Goal keepers back to drawing board

By Sina Sevaaetasi 20 October 2016, 12:00AM

If you think being a goal keeper is easy, say that to six foot three, All White Goal Keeper, James Bannatyne.  

Bannatyne is conducting an intensive four-day Goal Keeping Coaching Course with the Football Federation Samoa (F.F.S). 

Twenty five goalkeepers and coaches from throughout Samoa and American Samoa are participating in the course to improve their performance, technique, and plan and prepare technical practices. 

Bannatyne is no stranger to Samoa, having hosted courses like this one here before.  He is excited to see many familiar faces that have attended his workshops before and also the progress that they have made. 

He stated, “I did a course here in Samoa in 2012, was one of the first courses I did with my work with Oceania Football. It’s good to see some of those participants back today.  I did another course for American Samoa in 2012 and 2015.  This is about my fifth course in the region of goalkeeping. “

“It’s great to see a number of the participants that I have seen before.  They have really developed and help to keep improving. As I said before, there’s still a lot of work to do and I’m just happy to be part of it.”

 “There’s a lot of good committed people, with the support of FIFA and Oceania, we’re excited to put on courses like this in this great new facility and help and motivate the participants to play a part in the football in our region.”

The intensive four-day training consists of field work, course work, and watching videos to truly comprehend the level of skill that is needed to develop great goal keepers.  

“It’s an honour to be delivering this course both for Samoa and American Samoa Football.  We have a lot of good work going on in the Oceania region with the support of   FIFA and the Oceania Football Federation.  This week will be busy and intense, but we’re excited about the week and look forward to working with the participants.”

Not only is Bannatyne training goal-keepers in Samoa, he is also working with Samoa’s U17’s Goal keeper, Pele Tamaolefale, who is now based in Auckland at the Oceania Football Education Centre.  

“Pele who is the goal keeper for Samoa U17’s, is part of the Oceania Football Education Centre in Auckland.    I’ve had the pleasure of working with Pele and I have a video to show the participants this morning as well,” he said.   

 “ It’s exciting to see someone like Pele go to where he is and the amount of support and training that he’s getting there and the education centre environment and the project that we’re excited to be part of.”

“It’s great that someone from Samoa, from our region, can head to Auckland to further their development both in education and in football.  Shows there is a pathway in our beautiful game, especially for goal keepers.” 

By Sina Sevaaetasi 20 October 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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