With Chichester picking up young Polish goalkeeping star Pacanowskiego, I was keenly interested to find out how his playstyle worked out and how it would adapt to playing in the more clinical English national league system. And access to game footage has shown that he does actually have a style that deviates from the atypical model, whether universal or regional (as predicted) because of the lack of finetuned technical coaching, or the intuition basis of shot stopping to counteract regular goalkeeper specific coaching and guidance.
At lower levels it can be effective or at least non-damaging to results overall as it is keeping the ball out of goal; the save per say may not be so bad in itself, but the poor control of rebounds and their dangers at the top level equate to goals scored when picked up in-close and instantly put into the net. Coaches should never take away intuitive save making from their students, because it underpins and grounds natural save making by reflex, but should try and transfer this energy into secondary saves and tricky shots or situations like a redirect or 2 on 1, rather than being the go-to option on every shot. At times when the play breaks down, the goalkeeper can then make the decision to appropriately respond via a more than athletic save!
The cup final game against Beeston, recorded thankfully by Galvanised Hockey is a perfect example of Pacanowskiego demonstrating an unorthodox style throughout in his play in this game mixed in with a good techincal core.
He does demonstrate a strong technical basis but this is not an equal 50-50 split I feel. Like at 0:23 on the shot, he gets square and gets the right angle for the save-clear but his head is back and not far over enough the knee to bring the ball down and away from his defender, which would otherwise have stopped the (what I presume to be) PC for dangerous play.
On the preceding spot flick, he drops with his glove rather than extending out with the leg, which seems confusing.
At 1:05 he makes a great technical save, with a strong textbook dive with good depth and read on the flick to make the stop.
Conversely at 1:24 he makes what would be considered (by English coaches, for the sake of playing on stereotypes here) to be a peculiar stop dragging his foot across and down to make an elongated barrier save with his left pad. Had he not been balanced (with his head positioning), the ball could have gone anyway; back into play where it could have been put away on the rebound, or up and over the leg to score an 'own goal'. Here, I could see this innovative style being used against a more broken play needing to shut the gap between his legs (tipped shot perhaps), or in indoor (perhaps that's where his main experience is), but bringing the left foot in to 'slam the doors' would have worked better.
At 1:47 what it appears to be, from a viewer's perspective, technique aside, is that he gets his feet 'stuck' and misses the shot, perhaps due to a loss in concentration. In actual fact, the shot has been taken outside the D and can be ignored! Here, his body language is off and looking down. To have picked up that the goal was inelligible by someone with that keen an eye needs to be told to his team mates (maybe the language barrier being trouble here?!), not kept to himself, especially in such an important game!!
At 2:14 he times the block well and without a defender floating around to his right side there's nothing he can arguably do to stop the rebound getting through. Again at 2:43 there's little he can do (there's also 3 Beeston players free ready to pick up on a rebound), but it just feels like he's diving back on the play thus affecting his momentum/angle and chances. In football, the goalkeeper is told to dive forward to cut the angle, and I feel we should be bringing this into hockey too...
What stands out as a really 'out of the box' play of the whole game, is at 4:12 during the scramble around the goal mouth. The first save is good because there is little a 'textbook' save would have done to stop it'; by getting low and covering more space (playing the percentages) of the ball going into the bottom half of the goal, he can get something on it, and actually does. But the follow up could have eliminated this play; standing up and making a save-clear would have cleared the ball off the side line with the right angle rather than sending it back into play and shredding his defenders' nerves!!
Looking closely, it is essentially a replication of the earlier odd block at 1:47, with the left leg dropped to make a horizontal barrier with the pad. This is more akin to an ice hockey block, or half butterfly where leg is dropped to cover the puck on the ice and just above. I have personally played ice hockey and made sure I kept my memory recall and muscle memory different to prevent confusing the styles and I'd be interested to know where he picked it up from (i.e. if he played ice hockey before hockey - Petr Cech played ice hockey for example and employs an Eastern European split save to block low, something not exclusively a result of playing the sport early on!).
If working with a goalie coach here, they would be working to eliminate this from his muscle memory due to the readiness he has to switch to it when unsure what to do, whilst changing it for a standing block where a kicker save-clear would be better and more suitable for eliminating immediate secondary chances.
If
we look more closely at the footage and slow it down, we can clearly
see the second save employing his own technique of this leg drop. In analysis, as in life generally, it all comes down to patterns. And in
goalkeeping, behavioural patterns (regularity of certain techniques) show a trend in a goalkeeper's thinking and save selection, or their absence!. When dealing with broken plays, Pacanowskiego is more than happy
to come up with his own alternative in the form of a leg block, for better or for worse; showing a thin selection on offer in his muscle memory.
Canada's Dave Carter uses a 'butterfly' (the ice hockey save technique) on short corners, when he knows the ball is going low to cover and play the percentages; rarely used and still unorthodox! Should Pacanowskiego over use it, he is going to be vulnerable to pop ups and being 'sniped' over that space he can cover with the leg.
After the save, the play breaks down even further, with Pacanowskiego sprinting out to get to the rebound to prevent the forward getting the ball and having a passing option to score around him. Andrew Charter has done the same for Australia, in a situation where this play cropped up and I feel is a suitable counter. The stick-dive is something more common in Holland, where goalkeepers swing clear to get rid if they can't reach a rebound standing, or the ball has gotten away from them against a passive block. Here, using goalkeeping smarts to get rid of the ball works well, but wouldn't it be more important to make the save that stops it happening in the first place?!
