Goalkeeping Coach and Protégés Safe-Guarding Kitch

As one of the leading clubs in Hong Kong football, Kitchee has always enjoyed the luxury of having a safe pair of hands in goal, no matter who the goalkeeper might be. While the club might have enjoyed various degrees of success in domestic and regional football over the past few seasons, Kitchee still went out and brought in Roberto Sambade as its new goalkeeping coach midway last season. Judging by the improved performances of Kitchee’s goalkeepers in the past twelve months, it looks like the club has once again got the right man for the right job. Sambade arrived from Spain a year ago and admitted he was pleasantly surprised about the team’s goalkeeping talent when he first joined the coaching staff. “It has been almost a year now since I joined the club. I am very pleased with how things have worked out and it is a pleasure to be working with the club’s goalkeepers. Hopefully, they have all enjoyed my coaching sessions and realize how much they have improved over the past year,” said the thirty-one year-old. “The truth is, I did not know much about Kitchee’s goalkeeping situation before I arrived in Hong Kong. It was not until I physically joined the club that I realized how much talent we had between the sticks. It was only a lack of proper goalkeeper training that stalled the growth and progression of the keepers in the club.” Sambade’s elder brother Jose was with Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna for over a decade and is currently the first team goalkeeping coach for Turkish side Besiktas, possessing a well-earned reputation in European football. The younger Sambade grew up idolizing his elder brother and had long been in a great position to pick up fine goalkeeping knowledge, which he put into good use by analyzing the current Kitchee goalkeeping talent. “(Wang Zhen) Peng is a very experienced goalkeeper and has all the physical attributes of a fine modern day keeper. (Guo Jian) Qiao is also a quality stopper who trains very hard and gives his all in every single session. Young (Chan) Ka-ho has enormous potential and looks like a pretty good prospect. I am very happy to be able to work with such a fine group of goalkeepers in Kitchee every day and to be honest, they have certainly made my work easier,” said the likeable Sambade. Sambade tries his best to turn daily grueling training session into something that is fun for his protégés. The results are there to be seen, especially with Wang Zhenpeng and Guo Jianqiao both making great strides over the past year. The Kitchee goalkeeping coach certainly takes great pride in his students’ performances and believes they are the best goalkeeping duo in the Hong Kong Premier League. “Without a doubt, the tandem of Peng and Qiao is the best in the Hong Kong Premier League. Peng has long been a Hong Kong international while Qiao certainly has what it takes to be a number one in other premier league clubs. Maybe some other clubs might have a standout first-choice keeper but there always seems to be a drop-off when it comes to the backup. In European football or world football, if you have two stoppers who can play the game and take on responsibilities, it is certainly a great asset to have when it comes to competing for titles,” said Sambade. A goalkeeper playing in the Spanish forth-tier back in his playing days, Sambade fully understands that only one goalkeeper can play on any given match and competition for a starting position can often be fierce. Yet the Spaniard is glad that the Kitchee goalkeepers are consummate professionals when it comes to internal competition. “We all know only one keeper can start every game but Peng and Guo both possess great working relationship with one another. Maybe they will be a bit disappointed in not starting the game but they will never take any negative energy to training the next day, be down nor slack off in training,” said the former goalkeeping coach in the Deportivo La Coruna youth system. “From my perspective, all I can do is to try my very best to offer them quality training, so that they will be ready for it when the coach calls on their name. Actually, if you look at last season, Pang played most of the premier league games while Qiao started in most of the cup competitions, indicating that the coaching staff has been trying hard to find playing them for both of them.” Armed with a wide knowledge in coaching goalkeepers, Sambade went on to outline some of the important traits for a successful shot-stopper. “As we all know, goalkeeper is a special position and one small mistake will see the ball end up in the net. Therefore while top-notch goalkeeping skill is a must for all premier keepers, superb mental skill is also something that is equally important,” explained Sambade. “During Kitchee’s daily training. I require my goalkeepers to do more than just stopping the ball and making saves. In fact, I will incorporate some mental exercises into the session in order to enhance their quick-thinking and judgement, so that when certain situation arises during ninety minutes, they will be able to handle with ease.” Besides working with the Kitchee first team keepers on a daily basis, Sambade also teams up with an unlikely partner, to put the club’s academy keepers through their paces regularly. “I was chatting with Qiao one day and he asked me whether he could come in and do some coaching with the young keepers during his spare time, so that he can prepare for life after his playing career. Working with a highly-skilled and experienced goalkeeper will make the training for the youngsters more substantial, hence I took him up on that,” the Spaniard revealed. “From what I have seen so far, there are five to six youngsters in the Kitchee system who have the potential to make it in professional football. If they decide to pursue a career in football and continue to train with us, I am confident that some of them will make it to the Kitchee first team.” Goalkeeper, as always, will remain as arguably one of the most important positions in football. And with the dedicated Roberto Sambade returning for a new season with Kitchee, the sky seems to be the limit for all goalkeepers in Kitchee colors.