Speaker 1: The goalkeeper is a lonesome creature. Alone in his box.
Speaker 1: He hangs out with his gloves and his crossbar. You
Speaker 1: only notice him when he messes up and concedes. He's
Speaker 1: got a lot of time to think. The French philosopher
Speaker 1: Albert Camu was a goalkeeper. He said, quote, all that
Speaker 1: I know most surely about morality and duty I owe
Speaker 1: to football. Vladimir Nabokov called his fellow goalkeepers aloof solitary, impassive.
Speaker 1: Aside from antisocial writers who would want this thankless job.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to look at a lineage of local
Speaker 1: Latin American goalkeepers who transformed the role and whose wild,
Speaker 1: unhinged antics terrified and delighted their own fans along the way.
Speaker 1: I'm namedo Vila, and you're listening to the best soccer
Speaker 1: podcast in the world. It's got ses with them, but
Speaker 1: it's still Christiano Ronaldo. Yes, yes, in the Italian teams
Speaker 1: wonderful that is never sin. In nineteen twelve, the Football
Speaker 1: Association limited goalkeepers to using their hands inside of their
Speaker 1: own boxes, rather than anywhere in their own halves. Hungarian
Speaker 1: Goula Grossage was among the first to come off his
Speaker 1: line consistently. He won a gold medal with Hungary at
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifty two Summer Epics. A postle socco of
Speaker 1: lev Yashin and Mariel Garriso built on the idea of
Speaker 1: the sweeper keeper. Leve Yashin saved over a hundred penalties
Speaker 1: and had a cigarette and a shot before the game
Speaker 1: to get in the right mindset. Legendary Argentina everywhere played stopper.
Speaker 1: Gariso was the first to wear gloves. The goalkeeper's role
Speaker 1: back then was purely just stop the boy if it
Speaker 1: came to him and get it back up the pitch.
Speaker 1: If you see clips of these old games from the fifties,
Speaker 1: from the sixties, moist keepers that they were linely limbed
Speaker 1: themselves to grabbing hold of the ball with two hands,
Speaker 1: just taking their time and then launching it back up
Speaker 1: the pitch, not really caring who it landed with. And
Speaker 1: Carrisso was different. He was a guy who did leave
Speaker 1: his line. He would, you know, as the position suggests,
Speaker 1: sweep up behind the defense if if it was needed,
Speaker 1: he could play with his fate. This is Daniel Edwards,
Speaker 1: a soccer journalist based in Buenos Aires. Gariso said a
Speaker 1: record for appearances for Riad, played on the famed Lamkina
Speaker 1: team and won six domestic titles with his club. He
Speaker 1: was the first goalie to trick a striker by faking
Speaker 1: an offside call. His birthday became the Day of the Goalkeeper.
Speaker 1: In Argentina. His audacity of dribbling out past opposing players
Speaker 1: caught on, including with a young Colombian named or As
Speaker 1: the coach who discovered and champion the Heat that would
Speaker 1: call him a local Heat that was born in a
Speaker 1: slum in Median and grew up playing under the floodlights
Speaker 1: paid for by Pablo Escobar. He played as a striker
Speaker 1: throughout his youth until one day, when the team's goalkeeper
Speaker 1: was unavailable, the coach gave eat other gloves. He was
Speaker 1: just seemed a reluctant goalkeeper, right. He was a guy
Speaker 1: that was so comfortable getting out of his goal and
Speaker 1: dribbling out the pitch. And he was a great keeper
Speaker 1: and his I'm right, but you must just just seemed
Speaker 1: to be bored of the row. So he would he
Speaker 1: would just try this out, righteous stuff, and there's a
Speaker 1: free kick at Akta to get across very very quickly.
Speaker 1: And day he scored seven goals in his debut season,
Speaker 1: which earned him a transfer. Fueled by cocaine money, Nasional flourished,
Speaker 1: eventually winning the the final went to penalties. He has
Speaker 1: stopped four and scored his own as Nacionale became the
Speaker 1: first Colombian team to win South America's biggest club competition.
Speaker 1: But that team, you know, that Li Nacional team has
Speaker 1: just gone into history is one of the greatest South
Speaker 1: American club teams that ever was his antics between the
Speaker 1: post it definitely announced him as as someone to watch
Speaker 1: and side. This guy Francisco Maturan of the culture that
Speaker 1: age he comes in around nine nine. He says, look,
Speaker 1: we're not going to beat Argentina Brazil by fouling them,
Speaker 1: by spoiling. You know, we're Colombians. We love, we love
Speaker 1: to have fun. We love to just show you our
Speaker 1: three sells. So we're going to do that on the pitch.
