Have you heard of Ignacio Palacios Huerta, a professor from the London School of Economics? No you haven’t. He is all set to make a million. And that is just for starters courtesy the World Cup. Iggy (might as well become his buddy) has done 20 years of research on penalty taking and goalkeeper isolation and analyzed 11,000 top of the line kicks to create his book of thoughts. Now, it’s hitting the stands in a big way.

No one really bothered all these years because goalkeepers were just guys in different colored clothes standing in front of a net, at best a hopefully lucky individual placed there as a sort of last minute and relatively weak Custer’s last stand. While tomes were written on forward and strikers and the collective defense, the goalie usually got stick or a faint footnote of praise for leaping in the right direction.

Thanks to the extremely adept performances in Brazil by these agile custodians there is a whole new realization that goalkeepers count for more than just prancing about in the mouth. Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa, the US’ Tim Howard, Germany’s Manuel Neuer, Belgium’s Thibot Courtois, Algeria’s Rais M’Bohli and Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama have changed the equation and brought goalkeeping into the realm of an art and science.

Howard’s 17 saves in the match against Belgium are now more than legendary in the States. Everyone fell in love with Ochoa when he charmed the ball away in most matches but memorably against the Netherlands. Julio Cesar will probably lead the carnival after blocking the first two spot kicks against Chile to ensure the hosts were not dumped out of their own house. Then again, what could he do in the semis against a rampaging Germany, no time to even start his calculations. Neuer is presently considered the top seed on the global goalkeeping ladder. Short circuiting penalty corners is now truly central to victory.

The new romantics of soccer, these heroes are now on the verge of becoming the media’s darlings. Chicken soup psychology books are just a start. This is deep Deepak Chopra territory. There is in the heat of the finals (as you read this you know the last two teams) a whole new approach to goalkeeping...these guys are capable of ‘winning’ a game or ‘losing’ it.

One of the most popular write ups being used to give the goalkeeper’s an edge for July 13th is authored by Andy Elleray, an English coach and goalkeeping consultant who made his reputation holding conferences on the subject on a regular basis. According to him, it is all predicated to performance analysis, biomechanics, coaching and psychology.

Psychologists are pouring out of the woodwork after a media blitz has created a universal belief that goalkeepers in 2014 have upped the excitement that would have, otherwise, been missing in the tournament.

We are a step away from kinesics, an exercise used by alphabet spook agencies to interpret in microseconds the decision the ‘subject of interest’ has taken and to react accordingly to block its conclusion.

In this case it is being employed to read, digest and come up with a response especially if it comes down to spot kicks. For example, even though Neymar is out of the game, his tippy toe approach to the ball supposedly guarantees he cannot hit the left of the goalkeeper’s side. By the same token Netherland’s Tim Krul engages in a deep study of his rivals and their kicking proclivities though the cruel penalty kicks came into lay to stop that campaign.

Argument; however much they might conceal it, everyone, including soccer strikers, leaves a paper trail. Ask any policeman, he will confirm it.

Now, while this is all awesome news for goalkeepers who have been left holding the short straw for far too long, what are at risk are reflex, spontaneity and plain common sense. In those split seconds instinct surely trumps all the planning and the psycho-babble and reading the flinch in the eye.

One of the possible moves that could be considered is to give the goalkeeper a uniform much closer to the team so he does not suffer from isolation and the power of the team spirit. Seriously, they are talking about it.

There is an element of concern that programmed goalkeepers could flatter to deceive. As is usual with any novelty, the high level of goalkeeping has unleashed its own little gremlins. What we might get is genius strapped down by call to process data and, perish this thought, indecision at the crucial moment of decision.