Petr Halas made 214 appearances for Meridian between 1996 and 2011 and has coached the club’s goalkeepers for the last eight years. He is not given to hyperbole, which makes what he says about Marco Iversen worth hearing.
“Marco makes my job easy,” he says. “I set the sessions up, and he sets the standard for everyone else. The young keepers learn more from watching him for a week than from me for a month.”
What the numbers hide
Iversen has had one save to make in each of the last two home games. Halas argues that is the point: “The best goalkeeping happens ten seconds before the shot that never comes.”
“People remember the saves. I remember the corner he claimed at Westport at 2–2 with a minute left. Nobody talks about that one.”
Petr Halas, goalkeeping coach
The next generation
- Kwame Osei, 19, is Iversen’s understudy and played every minute of pre-season.
- Two academy goalkeepers train with the first team on Fridays.
- Halas runs a free goalkeeping school at Fairlow on Sunday mornings.