Speaker 1: We we're talking about it is an orthodox style. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever seen anything as pure confidential. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course, Sita with all of his antics, all of
Speaker 1: his all of his free spirit in the girl, that's
Speaker 1: where it all started, and it just filtered through the
Speaker 1: entire team from there. In his international debut, kept a
Speaker 1: clean sheet against the Soviet Union for a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, saving two penalties in scoring the decisive spot kick.
Speaker 1: Just a very colorful figure on and off the pitch
Speaker 1: and definitely one of these guys who in the nineties,
Speaker 1: which was you know, especially early nineties are fairly bleak
Speaker 1: time for football, where a lot of teams weren't really
Speaker 1: proposing anything. The game was dubbed by violence, dubbed by
Speaker 1: very negative play. It must be the best play on
Speaker 1: the fiber show tram. And then you have a team
Speaker 1: like Columbia who just came up in the World Cup,
Speaker 1: and it was like, well, you can play a bit different,
Speaker 1: you can play with a bit of joy in your heart.
Speaker 1: This is really good to see. At the time, columb
Speaker 1: Ba was thrilling with m bossing games from under his
Speaker 1: bouncing blonde fro. Columbia made it to the knockout rounds
Speaker 1: of the World Cup, beating the UAE and drawing with
Speaker 1: Germany coach. The team was built on Aita's peculiar style
Speaker 1: of play. He was and still is kind of kind
Speaker 1: of an idol and an icon and representative of not
Speaker 1: just you know, Colombia and Colombian soccer, but of a
Speaker 1: of a time and an era, you know, in in
Speaker 1: a different way. I know, we put them, you know,
Speaker 1: like Carlos Falderrama in in a very different way than
Speaker 1: Colos walder Rama, but equally as impactful and impressionable, if
Speaker 1: you will. This is Alexei Lawless, a defender for the U.
Speaker 1: S national team in the nineties and now a puned
Speaker 1: it for Fox Soccer. As coach Francisco put it quote,
Speaker 1: with Renee acting as a sweeper, we effectively have eleven
Speaker 1: outfield players allowed the whole team to push higher up
Speaker 1: the field. In Totalita conceded just fifty four goals in
Speaker 1: sixty eight games for Columbia, less than one per game.
Speaker 1: Was very popular because of his tendency to go out
Speaker 1: of his penalty orange dribble rounds four of five or six.
Speaker 1: But then the World Cup he famously lost the motto
Speaker 1: or in the last sixteen against Cameroon in extra time,
Speaker 1: and that's why Columbia went out so spanished. Eventually. This
Speaker 1: is Michael Jakin, a freelance soccer journalist. So Cameroon in
Speaker 1: the round of sixteen. Let's talk about it, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was pretty much deadlocked. Like a lot of the
Speaker 1: games at the ninety nine World Cup was a gat
Speaker 1: receives the boat and just besides, as he had done
Speaker 1: for so many times, to dribble it out and see
Speaker 1: what I can do. And he came up against against
Speaker 1: Cameroon and lost the boll and gifted the go to
Speaker 1: Roger millib and that was it for Columbia. They couldn't
Speaker 1: get back. And one of the most enjoyable teams are
Speaker 1: that World Cup when in the Colombian doll is a
Speaker 1: keeper who lives on a knife inch. He's an exhibitionist,
Speaker 1: a great taker of risks. Millers possessed him the get
Speaker 1: and read face Miller another dog and another dogs. Miller's
Speaker 1: danced with the corner flag became famous. Heat that called
Speaker 1: his turnover quote a mistake as big as a house comb.
Speaker 1: That was an outstanding team. That was a team that
Speaker 1: could have won the World Cup in ninety four and
Speaker 1: maybe and he was the Gita being a bit of
Speaker 1: a fool against Cameroon which cost him both goals. This
Speaker 1: is a senior writer for ESPN. You know your eye
Speaker 1: probably could have scored one of those two goals when
Speaker 1: you get when you get gifted them, you know the
Speaker 1: way he did, and he was totally out of position
Speaker 1: for the other goal as well, which people often forget.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I don't. I don't see Gita as this
Speaker 1: positive romantic figure. Neither did Colombia. Four years later, he
Speaker 1: that wasn't at the nineteen ninety four woke up because
Speaker 1: he done. He just got out of prison for reasons
Speaker 1: that I think on the Gita would would really be
Speaker 1: able to explain. He managed to get caught up in
Speaker 1: kidnapping kis in Colombia. Pabloscoad had escaped his mountaintop prison
Speaker 1: and was on the run. His bank accounts were frozen.
