 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
One of the best Poland's Dudek among world's great goalkeepersPosted: Saturday April 27, 2002 11:45 AMWARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Poland's national soccer team is known for its solid defense. But even when defenders fail, all is not lost -- the team's goal is guarded by Jerzy Dudek, one of the best 'keepers in the world. The 29-year-old Liverpool goalie, who is 1.97 meters tall and weighs 81 kilograms, is hard to beat thanks to excellent physical condition and practically no weak points. Experts say he is equally good on the goal line and deep in the penalty area reaching out for high passes. He can save penalties, like the one executed by Derby's Fabrizio Ravanelli in December, or thwart one-on-one charges like that of Parma's Hidetoshi Nakata in Poland's friendly mach against Japan in March. Like all goalies, he is not unbeatable, but he is rarely to blame for a conceded goal. Dudek, who played for three Polish teams in the southern industrial region of Silesia -- Concordia Knurow, GKS Tychy and Sokol Tychy -- before moving to Rotterdam six years ago, became Feyenoord's first-choice goalie in 1997 and won the Dutch championship with Feyenoord two years later. He was named goalkeeper of the year in the Dutch league in 1999 and 2000 and won the Player of the Year award in 2000. Poland's coach Engel called up Dudek for international duty for the first time in 1999 and the 29-year-old soon became the team's No. 1 'keeper. Since then, he's played 20 matches for the national squad, including all 10 World Cup qualifiers. A day before Poland beat Norway 3-0 last September to become the first European nation to qualify for the World Cup, Dudek signed a five-year contract with Liverpool and became the most expensive Polish player. Liverpool paid about US$6.5 million to Feyenoord for the transfer, and its French coach Gerard Houllier called Dudek one of the most valuable players on the team.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
