid goalies.  Sure, Shilton wasn't flashy, but I prefer my goalies to always be at the right place at the right time rather than be jumping all over the place.

While it is touching that everyone is so interested in English football, I do have to take issue with the notion that Hans van Breukelen can even be mentioned in the same breath as Peter Shilton.  It is like comparing Robbie Fowler with Mario Kempes ...

@Beetlejuice, 

Thanks for the websites!  I know the web can find almost any info in the world, I'm just constantly amazed at what that means!  I guess I don't have to remember anything at all if I can type a google query about it.  Colin Boulton (23 'clean slates" in one season, wow!) made spectacular saves, I remember during the '71-72 season (I know it was that season because I just read about it) Derby County had some goalkeeping duels with Man City, Man United, Arsenal, and Liverpool.  The highlights reels on Match of the Day are better in my memory than almost any season since then!  (Memory kinda works that way though.)

I'm gonna go peruse some of the other sites later.

Trivia:  I love the word peruse because it means exactly the opposite of what most people think it means!  It means "to study in depth", not "to scan or glance at".

And Peter Shilton was not as good as Hans van Breukelen.
Smyslov_Fan, isn't this an idea for another poll? The best keepers of all time? Without much effort I can mention five Dutchies who should be on the list!