Speaker 1: He needed money, so he went about it the old
Speaker 1: fashioned way, kidnapping. He abducted the daughter of his former
Speaker 1: partner turned rival Cats Molina. Molina asked to Eat that
Speaker 1: to act as an intermediary to transfer the money. He
Speaker 1: had some personal link, so he got involved in this
Speaker 1: kidnapping chaise. This wasn't eat as brightest moment, but you
Speaker 1: try turning down a drug kingpin when he per suddenly
Speaker 1: asks for a favor. He that carried the three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in cash handed it over and idly signed autographs
Speaker 1: for the street kids who recognized him. While he waited,
Speaker 1: the girl was delivered to his side without him seeing
Speaker 1: where she appeared from. The victim eventually got home. Cifely
Speaker 1: A Gab allegedly received a very has some sum of
Speaker 1: money for his involvement, and eventually the Columbian authorities caught
Speaker 1: up with him and said, now you're complicit in this kidnapping.
Speaker 1: So I spent almost a year I think in prison,
Speaker 1: got out just before the World Cup. Obviously he had
Speaker 1: n't plied for a year. He was in pretty terrible
Speaker 1: shipes I. He was forced to watch from him and
Speaker 1: Oscar Corba went in instead as heat that puts it.
Speaker 1: He went to jail because he tried to save a
Speaker 1: teenage girl. He called his motives humanitarian. He was never
Speaker 1: tried and was released after seven months. He sued the
Speaker 1: ball at that prison when they tried to cut his hair.
Speaker 1: His lawyer argued that his hair was quote essential to
Speaker 1: his personality, his performance, in his image, and he's got
Speaker 1: lots of it. This is James Richardson hosted the Totally
Speaker 1: Football Show. People knew who Renny Agreeto was because of
Speaker 1: the hair He had this big kind of you won't
Speaker 1: remember the hairbaar bunch. It was a short lived Hannah
Speaker 1: Barbera cartoon about somewhere out there, someone's going, yeah, I
Speaker 1: know the hair by bunch. Oh, I understand what he
Speaker 1: means about. When they agreed his hair. It was that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. For that person, you get it, But
Speaker 1: for the rest of you, it was kind of like
Speaker 1: a big, kind of like bubble perm kind of frieze.
Speaker 1: He paired his hair do with extravagant jerseys and huge
Speaker 1: puffed up sleeves. Colorful, I guess would be the best
Speaker 1: way to describe a flamboyant electric colors on his shirt,
Speaker 1: flying hair down to his down to his shoulders, the mustache.
Speaker 1: He was only five nine, which is really short for
Speaker 1: a goalie. He was also a larger than life character,
Speaker 1: and he inhabited that character with you know, just incredible, beautiful,
Speaker 1: arrogant in the way that he went about it. With
Speaker 1: the Eta regaining fitness at home, Columbia imploded in tried
Speaker 1: to down there for you. That's course, Papa, I'm the
Speaker 1: own goal. I'm the United States reached Columbia scored an
Speaker 1: owned goal, and was later murdered back in Midian a
Speaker 1: tragic story for another episode. At the time, Columbia was
Speaker 1: mired deep in cartel violence. If you know of theta,
Speaker 1: it's for something he did. After that, he gave the
Speaker 1: world a different view of Columbia. Wembley Stadium, England versus Columbia.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen anything black in your life from
Speaker 1: a cokeeper? But it was terrible, terrible friendly. Remember well,
Speaker 1: I really really touched stuff night. Neither of the teams
Speaker 1: we're really looking for a goal. And it kind of
Speaker 1: goes back to what I was saying before about heat
Speaker 1: just all my seeming board of football bord of being
Speaker 1: a goalkeeper at times. So he decided to make the
Speaker 1: game noteworthy on his on It was a misplaced cross
Speaker 1: come shop from Jamie red Nap just flighted into his direction.
Speaker 1: He that could easily have catched it, but he decided
Speaker 1: to show the world his scorpion kick. It was incredible. Basically,
Speaker 1: he jumped forward into a handstand and kicked the ball
Speaker 1: with his heels while upside down. The world had never
Speaker 1: seen anything like it, which spawns millions of copycats. Everyone
Speaker 1: wanted to do the scorpion kick on the playground. I
Speaker 1: think even a friend of mine managed to dislocate his
Speaker 1: shoulder because he tried it. So I think there was
Speaker 1: probably a lot of emergency rooms in England at that
Speaker 1: time for kids and pediatricians that weren't very happy with
Speaker 1: the guitar. He says it quote put Columbia on the map. Definitely.
