When someone is on a breakaway, coming straight at me and there’s no one between us, I sense that a big chance is coming up, a chance to prove that that’s the reason I’m out there, to stop a play like that. That’s pretty much the situation I live for.

I feel like I’m more on the offensive than defensive when the striker is coming at me, even if I am the goalkeeper. I try to dictate what he does. I try to play him into my hand by making him go to the side that I want him to go to. When I do this, I pretty much have him, I have the advantage.

While this is going on, I don’t want to think about or be telling myself what to do because that means my mind’s not focused on what I’m doing. I have to really concentrate on the situation. There’s nothing in my head except just focusing, not even the roar of the crowd. Afterward, maybe three or four seconds after I stop the ball or the ball is in the net, the noise of the crowd starts to come back into my head.

It’s total joy and exuberance when I block the kick. It’s everything that I’ve worked for, everything I predicted. I save the goal and possibly the game. I mean, it’s a breakaway and he’s supposed to score, plain and simple. So if I do my job and come up big, then my team has a good chance of winning.

If he scores against me, ugh. I feel like I could have done something different. I feel like I should have done something different. There aren’t many goals that go past me that I think, "Oh that was a good shot. He scored on me and hats off to him." It’s pretty much, "Had I done something a little different, I would of had it." It’s kind of a let down.

Once I’m scored on, I have just 20 seconds or so to think about it while the referee’s setting the ball up at midfield for the kickoff. Then, all of a sudden, I just block it out, because if I continue to think about the goal, chances are I’ll be scored on again.

Tim Liner is a goalkeeper for the San Jose Clash.