No hiding place between the sticks

Ian Hawkey

• Last Updated: October 19. 2009 10:59PM UAE / October 19. 2009 6:59PM GMT

Here’s an appeal for sympathy for the unforgiving position of goalkeeper. Serie A seemed a tough place for leading members of the loneliest profession in football last weekend. Pity the victim of the most extraordinary goal of the eighth match-day of the Italian campaign, Dejan Stankovic’s volley from almost the halfway line that bounced into the net of the hapless Marco Amelia as Inter Milan won 5-0 at Genoa.

Pity Dida, the veteran at AC Milan. His recall to the side after a long absence was three minutes old when he conceded against Roma.

Pity, too, is mixed with concern at the news, announced just ahead of Juventus’ 1-1 draw with Fiorentina, that Gianluigi Buffon, the most admired of Italian goalkeepers, will need an operation on a knee ligament over Christmas.

It was hard not to feel for Amelia last Saturday night. He had spent the previous fortnight putting a brave face on having been left out of Marcello Lippi’s national squad, dropped, for the final World Cup 2010 qualifiers against Ireland and Cyprus, and spoke bullishly about forcing his way back as Buffon’s deputy, a status he had at the Azzurri triumph of 2006. Genoa’s bright start to the season buoyed him, he said. Then against Inter, it all unravelled.

Amelia took a routine clearance from the edge of his box, right-footed, and skewed it a little. Stankovic claimed he was anticipating the error. “I sensed he was getting that clearance wrong and I stepped to the right,” said the Serb. “I had a feeling I might be able to take advantage.”

Meeting Amelia’s kick, first-time on the volley, Stankovic lobbed the ball back fully 54 yards to land in the goal, Amelia chasing in vain back to his goal mouth. A freak goal? Certainly an unusual one. The beaten keeper and the boastful scorer shook hands afterwards, though Amelia will hardly thank Stankovic for drawing attention to the in enabling him to score from such long range.

Amelia has been overtaken in Lippi’s hierarchy by Morgan de Sanctis, his career resurrected at Napoli after a spell as a substitute with Sevilla, and by Frederico Marchetti of Cagliari. Under-21 international Emiliano Viviano had a good game for Bologna despite defeat in Naples, but Lippi may soon find himself looking abroad for goalkeeping back-up should Vito Mannone continue to impress with Arsenal. Here’s a statistic that would disturb Italians proud of a strong goalkeeping tradition that runs from Dino Zoff to Buffon. Only 11 of the 20 keepers who started the weekend’s Serie A matches were Italians.

Clubs in the peninsula now go to South America to recruit their No 1s as readily as they fish there for strikers and adventurous full-backs. Three of the so-called “big four” had Brazilians keeping goal over the weekend, and Sunday’s showpiece, Milan versus Roma, featured the two Brazilian giants, Dida against Doni.

Poor Dida. He has had a testing past two years. There was the incident in which he overreacted to a fan invading the pitch and making contact with him in a Champions League tie against Celtic. Then he suffered an alarming loss of form, was dropped from the Milan team and reappeared, at the height of a Milan crisis, against Roma because of the unavailability of Marco Storari. Barely had he strapped on his gloves than a dreadful back pass from Thiago Silva left him high and dry as Jeremy Menez put Roma in front. For Leonardo, the beleagured Milan head coach, that might have been the death knell for his troubled start until two goals, one a debatable penalty from Ronaldinho, gave Milan their much-needed 2-1 win.

ihawkey@thenational.ae