Speaker 1: He gave a lot of people well to talk about
Speaker 1: after that Scorpion kid because Columbia hadn't had a good
Speaker 1: World Cup the year before, so that was really the
Speaker 1: narrative behind Columbia. Then the Gate comes along and and
Speaker 1: just changes the story. You know, He's it's the country
Speaker 1: that invented the schoolping kick. It's one of the most
Speaker 1: iconic soccer highlights of all time. Your grandma has seen it.
Speaker 1: That lived off the fame of the scorpion kick for
Speaker 1: the rest of his career. He recreated it in an
Speaker 1: ad for Frutino, a drink sort of like kool Aid.
Speaker 1: Most of his fifty one career goals came towards the
Speaker 1: end of his playing days, when he signed for lower
Speaker 1: league clubs, largely as a publicity stunt. In two thousand four,
Speaker 1: he tested positive for cocaine, entered rehab, and didn't play
Speaker 1: again for three years. In that time, he had plastic
Speaker 1: surgery on a reality TV show They Tell Lies, his
Speaker 1: nose job, his chin implant, skin Peel Island trim, and liposuction.
Speaker 1: He had been voted Columbia's ugliest icon. He said quote,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of being ugly, Rena. I want to be handsome. Really.
Speaker 1: Afterward he announced that body wise he was perfect. He
Speaker 1: played off and on until he was forty four, retiring
Speaker 1: in two thousand and ten from a second division team
Speaker 1: in Colombian coffee Country. But let's get back to World
Speaker 1: Cup for a moment. It was the lowest scoring a
Speaker 1: World Cup in history and something had to be done,
Speaker 1: so FIFA came up with a new law to help
Speaker 1: keep the game moving, the back pass rule. It was
Speaker 1: a way just to spade up the game. FIFA knew
Speaker 1: that football wasn't a bit of trouble and the back
Speaker 1: pass was a huge part of that because you could
Speaker 1: waste minutes and minutes on end by giving the ball,
Speaker 1: you know, back to the keeper. It was just a
Speaker 1: very very ugly, unpleasant tactic that calls the back pass rule.
Speaker 1: I does law. After the rule change, goalkeepers now are
Speaker 1: expected to do things that Iata pioneered the goalkeepers heads
Speaker 1: to play better with our feet, and their role changed
Speaker 1: and they became more involved in building the play from behind.
Speaker 1: More about what happened next after the break with the
Speaker 1: Ether absent for World Cup ninety four, the first World
Speaker 1: Cup after the back pass rule was implemented, the role
Speaker 1: of fluorescent flamboyant goalkeeper felt at the diminutive Mexican campus.
Speaker 1: And to just say, this guy campus come out with
Speaker 1: this technical color goalkeeper shirt and just looking so supremely
Speaker 1: confident because he always seemed to have this look on
Speaker 1: this west side. Yeah, I know what I'm doing. The
Speaker 1: whole tel is just gonna follow me and it's uh
Speaker 1: and it's going to be fine. We obviously just thought
Speaker 1: it was hilarious that this guy was coming out in
Speaker 1: a pink and yellow show drawn in a group with
Speaker 1: boring Ireland and Italy. Mexican go was a breath of
Speaker 1: fresh air, and that minty fresh breath came in the
Speaker 1: form of their goalkeeper, Jorge Campos, sparkled as Mexico beat
Speaker 1: Ireland and drew with eventual finalists Italy. You know, in
Speaker 1: the knockout rounds, Mexico came up against Bulgaria, each team
Speaker 1: had a player sent off. In one of the wildest
Speaker 1: games of the tournament, it went to penalties. Campos saved
Speaker 1: the first, but his teammates managed to miss three in
Speaker 1: a row and Mexico crashed house shame put by compos
Speaker 1: FIFA listed him as the world's third best goalkeeper before
Speaker 1: that World Cup. Two years later, Nike featured him in
Speaker 1: their epic Good Versus Evil ad along with all of
Speaker 1: the best players in the world, Eric Cantada, Luis Figo,
Speaker 1: Ronaldo and Paolo Maldi. He was one of my favorite
Speaker 1: goalkeepers because he was very very short. I mean he
Speaker 1: was the shortest player of the Mexican team and his
Speaker 1: magnificent colorful outfits, and he also loved to dribble. Looks
Speaker 1: like a guita. But he was shorter than low Miss.
