JT Marcinkowski has seemingly secured the starting goalkeeper spot of the San Jose Earthquakes. His excellent footwork on both sides of the ball is one reason the Earthquakes are facing fewer shots on goal in his starts. Photo credit: ISI Photos / San Jose Earthquakes
If you, too, watched San Jose battle Seattle to a draw on Sunday you may not remember much from the match. There were few exciting moments, and perhaps none more exciting than these six seconds:
Jordan Morris skinned Florian Jungwirth pretty niftily, receiving a long pass from Nico Lodiero in his own half in the 81st minute and dummying it to himself to set up a breakaway.
What happened next was a masterclass in goalkeeping by the Earthquakes’ 23-year-old homegrown keeper, JT Marcinkowski. His footwork forced Morris to slow down and turned a 3-v-1 breakaway where Jordan Morris, Jordy Delem, and Will Bruin were all crashing down on Oswaldo Alanis into a 3-v-3 and a poor cross.
It’s worth taking a moment to break down that gif and see how it was done.
Right when Morris moves past Jungwirth’s desperation dive, he opens up his hips to give himself the widest array of options. Alanis is marking Bruin somewhat loosely – which is fine because, as we’ll see, Bruin is no Raul Ruidiaz – and Marcinkowski is at the top of the 6-yard box to shut down any immediate shooting angle. Alanis, Bruin, and JT are all waiting for Morris to make a decisive move while Delem and Tommy Thompson race to the penalty spot to provide/shut down Morris’ additional options.
Two steps later, Morris has made the decision to…not make a decision. Alanis has stepped up to Morris, forcing him to stay outside the near post. JT stepped back and towards the center of goal, to be better able to manage a cross to Bruin. Thompson is absolutely hauling it to beat Delem to a good shooting spot, and Judson is making a beeline to Morris’ right foot.
He doesn’t know it yet, but this is Jordan Morris’ best chance for a goal – to do a Shea Salinas curler to the far post. Bruin is holding up his run to the far post now that Alanis has peeled off him, and Delem doesn’t look likely to beat Thompson to the spot. Or, I suppose, Morris could put the ball on his left and try and beat JT near post now that the keeper has moved back…
Marcinkowski, much like everyone else who Morris has faced off against in his lifetime, is thrilled that the winger moved the ball to his off foot. Now that JT has suckered Morris into putting the ball on his left, he moves to cut off the angle.
JT doesn’t go straight at Morris but rather, in a concept that military history and/or mid-’90s Jeff Daniels enthusiasts may recognize, swings like a door. The keeper steps out to his own left and rushes Morris head on with his hips parallel to each other. This keeps Morris from being able to easily use the outside of his right to flip the ball across goal. Nor is he able to get a good shot with his left: JT is moving too quickly for a clean strike between his legs.
Another thing keeping Morris from that easy flip is the black-shirted blur that somewhat resembles Judson coming at the ball. Alanis stops at the six-yard box, which forces Bruin to slow his run in order to stay onside.
What was a 3-v-1 moments ago is now 2 defenders and the keeper surrounding a player with the ball on his off foot. Once Morris fell into the trap of going to his left, JT and Alanis closed the door on the Sounder, trapping him. The only real angle he has now is the far-post cross: Marcinkowski has taken the entire goalmouth away from him and there’s no time to curl one in now that two defenders are crashing in. Bruin misread Morris’ move to his left and is in no position to chase the cross. Thompson beat Delem to the spot.
A few seconds ago, Morris had several options to score. Now he’s stuck using the lowest-percentage one: an outside-of-the-right-foot pass to a frozen-in-place Will Bruin. The ball rolls out of bounds harmlessly, much to Delem’s anguish.
So much of defending in soccer is not making tackles or winning headers but simply forcing the opposing players into a series of bad decisions. Without touching the ball, Marcinkowski saves a goal here. He steps up to close down a shooting angle, then drops off to close down a cross. After this forces Morris to go left, Marcinkowski leads the snapping of a trap that forces a low-quality pass to a teammate who isn’t expecting it.
Marcinkowski is earning a ton of praise from his passing, and seriously – he has earned that praise. But these six or eight steps JT makes towards/away from/parallel to arguably the best goalscoring winger in MLS are brilliant. They save San Jose a point as well as provide the mental boost the team needed after collapsing against Seattle last time out. This sort of smart footwork is how a relatively small keeper can “play big” and shut down attacks.
Every moment after Morris gets past a prone Jungwirth, his potential to score a goal goes down. What started with three or four good chances to score ends up with one poor chance. This is not to turn our fan-noses up at the hard work Alanis, Judson, and Thompson do – their contributions are vital here. But without Marcinkowski putting them in a position to succeed and forcing Morris into positions to fail, it’s all for naught.
