Let's Remove the Potential Tag from Rene Adler

I’d like to talk this week about my man-crush, Rene Adler. Why is he my man-crush, you ask? Well, while the Bundesliga is my favorite league in the world, I have no team I support. It’s a liberating feeling because I can enjoy Bayern and Bremen or Schalke and BVB equally. Not so for the rest of the world, especially England. My one true club is Tottenham Hotspur and I can rarely enjoy an England match because of the subtext of said match in relation to Spurs. I am a nervous wreck about my club as I agonize more over losses and draws than I revel in victories. I go into this week’s Cup final with more misery than excitement. But such is my lot in life.

As a Spurs supporter and Bundesliga fanatic, there is one thing that stands out more than anything to me. My club’s lack of a goalkeeper and the plethora of great ones in Germany is a cruel juxtaposition; as I suffer a gaffe a game from my worthless pair of keepers, while I watch Adler, Neuer, Ulreich and Rensing make the future German #1 even more hairy than Löw’s choice between the old guard come this summer.

Of the young guns in the Bundesliga, Rene Adler is by far the most impressive and it is my fondest desire to see him manning the goal-mouth in North London. It will be my utter agony when he’s not and another bumbling Englishman leaks goals.

Watching the match-up between Karlsruhe and Bayer Leverkusen, I sat down to examine Rene Adler, to see if I am letting potential paint a better picture of Adler than is deserved. Is his ability now, enough to warrant consideration as a top notch goalie? I had come to believe that as with all youth, I was probably allowing his potential to be great to make him seem great prematurely: both enhancing outstanding plays and glossing over mistakes.

After his performance in Istanbul last week against Galatasaray, I felt that it was time to focus on him alone in a game. It just so happened that Leverkusen was playing a top six side this weekend, so I sat down to watch the upstarts and the re-emerging giants with full intent on finding the flaws of young Herr Adler.

There were none. His organization, communication, speed, strength, positioning, decision-making and bravery were all impeccable and together proved to be the complete package for a keeper. I came away from this game, with the realization that Rene Adler isn’t one for the future, he is one of the best goalies in Europe right now. And this was from a game where he conceded two goals.

What I have come to realize is that Bayer Leverkusen have a decent defense that is well organized. They do not have a great defense by any means. In fact, newly promoted Karlsruhe has much more talent in their back four than Michael Skibbe’s side. But what takes a well organized but unspectacular backline and turns it into the third stingiest in a very high-scoring league? The bookends of Simon Rolfes who plays as a holding mid in front of the back four and a keeper who makes the extraordinary common-occurrence.

Adler’s positioning is phenomenal. He had saves in the 54’ off Kennedy, 72’ off Franz and in the dying seconds of the game off the line that were due to his position in front of the net. In these cases he wasn’t required to move because he had set a sound base from which it was going to take the exceptional play to get the ball by him.

In the 60’, Fleiss did make the exceptional play. Left alone on the right channel, Freis curled the ball around Adler for KSC’s first goal, but Adler didn’t do anything wrong on this play. He guarded the near post cutting off the easy shot and forcing Fleiss to go around him with a shot that Adler still almost got a hand on.

It was an identical position (covering the near post) that had led to Adler’s second most impressive save of the game in the 8’ minute when Eichner, who tortured Sarpei the entire game, got free on the left and tried curl a shot around Adler. Adler was able to get down and get a hand on the low ball (that was bound for the back of the net) to parry it away. His quickness and agility are world-class.

What was the most impressive save, then? Well if you saw the game or highlights, you might think it was the 67’ save of a point-blank range shot that a free Hajnal made off a Freis flick-on. Adler charged the Hungarian playmaker, making his body an enormous obstacle, but Hajnal went low. Adler allowed his trailing leg to stay low and blocked the shot. It was perfect in every way. In light of Manuel Neuer’s allowing the exact same goal against Wolfsburg, it showed the difference between ability and potential, clearer than any accolades could possibly provide.

But that still wasn’t the most impressive save of the match. In the 40th minute, Hajnal was free just outside the box on the right with nobody in front of him. As usual Adler had a strong position, so Hajnal did the smart thing, he sent a screamer low across the goal mouth in an attempt to score on the far post. And he shot it so that the ball would bounce near Adler, which is always the most dangerous thing to do, because one never know how the ball will bounce. Adler dealt with the velocity, low trajectory and bounce by moving out to hand-save the ball before it could make contact with the turf. He eliminated the dangerous play by diving at an angle that an average or even decent keeper would never attempt. It was so sublime that it has found no mention in any game reports I doubt you even saw this one on the highlights, but it was worthy of comparisons to Cech, Buffon or Casillas. It showed intelligence and decision-making of the highest order..

It needs to be said that these were the highlight moments of the game. Karlsruhe dominated possession but was unable to get many shots in the game. Many of their through balls into the box found a Leverkusen defender, which is where the outstanding organization I mentioned earlier comes into play. But the goalkeeper is part of this organization, and such organization proves that Adler doesn’t detract from the back four (which is something Paul Robinson at Tottenham is guilty of).

Perhaps its time to remove the potential label associated with this young keeper. He’s beyond that now. Adler is the best goalkeeper in the Bundesliga and he is one big performance in a big away from stardom. I would contend that Joachim Löw could do worse than put his trust in Rene Adler this summer, let alone the future. And I feel that he will eventually become one of the most expensive goalkeepers in the world. Hint, hint Juande.