Speaker 1: You know that. It's incredible. Campus is listed at five
Speaker 1: ft six, though he disputes that he used to stand
Speaker 1: on top of a soccer ball in the back row
Speaker 1: of team photos just to appear taller. So just how
Speaker 1: tall was he? I mean he would maybe come up
Speaker 1: to my nipple. Alexei Lalas played against him many times
Speaker 1: over the years, probably and then maybe a little a
Speaker 1: little taller with um the hair because at that point,
Speaker 1: you know, back then he was really poofing it out
Speaker 1: and you know, having it high. So yeah, he got
Speaker 1: a couple of extra inches with the hair there. So
Speaker 1: not diminutive, I would say, but but certainly not imposing
Speaker 1: in terms of his actual height, personality and color and
Speaker 1: all that. Now that's a whole another story. Campos was
Speaker 1: a surfer, horseback rider, and sometimes goalkeeper from a beach
Speaker 1: resort town on the Pacific coast of Mexico, where Campos
Speaker 1: grew up on a ranch and spent every weekend in
Speaker 1: the waves. He was say a special character as well.
Speaker 1: You know, he came from Acapulco. Soften is the most
Speaker 1: popular spot, and he was brilliant sofa. The sand taught
Speaker 1: me endurance and reflexes, he said. Surfing taught me balance
Speaker 1: and elasticity. It also taught him fearlessness. He said that
Speaker 1: there was more pressure surfing than in soccer. When you
Speaker 1: go surfing, you do have to watch out for sharks,
Speaker 1: after all, like Ghita. All throughout his youth career, compos
Speaker 1: played as a forward. In fact, in his debut season
Speaker 1: in Mexico with Booms. He found his progress to the
Speaker 1: first team blocked by an established veteran keeper, so Compos
Speaker 1: asked to play as a striker, and he managed to
Speaker 1: score fourteen goals, a team high by He was the
Speaker 1: starting goalkeeper for both Bomas and Mexico. He won the
Speaker 1: Mexican League that year. He spent the majority of his
Speaker 1: career in goal, but certainly not all of it. He
Speaker 1: famously played both goalkeeper and striker in some games. The
Speaker 1: first was for Atlante, his next club. His team was
Speaker 1: trailing to Cruizassul, so the coach subbed on the backup
Speaker 1: goalkeeper and moved Compos into the attack. He scored the
Speaker 1: equalizer his best goal, dustier kick, after launching himself through
Speaker 1: the air. Throughout his career, Compos alternated between wearing the
Speaker 1: number one and the number nine. One in goal, he'd
Speaker 1: wear an outfield jersey underneath his goldie shirt just in case.
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about those jerseys. If you know of Compos,
Speaker 1: it's because of the uniform. Compos designed them himself, many
Speaker 1: and homage to surfer gear in his hometown. They were
Speaker 1: Neon da Gelos, psychedelic colored things with a three quarter
Speaker 1: sleeve and huge armholes. You're aesthetic and the way that
Speaker 1: you looked, and for lack of a better word, your
Speaker 1: costume that you wore was important. And he certainly recognized
Speaker 1: that he was playing a part, and therefore the costume
Speaker 1: that he put on was as important as actually, you know,
Speaker 1: the lines that he that he gave and the and
Speaker 1: the performance that he gave. This wasn't just something that
Speaker 1: he pulled off the top of his head. It was
Speaker 1: comfortable for him, but it was strategic, and he understood entertainment.
Speaker 1: He understood performance, He understood the stage. He understood the
Speaker 1: connection between the audience and the stage and that character
Speaker 1: that you were playing, and he, you know, he went
Speaker 1: about cultivating. Compos was so tied to this image that
Speaker 1: it nearly cost him a spot in the World Cup.
Speaker 1: You see, Compos produced his own jerseys. When the Mexican
Speaker 1: Federation made a deal with Umbro to supply their uniforms,
Speaker 1: Compos refused to wear them. After a standoff, they reached
Speaker 1: a compromise. Compos kept designing and producing his own jerseys,
Speaker 1: but he would sew the Umbro label on them. Off
Speaker 1: the field, he wore sandals and shorts. He inhaled Haganda's
Speaker 1: ice cream. Everything about him was unorthodox, especially his style
Speaker 1: of play. He would frequently dribble the ball deep into
Speaker 1: the opposition half with fearless nonchalance. Sometimes he doesn't get
Speaker 1: enough credit for, you know, really being ahead of his time,
Speaker 1: fearless when it came to how he played. And I
Speaker 1: think in today's game, where we put so much emphasis
Speaker 1: on playing out of the back and the ability for
Speaker 1: a goalkeeper to be good with their feet, some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that defenders and goalkeepers do in today's game
Speaker 1: we would never be caught dead doing. And yet Jorge
Speaker 1: Kampos was doing that and more at a time when
Speaker 1: it wasn't cool or de jure to to kind of
Speaker 1: do it. So he was a man ahead of his time.
