Van Der Sar

40 today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzxTIPc6aCw&feature=related

Not quite in Schmeichels league (who is) but nowhere near as big a #@&%!head.

Top, top red.

Originally Posted by Sloppy

YouTube - Champions League 2008 Final - Manchester United vs Chelsea (Penalty) [HQ]

I will always be greatful for his saveing, Anelka's pen along with various other saves in other competions

Originally Posted by Pop

Not quite in Schmeichels league (who is) but nowhere near as big a #@&%!head.

Top, top red.

Very well put, Pop

Goalkeepers had been a big problem for us ever since Schmikes left. VDS brought back the stability.

Going to be a job replacing him.

I think he may do a few more seasons....

Great player, look at the state of his trophy count...

Club

Ajax

Eredivisie (4): 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98
KNVB Cup (3): 1992–93, 1997–98, 1998–99
Dutch Super Cup (3): 1993, 1994, 1995
UEFA Champions League (1): 1994–95
UEFA Cup (1): 1992
UEFA Super Cup (1): 1995
Intercontinental Cup (1): 1995

Juventus

UEFA Intertoto Cup (1): 1999

Fulham

UEFA Intertoto Cup (1): 2002

Manchester United

Premier League (3): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09
League Cup (1): 2005–06
FA Community Shield (3): 2007, 2008, 2010
UEFA Champions League (1): 2007–08
FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2008

Individual

Best European Goalkeeper (2): 1995, 2009
Dutch Football Goalkeeper of the Year (4): 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997
Dutch Golden Shoe (1): 1998
PFA Premier League Team of the Year (2): 2006–07, 2008–09
UEFA Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament
Barclays Merit Award (1): 2008–09
Barclays Golden Glove (1): 2008–09
UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year (2): 1995, 2009
Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau: 5 June 2010

Playing for Ajax, Juve & United as well 130 caps for Holland, £#%&!ing immense.

Will rightly be regarded as one of the great modern day 'keepers.

My absolute favourite thing about him is how low key he is, very few "Holywood" saves, catches when he should, punches when he should, kicks well & generally isn't flying through the air with a £#%&!ing feather bower & shades on for the camera's when a cursory step to the side & straight forward catch will do.

Top Red, top man.

Superb, with the exception of that cross against West Brom :shakehead:

Makes goalkeeping look easy. Gets nowhere near the credit he deserves. I hope he plays for us until he's 45.

Originally Posted by Bunker Buster

I think he may do a few more seasons....

hope so, don't see any reason why he can't

Originally Posted by dunk

Superb, with the exception of that cross against West Brom :shakehead:

Makes goalkeeping look easy. Gets nowhere near the credit he deserves. I hope he plays for us until he's 45.

Exactly, very very steady. Apart from Schmikes can't think of to many better the last 20 years.

Wish he'd signed in 99

Originally Posted by Firswood Red

Exactly, very very steady. Apart from Schmikes can't think of to many better the last 20 years.

Wish he'd signed in 99

He'd have been long gone. Probably after a year, two at the most.

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Great player, look at the state of his trophy count...



Playing for Ajax, Juve & United as well 130 caps for Holland, £#%&!ing immense.

The three shite years at Juve will count against him in the greatness stakes I'm afraid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wkBAsJLoz4

Originally Posted by dodger

The three shite years at Juve will count against him in the greatness stakes I'm afraid.

He wasn't that bad at Juve. Made a few mistakes, yes, but we'd have persevered with him, Schmeichel was no stranger to dropping a %@#$&! after all, and there is £#%&! all chance we would've parted with £33m for Buffon.

Originally Posted by dunk

He wasn't that bad at Juve. Made a few mistakes, yes, but we'd have persevered with him, Schmeichel was no stranger to dropping a %@#$&! after all, and there is £#%&! all chance we would've parted with £33m for Buffon.

He was poor to say the least, for Holland too - let seven in during one game and had a mare. He would have got £#%&!ing slated.
Nobody wanted him in 2002 which is why he ended up at Fulham, for about 2 milliion quid, when he was only 32. The feeling was that he'd lost it, as keepers do. We weren't interested and we had £#%&!ing Barthez bouncing around for us at the time.

Ed's been great for us but to re-write a very dodgy period for him and lay claim to have been the best of his generation is a little over-generous.

Originally Posted by dodger

He was poor to say the least, for Holland too - let seven in during one game and had a mare. He would have got £#%&!ing slated.
Nobody wanted him in 2002 which is why he ended up at Fulham, for about 2 milliion quid, when he was only 32. The feeling was that he'd lost it, as keepers do. We weren't interested and we had £#%&!ing Barthez bouncing around for us at the time.

Ed's been great for us but to re-write a very dodgy period for him and lay claim to have been the best of his generation is a little over-generous.

Ended up at Fulham for £7m. It was a last minute thing as well, as Juve had bought Buffon, and Al Fayed was busy making statements, I think they were paying him extremely well too.

