New Zealand vs South Africa: Pieterse a little shaky

The pressure of the big stage can be a little troubling for goalkeepers new to the international scene, and with such a large crowd to play in front of for the first time, I think nerves are starting to settle in for a few goalkeepers. Cortes didn't have the best game against Belgium but managed to have a stormer against India. Similarly, Pieterse has been great for South Africa as they continue to prove their mettle at the highest levels, but then crumbled against NZ.

Rassie has been in great form, starting to prove his real worth after taking over from predecessor Chris Hibbert, and highlight reel saves against Germany and his performance against Australia for example at London (vs Chris' in Beijing) would suggest pipping him at being called upon against tough opposition. And in this respect, goalkeepers can never undermine the importance of self confidence. You HAVE to be positive to the point of arrogance at times, because if you lose confidence in yourself all is effectively lost. And your team can't afford for you to have a meltdown, especially so if you're representing your country!

So you can watch and learn a bit from games like these, putting into practice in your game your own level of self belief:

• once you have allowed a goal, move on immediately; forget it never happened, play like it didn't and work to keep your team in the game
• leave the self criticism to post-match analysis otherwise you can creep into self doubt and lose all that sense of it which is so crucial to a goalkeeper playing well
• confidence is a technical aspect you cannot learn by watching or reading - you have to do it and put it to work, to make it work!