Speaker 1: Compos seemed to revel in the risk he'd make a
Speaker 1: save and launched straight up the field. World Cup winning
Speaker 1: Argentine coach says he called him quote a prototype of
Speaker 1: the twenty one century goalkeeper. Remember this is the nineties.
Speaker 1: Goalkeepers are just now figuring out how to deal with
Speaker 1: the ball without picking it up. But what people forget
Speaker 1: is once a keeper picks up the ball, you know
Speaker 1: he's either going to punt it and then comes or
Speaker 1: he's going to roll it out to somebody. Compos chose
Speaker 1: a third option. We know, it's soccer where it's very
Speaker 1: difficult to score, and so more often than not it
Speaker 1: ends up with, you know, being in the goalkeeper's hands.
Speaker 1: But in that moment when everybody kind of turns around
Speaker 1: and adjusts, the goalkeeper actually has the best view of
Speaker 1: what is going on. Jorge compos would recognize and then
Speaker 1: go about exploiting both the sheer numbers and the practical
Speaker 1: overflow of numbers. In that half, it was starting a
Speaker 1: counter attack. So it was it was feeding off of
Speaker 1: a number of things, the confusion, the lapse in mentality
Speaker 1: that normally happens uh, and then the novelty of it.
Speaker 1: Compos won Gold Cups with Mexico. Alexei grimly recalls the
Speaker 1: ninety three Gold Cup final when his USA team got
Speaker 1: thrashed four nil. Particular loss in the Gold Cup final.
Speaker 1: You know, I was young. I think that was my
Speaker 1: first time playing in a steca and so just the
Speaker 1: awe of playing in a s teca and then we
Speaker 1: got ours kicked. I mean that's a game where Horkae
Speaker 1: just sat in the back, uh, And you know, smoked
Speaker 1: a cigarette and drank a coffee, basically because we didn't
Speaker 1: We certainly weren't doing anything to challenge him up there,
Speaker 1: and we didn't see that, you know, that that marauding
Speaker 1: type of ork because it wasn't necessary, and he was smart.
Speaker 1: He recognized when it was necessary and when it when
Speaker 1: it wasn't. In Major League Soccer made Compost its first
Speaker 1: international signing. His face was everywhere TV, commercials, magazines, on
Speaker 1: a mural in Hollywood and Vine. His signing bonus was
Speaker 1: a new Ferrari. Compost would play doubleheaders Mexico then Galaxy
Speaker 1: appearances back to back in the same day in the
Speaker 1: same stadium, or he'd play a game in the Mexican League,
Speaker 1: jump on a plane and play an MLS twenty four
Speaker 1: hours later. Fans on either side of the border adored him.
Speaker 1: He was seemingly always moving through a throng of autograph seekers.
Speaker 1: The signing was a huge hit. Eventually, Compost was traded
Speaker 1: to the Chicago Fire, a new team. In season, he
Speaker 1: alternated time with Zach Thornton, a six ft three two
Speaker 1: pound American whose father was a tight end for the
Speaker 1: University of Kentucky. For the playoffs, coach Bob Bradley went
Speaker 1: with Thornton. Compos left the country to play for Bumas
Speaker 1: and never returned to MLS. Thornton and the Fire won
Speaker 1: the MLS Cup. That will do it a new champion
Speaker 1: from Major Rack Soccer their expansion Fire. They throw the
Speaker 1: champion the Fire roll Spree. That same year, Compos in
Speaker 1: Mexico again exited in the round of sixteen in the
Speaker 1: World Cup Germany in front fair half, getting the better
Speaker 1: of Laura I'm camp Bos could do nothing again. The
Speaker 1: squad became known as the Ya So Close generation. Overall,
Speaker 1: he made a hundred and twenty nine appearances for Mexico,
Speaker 1: three of them as a striker, and was their biggest
Speaker 1: star at the time. He was definitely one of their
Speaker 1: He was ahead of his time as far as personal
Speaker 1: branding and playing out of the back. But how good
Speaker 1: was he really? To be honest, Hardy Compost was an
Speaker 1: undersized goalkeeper who was technical and like a lot of
Speaker 1: players you know, played a different position as well, and
Speaker 1: sometimes enjoyed playing that other position. But it was fundamentally
Speaker 1: I thought a gimmick and I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: the character that they play. It never overshadowed their ability,
Speaker 1: so there was never a question as to whether they
Speaker 1: were good soccer players. As a matter of fact, you
Speaker 1: can you can argue that they were great soccer players,
Speaker 1: but this other part of them, in my view and
Speaker 1: my eyes, only made them greater than what they were.