In short, it's easy to see that has a good core of standing and diving saves, from a strong ready stance and positioning, but also with a fair sprinkling of unorthodoxy. Without seeing a full game in person, I can't tell how important this split is, but he definitely does a few things 'outside the norm' for his save making. By totalling the number of times he reproduces the 'drop and block' with his left pad (3), we can see that Pacanowskiego 'reverts to type' with a self-made block to cover low shots rather than with his kicker which doesn't fit the English game and could be trouble for him in the long run.
At lower levels it can be effective or at least non-damaging to results overall as it is keeping the ball out of goal; the save per say may not be so bad in itself, but the poor control of rebounds and their dangers at the top level equate to goals scored when picked up in-close and instantly put into the net. Coaches should never take away intuitive save making from their students, because it underpins and grounds natural save making by reflex, but should try and transfer this energy into secondary saves and tricky shots or situations like a redirect or 2 on 1, rather than being the go-to option on every shot. At times when the play breaks down, the goalkeeper can then make the decision to appropriately respond via a more than athletic save!
He does demonstrate a strong technical basis but this is not an equal 50-50 split I feel. Like at 0:23 on the shot, he gets square and gets the right angle for the save-clear but his head is back and not far over enough the knee to bring the ball down and away from his defender, which would otherwise have stopped the (what I presume to be) PC for dangerous play.
On the preceding spot flick, he drops with his glove rather than extending out with the leg, which seems confusing.
At 1:05 he makes a great technical save, with a strong textbook dive with good depth and read on the flick to make the stop.
Conversely at 1:24 he makes what would be considered (by English coaches, for the sake of playing on stereotypes here) to be a peculiar stop dragging his foot across and down to make an elongated barrier save with his left pad. Had he not been balanced (with his head positioning), the ball could have gone anyway; back into play where it could have been put away on the rebound, or up and over the leg to score an 'own goal'. Here, I could see this innovative style being used against a more broken play needing to shut the gap between his legs (tipped shot perhaps), or in indoor (perhaps that's where his main experience is), but bringing the left foot in to 'slam the doors' would have worked better.
At 1:47 what it appears to be, from a viewer's perspective, technique aside, is that he gets his feet 'stuck' and misses the shot, perhaps due to a loss in concentration. In actual fact, the shot has been taken outside the D and can be ignored! Here, his body language is off and looking down. To have picked up that the goal was inelligible by someone with that keen an eye needs to be told to his team mates (maybe the language barrier being trouble here?!), not kept to himself, especially in such an important game!!
At 2:14 he times the block well and without a defender floating around to his right side there's nothing he can arguably do to stop the rebound getting through. Again at 2:43 there's little he can do (there's also 3 Beeston players free ready to pick up on a rebound), but it just feels like he's diving back on the play thus affecting his momentum/angle and chances. In football, the goalkeeper is told to dive forward to cut the angle, and I feel we should be bringing this into hockey too...
What stands out as a really 'out of the box' play of the whole game, is at 4:12 during the scramble around the goal mouth. The first save is good because there is little a 'textbook' save would have done to stop it'; by getting low and covering more space (playing the percentages) of the ball going into the bottom half of the goal, he can get something on it, and actually does. But the follow up could have eliminated this play; standing up and making a save-clear would have cleared the ball off the side line with the right angle rather than sending it back into play and shredding his defenders' nerves!!
Looking closely, it is essentially a replication of the earlier odd block at 1:47, with the left leg dropped to make a horizontal barrier with the pad. This is more akin to an ice hockey block, or half butterfly where leg is dropped to cover the puck on the ice and just above. I have personally played ice hockey and made sure I kept my memory recall and muscle memory different to prevent confusing the styles and I'd be interested to know where he picked it up from (i.e. if he played ice hockey before hockey - Petr Cech played ice hockey for example and employs an Eastern European split save to block low, something not exclusively a result of playing the sport early on!).
If working with a goalie coach here, they would be working to eliminate this from his muscle memory due to the readiness he has to switch to it when unsure what to do, whilst changing it for a standing block where a kicker save-clear would be better and more suitable for eliminating immediate secondary chances.
After the save, the play breaks down even further, with Pacanowskiego sprinting out to get to the rebound to prevent the forward getting the ball and having a passing option to score around him. Andrew Charter has done the same for Australia, in a situation where this play cropped up and I feel is a suitable counter. The stick-dive is something more common in Holland, where goalkeepers swing clear to get rid if they can't reach a rebound standing, or the ball has gotten away from them against a passive block. Here, using goalkeeping smarts to get rid of the ball works well, but wouldn't it be more important to make the save that stops it happening in the first place?!
In short, it's easy to see that has a good core of standing and diving saves, from a strong ready stance and positioning, but also with a fair sprinkling of unorthodoxy. Without seeing a full game in person, I can't tell how important this split is, but he definitely does a few things 'outside the norm' for his save making. By totalling the number of times he reproduces the 'drop and block' with his left pad (3), we can see that Pacanowskiego 'reverts to type' with a self-made block to cover low shots rather than with his kicker which doesn't fit the English game and could be trouble for him in the long run.
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