PETE JENSON: Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon reveals how goalkeeping has changed to ‘direct play’

Few players know the highs and lows of tournament football as well as Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon.

At last summer’s European Championship, he allowed Pedri’s soft back pass to roll over his foot and into the back of the net, giving Croatia a 1-0 lead after just 20 minutes.

He recovered as Spain won the last-16 game 5–3. And in the next game, he saved two penalties in the shoot-out against Switzerland to put them in the semi-finals.

He still has his ‘cheat sheet’ folded up in one of his duffel bags from that successful shoot-out against the Swiss and he eloquently explains the science behind giving goalkeepers a shot at those pressure points.

But first the Pedri moment – wasn’t his confidence shattered by such a terrible mistake so early in the game?

Especially given the way Spain plays, did that mean he couldn’t knock the ball down the other side of the pitch every time he came close?

“If it’s a technical error and not a conceptual one, you just think: I messed up, on to the next pass,” he says.

“You can’t stop playing the right pass just because you played a poor quality ball – we all make mistakes. If you’re wrong because you didn’t get the idea, that’s more of a concern.”

So what is “the idea”? He says it’s more than just being a playback opportunity for his defenders.

“When you play with your keeper, it normally means they pressure you with 10 and you play out with 11,” he explains.

“There should be a man free. So it is the keeper’s job, apart from being comfortable with the ball, to direct play to the free man.

“If the striker comes at you from the right then the defender he left may be free, or if someone else has come out to mark that defender then there is someone in second line who is free.”

Simon was a more traditional goalkeeper when he first broke into the Spanish squad and admires those whose more orthodox qualities compliment their skills with the ball at their feet.

“I still look at a goalkeeper and think, OK, he’s very good with his feet, but we’re starting to get a little crazy in the way we look at position. What is the primary task of a goalkeeper?

‘He must be able to save. He must control his territory. He must be the defense’s insurance policy. I know a lot of goalkeepers in big leagues who are very good with their feet, but they are a bit more limited in other things.

And there are people who are the opposite. The best thing is to have a good balance. I think [Marc-Andre] ter Stegen has a great mix of the two things. He is a very modern keeper.’

He may meet Ter Stegen in Spain’s second match against Germany. With rivals from Japan and Costa Rica it won’t be easy for the Spaniards in Qatar, but it won’t faze them – they were a penalty shoot-out from last year’s European Championship final and confidence is still high.

Taking penalties will undoubtedly be a key factor in Qatar and Simon will be as well prepared as he was at Euro 2019.

There is a photo showing Spain’s goalkeeper coach Jose Sambade’s forearm with the names of the Swiss penalty takers written on it ahead of the Euro 2020 quarter-final.

The notes have the kicker’s last name, his number, then “I” for izqiuerdo (left), “D” for derecho (right), and “M” for medio (middle).

Simon had written his own ‘cheat sheet’ on a piece of paper and folded it neatly in his towel. At the name of Fabian Schar he had written: ‘looks at the keeper’. It helped him save Schar’s kick.

He says, “I study punishments not only to know where they place them, but also how.”

The logic is that if a kicker is only looking at the ball, it’s probably best to dive early. While a player watching the keeper sees which way you are diving and adjusts his kick, so it’s best to dive late.

He knows it’s not a complete method. “I remember facing Andrea Belotti in the semi-final against Italy at Wembley,” he says. “I knew he hit the ball really hard and which way and I dove asked and even then I didn’t get there.”

There is also an element of bluff in all of this. “Looking at my piece of paper makes the player a little nervous to some extent. And the piece of paper I’m looking at could be blank!’ he says.

Incidentally, he is not a fan of this method of deciding parties. “Actually, I’d prefer one-on-one,” he says. “In youth football I remember we did that with the attacker who had eight seconds to score with a maximum of five touches.

“I would like almost any other situation, but the rule is that the game ends in penalties, so we have to work hard at it.”

His summer did not end with a defeat against Italy. He won a silver medal in the Olympics by beating Brazil 2-1 in the final – a slew of emotions from the Pedri foul to the podium in Japan.

“I remember after the European Championships and then the Olympics I went back to my village for a break, ridiculously happy, and my friends said to me, ‘So Unai, how was your summer?'” He jokes about his answer: ” Well, I didn’t. ‘not doing much’.

His friends, unimpressed by the silver medal and the help of the European Championship semi-final, keep him grounded, not that he seems to need too much help. If he could keep his head down after a roar like the one against Croatia, he can endure pretty much anything.

“I always thought that if we ended up losing that game 1-0, even if I played well, it wouldn’t be recognized in the same way,” he says.

“But the team played brilliantly and in the end we won. The best way to forget was to just keep playing.’