Speaker 1: Or as Campos put it, quote, if you look good,
Speaker 1: you feel good, and if you feel good, you play good.
Speaker 1: More about what happened next after the break. Campos scored
Speaker 1: over thirty goals in his career, but next in the
Speaker 1: line of local Latin American goalkeepers surpassed them both. That's right,
Speaker 1: Luis Felix. He was a behemoth six ft two and
Speaker 1: over two hundred pounds, and Chilla Verte is another character entirely.
Speaker 1: I think when it came to, uh, you know, stopping
Speaker 1: gods on a one on one, there weren't many people
Speaker 1: better because he would just come out at you and
Speaker 1: put that huge frame right in front and it wasn't
Speaker 1: easy to pay him from there. She was frightening goalkeeper
Speaker 1: with a bulldog shot, who loves to take a penalties
Speaker 1: and three kicks, didn't really play outside of his box.
Speaker 1: He scored well over sixty goals in his career. He's
Speaker 1: the first goalkeeper to score a hat trick. His first
Speaker 1: goal for Paraguay came deep in stoppage time against Colombia.
Speaker 1: Our Paliita was in gold. They shared a warm hug afterward.
Speaker 1: L Once scored from his own half. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen the one he scored for from
Speaker 1: a half white line. Just an absolutely brilliant effort. Vella
Speaker 1: has got a completely innocuous free kick just behind the
Speaker 1: half white line. No one could ever imagine anything was
Speaker 1: going to come from it. Chilliver comes charging up from
Speaker 1: his goal and almost about breaking stride. Let's rip and
Speaker 1: the bull flies miles up in the air and falls
Speaker 1: just inside the river net. He caught the river keeper
Speaker 1: that day completely off guard. Um and it's one that
Speaker 1: always shows up even now on our clip shows. She
Speaker 1: LeVert started taking free kicks early in his career as
Speaker 1: a novelty, and then practice hours, hours and hours after training,
Speaker 1: taking eighty to a hundred and twenty free kicks a
Speaker 1: day until quote, they gave me the job for real.
Speaker 1: In his career, Levet won league titles in Paraguay, Argentina
Speaker 1: and Uruguay. He won a league cup in France. FIFA
Speaker 1: named him the best goalkeeper in the world three times
Speaker 1: in the late nineties, but he was arguably at his
Speaker 1: best while on Villas had its field. In his decade there,
Speaker 1: she won four league titles in the Internationally, Chile took
Speaker 1: Paraguay into the knockout rounds of the World Cup twice,
Speaker 1: further than the small nation had ever gone before. Just
Speaker 1: water that iv in Chilivert. He had a busy day
Speaker 1: and did chilver real lion for Paraguay. He got into
Speaker 1: the World Cup for the first time they in years
Speaker 1: and years and years, and it's just established himself as
Speaker 1: a as a national hero. As he done less. France
Speaker 1: knocked him out in on the way to the title
Speaker 1: with the first golden Golden World Cup history. So focused
Speaker 1: by Chilbert. This baul to flex pampa defender as you'll
Speaker 1: see here, can use his quick footwork and a full
Speaker 1: extention shut you see here to deflect the ball wide.
Speaker 1: One of many tings and eventual finalists. Germany knocked him
Speaker 1: out with the late goal in two thousand and two, Louisville,
Speaker 1: that's the winner, show me with two minutes to go.
Speaker 1: Loisville has quot Germany a culture Finals she have. Its
Speaker 1: aim was to become the first goalkeeper to score in
Speaker 1: a World Cup, and he came pretty close. Finally, Luis
Speaker 1: Chilliver and they're standing in very parts of the stadium
Speaker 1: now in anticipation of this. Here's the shot. Say everything
Speaker 1: about Chilver was larger than life. Brazil coach Felipisco lad
Speaker 1: he said he was loaded down with four fat Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was just a bulldog essentially, as he used to
Speaker 1: wear on his chest for Velis. He was just such
Speaker 1: an intimidating figure, such a huge, huge man to have
Speaker 1: behind you. They sold bulldog ch levered t shirts. The
Speaker 1: Paraguayan Football League once held the competition to find the
Speaker 1: bulldog that looked most like the one on the jersey.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know how he got it. I mean,
Speaker 1: the logical answer would be that he looks quite a
Speaker 1: lot like a bulldog. He's this huge guy in massive shoulders,
Speaker 1: stout neck and big heads. I definitely the physical similarities
Speaker 1: of that, and the bulldog just snowed out of his jersey.