As far as I'm concerned, shit for Juventus and great for United makes him more rather than less great.

nice piece on him in the gradiunm yesterday - doesn't get enough love does pob

It is the kind of age where, for some men, the only form of participation sport that is left is hunting for their spectacles. Edwin van der Sar has been a "veteran" for longer than he probably cares to remember but it is probably a measure of the man that, when he turns 40 tomorrow, we are still no closer to knowing for certain when he intends to hang up those gloves.

A few weeks ago Eric Steele, Manchester United's goalkeeping coach, told the Manchester Evening News he thought Van der Sar had already decided he would retire at the end of the current season. It didn't feel quite right and the following day Van der Sar issued a clarification through United's website, saying he had no idea where the headlines had originated (clue: he's the guy chucking balls at you most mornings).

What can be said with certainty is that Sir Alex Ferguson has already started looking at bringing one, possibly two goalkeepers, into the club. David de Gea, of Atlético Madrid, has been watched. Anders Lindegaard, the Danish international, is another possibility, but finding a goalkeeper for a club of United's size and ambition is not easy, as Ferguson knows from bitter experience.

"There are certain criteria to be a goalkeeper here: good experience, personality and a track record," Ferguson says. "Edwin has all of those qualities. He didn't cost us a lot of money, about £2m, so he's right up there with my best signings. I just wish we had signed him earlier, to be honest."

Ferguson's hope is that Van der Sar, the ninth man to play at the age of 40 since the Premier League's formation (seven of them goalkeepers), will delay his retirement by another season. After five years of working with him, United's manager now openly talks about the Dutchman, the most capped Holland international in history, being the equal to Peter Schmeichel as one of the two most supreme goalkeepers in the club's history.

Yet the two are very different in their style. Schmeichel was a brute to get the ball past, whereas Van der Sar operates by the theory that goalkeepers make great saves only as the last resort. His talent is about controlling the penalty area, understanding the angles, when to leave his line, the right commands for the defence. Joop Hiele, Van der Sar's former keeping coach, once explained why he had played so long at the top: "Goalkeeping is registering the situation, recognising it and finding the solution. The more often you do it, the easier it gets."

Van der Sar has perfected the art to the point there was genuine disbelief when the man they know as "Ice Rabbit" in the Netherlands on account of his temperament spilled a routine cross to let in Somen Tchoyi for the softest of goals for West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford two weekends ago. "Here's a lad with 130 caps for Holland, the most fantastic career you could imagine," Ferguson later reflected. "You couldn't even criticise him because he doesn't deserve that. He'll probably make one horrendous mistake in his life."

Otherwise, Van der Sar's story at Old Trafford has been a demonstration of long, calm assurance, incorporating two Champions League finals, three league titles and a place in the record books for not conceding a league goal during 1,311 minutes of play over a three-month period in the 2008-09 season.

"I just think he's so suited to Manchester United," Michael Owen, the United striker, says of the oldest post-war player in the club's history (though still some way short of Billy Meredith, who was 46 years and 281 days when he played his last game in 1921). "The way he is with his feet, for example – the way he never panics when he is kicking. You might not notice it but you can't underestimate how much that helps the team. "He'll play the ball out to his full-back and get it back and there might be no pass on with somebody charging him down. But he won't panic. Some goalkeepers are so scared of making a mistake they will just whack it, but not Edwin. Edwin sets off everything for us."

The oddity is that Van der Sar somehow remains a largely unsung hero, as if we have grown so accustomed to him doing his job we are guilty sometimes of taking it for granted. Think of the 2008 Champions League and what is the first thing that comes into your mind? The abiding image is of John Terry's penalty miss. But it was Van der Sar who was Uefa's man-of-the-match in Moscow that night and his save from Nicolas Anelka won the game. Look closely at the video and you will see he is smiling before the ball even hits his hands.

Golden oldies

If Edwin van der Sar plays against Tottenham on Saturday, he will become only the ninth player, and first non-Brit, to appear in the Premier League in his forties. Six of the previous eight have been goalkeepers

John Burridge Manchester City 43 years 162 days
Alec Chamberlain Watford 42y 327d
Steve Ogrizovic Coventry 42y 237y
Neville Southall Bradford 41y 178d
Kevin Poole Bolton 41y 164d
Teddy Sheringham West Ham United 40y 272d
David Seaman Man City 40y 113d
Gordon Strachan Coventry 40y 83d

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...in-van-der-sar

grrrr...

Ben Foster's 13 years his junior & still can't fly like Edwin can at 40...

Originally Posted by Baron_van_Marlon

Ben Foster's 13 years his junior & still can't fly like Edwin can at 40...

he can't jump never mind fly

has dropped far far less %@#$&!s than schmeichel did at united.

the main criticism of VDS at United is maybe on FKs but even on that schmeichel was at least as bad - Rivaldo, Basler, Schuster was it (At Madrid) etc