Post by QPR Report on Oct 3, 2009 6:41:37 GMT
Total fun for de Vries as he puts Rangers horror out of his mind
Oct 3 2009 by Chris Wathan, Western Mail
SWANSEA CITY goalkeeper Dorus de Vries insists he will always be fearless with the football after hearing his passing come in for praise this week.
But, as he prepares to face Queens Park Rangers today, the big Dutchman admitted he’s lucky his bravery off the ball is still intact after the horror injury suffered against the Hoops last year.
De Vries was left hospitalised following a nasty collision with Rangers midfielder Martin Rowlands in the 0-0 Liberty Stadium stalemate 12 months ago.
A broken jaw, a depressed cheekbone and the need of a protective mask were all the result of a refusal to back out of a challenge for the ball. The sight of de Vries carried off motionless on a stretcher immediately revoked memories of the sickening clash between Petr Cech and Stephen Hunt two years earlier that left the Chelsea keeper with severe head injuries.
Cech still wears a head guard to this day, with many pundits quick to claim he’s not the same stopper he once was.
“It’s happened to many goalkeepers,” said the 28-year-old former Dutch youth international.
“I was lucky not be concussed but you do see it because as a goalkeeper you can’t be afraid and after horrible injuries like Cech’s it can be a mental thing.
“And I’ll be honest and say it did concern me. But I was lucky to have the Inaki Bergara, the goalkeeping coach at the time, to pull me through.
“I was straight into surgery and actually back on the training field two days later. But the important thing was that Inaki didn’t waste any time with me, talking me through things and making sure it didn’t affect me.
“Basically he told me I’d suffered the worst thing that can happen to a goalkeeper on the field – and that I had come through it.
“You have to be really strong in those situations and in the end it proved good for my development that I came through it.
“And when it came to that next one-v-one I had no fear – it wasn’t even in my mind. There was nothing different for me.”
Still de Vries admits he was fortunate things were not worse following a night he says he will never forget.
Yet there is unlikely to be any grudge when he meets Rowlands for the first time since the injury, the Hoops skipper absent when Swansea lost at Loftus Road in March.
Instead de Vries is more concerned with keeping up the kind of form that has seen him collect five Championship clean sheets so far, arguably performing better than he has done since arriving in South Wales in 2007.
Yet the former Den Haag and Dunfermline man insists he will not take all the plaudits for the shut-outs under new manager Paulo Sousa.
But talk to him about his distribution, as Doncaster manager Sean O’Driscoll did in midweek, and his eyes light up.
Describing Swansea’s talent in keeping the ball, O’Driscoll reckons de Vries’ passing ability is a perfect illustration of the side’s strengths, claiming: “The stats for him are just amazing.
“You look at that last game against Sheffield United and his passing stats are better than any outfield player. You try and close down a centre-back if they play from the back and he’ll ping it to the full-back.
“If you try and close down the centre-backs and full-backs he’ll chip it over to the wide right player. He is a cut above anything in this division in the way he plays. He’s taken goalkeeping to a new level.”
For de Vries, a man from the land of “total football”, such recognition is heaven sent.
“It’s brilliant to hear that kind of thing,” said de Vries, who admitted he was an outfield player until his mid-teens and only took up life between the sticks when he reluctantly went along to a goalkeeping contest and won the national finals.
“I’ve always been proud of that side of my game. That’s why Roberto Martinez first brought me in because I have that to my game.
“I work on my distribution every day because I can help set up counter-attacks with the right pass. And I am comfortable with that because I used to play as a centre-half – it means I’ve only gone back one line in the formation so I’m OK with through balls or even headers!
“It’s a Dutch thing, total football where the idea is that the goalkeeper is almost a sweeper.
“Johan Cruyff was big on it where the goalkeeper was the 11th outfield player and it was just as much about keeping possession as anything else.
“Five clean sheets is a good record but it’s not the most satisfying thing I get from games.
“Sometimes you can make one or two good saves but you’re not really involved. A clean sheet is about the back four or five, the whole team because everyone has to play their part.”
Darren Pratley is itching for a first start following his successful substitute comeback in midweek and his return would soften the blow should Andrea Orlandi (thigh), Leon Britton (toe) or Cedric van der Gun (thigh) fail to come through fitness tests. Britton is the more likely of the trio to make it with Jordi Lopez back from suspension to face his ex-team-mates, as is Nathan Dyer who has also served his ban for the sending off against Sheffield United last week.
And at last Sousa looks like having a selection headache in attack with Stephen Dobbie fit for a start after coming back from a rib injury at Doncaster.
www.walesonline.co.uk/footballnation/swansea-city-fc/2009/10/03/total-fun-for-de-vries-as-he-puts-rangers-horror-out-of-his-mind-91466-24840684/