Speaker 1: I think the best way I could describe it would
Speaker 1: be Spike from Tom and Jerry, but even more medicine.
Speaker 1: It was definitely in a as we said with Vigita,
Speaker 1: he knew what his image was, then he loved to
Speaker 1: play up to it. Let it said. I created an
Speaker 1: image for me with this face. It was much easier
Speaker 1: to play the bad guy. He certainly had the rap
Speaker 1: sheet to back it up. He punched Faustino Asparilla in
Speaker 1: the nose in a World Cup qualifier. He also picked
Speaker 1: up four suspended jail sentences in his life, one for
Speaker 1: hitting a ball boy, one for attacking a physio, one
Speaker 1: for forging documents in a contract dispute, and one in
Speaker 1: a defamation lawsuit. He called the South American Football Confederation
Speaker 1: president corrupt. His hardheadedness also came across and his resolute morals.
Speaker 1: He insisted that the Paraguay players donate a portion of
Speaker 1: the World Cup bonuses to the staff, and he boycotted
Speaker 1: Medica because he thought the money used to host it
Speaker 1: would be better spent feeding the children. Hold a big
Speaker 1: copa America America title. She loved it was a very
Speaker 1: different type of player than Agita and campus he didn't
Speaker 1: dribble out of the box. Besides his set piece goals.
Speaker 1: She his contributions to the attack came in the form
Speaker 1: of the South Americans called the big kick. He could
Speaker 1: pick out teammates with long punts. Already a decade after
Speaker 1: the back pass rule, the role was changing. So that's
Speaker 1: what we saw, you know, starting with about in the
Speaker 1: nine four World Cup, the guy and did stop to
Speaker 1: become more ripen. There was a little bit of an
Speaker 1: ive lap I think with keepers, you know, taking time
Speaker 1: to learn these new skills that they needed, why as
Speaker 1: a result of not being able to pick up the
Speaker 1: ball so much. But once they got there, it definitely
Speaker 1: changed a game and and it started moving a bit
Speaker 1: more quickly Nowadays, Manuel Noyer, Huge, Larie Edison and Allison
Speaker 1: could all probably play in midfield. What do you believe
Speaker 1: it said the goal keeper has saved you know, football
Speaker 1: as a guy in which is always avoved. Teams have
Speaker 1: more to gain from the goalkeeper pushing up to join
Speaker 1: the other ten than they have to lose from the
Speaker 1: times when a goalie gets caught on the ball and
Speaker 1: turns it over. That position has evolved. There were times
Speaker 1: where that player wasn't being used to effect and was
Speaker 1: just kind of sitting back there and waiting to save
Speaker 1: the ball, as opposed to adding an additional player that
Speaker 1: if he or she is good enough with their feet,
Speaker 1: can actually act as you know, that sweeper or that
Speaker 1: last line of defense, or that more importantly, the first
Speaker 1: line of offense coming out of the back. And so
Speaker 1: I think it, while we didn't put a name to
Speaker 1: it and we didn't necessarily think about it in those
Speaker 1: ways that we do now, that was what was happening.
Speaker 1: And I think you need, ultimately goalkeepers who are able
Speaker 1: to envision themselves as being more than just shot stoppers,
Speaker 1: and more than just your traditional person in and there,
Speaker 1: and and that by no way means that shot stopping
Speaker 1: and saving the ball shouldn't be your priority, but you
Speaker 1: can do so much more. The goalkeeper is a little
Speaker 1: less lonesome now. It took a few men of questionable
Speaker 1: sanity and the global rule change, but the modern goalkeeper
Speaker 1: has finally joined the pack. The Best Soccer Podcast in
Speaker 1: the World is a production of Exiled Content Studios in
Speaker 1: partnership with My Hearts Michael Podcast Network, and is hosted
Speaker 1: by me Nandolvilla, produced by Ana and zach Lee Rigg,
Speaker 1: written by Zach Lee Rigg, Production assistance by Stella Emmett.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Isaac Lee, Rose Reed and myself
Speaker 1: named Avila. Our executive producers at I Heart are Gasel
Speaker 1: Bancees and ar Lean Santana. Sound designed by Uglo Mendoza
Speaker 1: are Awesome. Theme song is by lu j Special thanks
Speaker 1: to all the voices who participated in this episode Daniel Edwards,
Speaker 1: Alexei Lawless, Michael Jakin, Gabrielle mar Kodi, and James Richardson.
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