Goalkeeper reflects on his years playing soccer

With 10 minutes left in the game against Mountain View last February, senior goalkeeper Edwin Chen was in a dire situation. Just moments earlier, one of his teammates received a red card inside the penalty box, and now it was up to him to stop the other team from scoring on a penalty shot from 12 yards away. Yet his attempt was fruitless as the other team went on to score the goal, increasing the lead to 2-0.

Due to disappointing moments like this last year, the Falcons finished with a 2-12 record and were pushed down to the lower El Camino League this year. Starting the ‘14-15 season, Chen has high hopes for improvement.

“Just seeing from practice, we have pretty talented players, so hopefully this year we will do much better and end up getting pushed back up the division,” Chen said.

Chen, however, has some worries about the team’s size in comparison to other league teams, such as Gunn and Wilcox. Like the year before, the team is physically smaller due to the four freshmen who were pulled up to varsity.  

Despite being one of the older members of the team who is in a position to instruct, Chen believes the role of goalkeeper is no more important than an offensive player.

“I am a leader in a sense, but you can't [just say] someone is a leader because I think everyone has to contribute equally on the field,” Chen said.

Chen first began to play soccer when he was in middle school. According to Chen, his middle school experience at The Harker School in San Jose opened up the world of goalkeeping to him.  

“Everyone wants to be the one who scores the goals, but as goalkeeper, it’s different,” Chen said. “It’s really like every shot that you block is scoring a goal for your team.”

Chen said he draws his inspiration from no athlete or role model. To him, soccer is a game played for the enjoyment.

For Chen,being a goalkeeper goes far beyond having fun and enjoying the position; it requires a mental strength and requires Chen to focus and not get caught up over one miss.

According to Chen, playing with your head in the clouds is the worst tendency for a goalkeeper, and being nervous isn’t far behind.

“You can’t worry about your reputation or what not. It only helps if you're living it in the moment and worrying about just that one save,” Chen said.

Chen describes it as blocking out all of your senses besides your sight on the ball. The only focus for a goalkeeper, in those crucial seconds between a save and a goal, is the ball and its position on the field.

Although people may believe the goalkeeper is at fault for letting the other team score, Chen said it is unwise to “worry about your reputation” because in those situations the entire team should be to blame.

According to Chen, there are 10 other players on the field to score and 10 to play defense. If the other team does score, it’s a collective loss, not just on the goalkeeper.

For example, a good illustration of this phenomena through Chen’s eyes would be the team’s overall sadness when the other team scores a goal. He states that after a goal is scored the team as a whole lets out a sigh of disappointment at their collective effort not only the effort of the goalkeeper.

Regardless of the pressure Chen is put under in his position, he recognizes that it is more about how he responds rather than what happens.

“My mentality is the same no matter what the circumstances are,” Chen said. “You should do the best you can because it doesn't matter what the result is.”