Martín Parra –Huachipato’s ball-playing goalkeeper
Martín Parra has been with Huachipato since he was 7-years-old managing the peaks and troughs of a young player as at Under 15 level, he was not registered for the U15 Championship as the young goalkeeper thought of ending his fledgling career before his family encouraged him to continue with his career. By the time he turned 18, he was training with the Huachipato first team as he supported the club as before becoming a player, he was the club’s mascot while he would cry after losses with the guards in the stadium. The 22-year-old has experienced two loans in 2022 as he has gained first-team opportunities, showing potential but also showing the need to improve at the fundamentals of goalkeeping to fulfil his early promise.
Parra has played 13 games for Universidad San Martin and Universidad de Chile in 2022, conceding 35 goals as he is lacking with some of the essentials to develop into a reliable presence in goal. In those 13 games, there have been some early shoots of potential as while he was with Universidad San Martin, he had a 0.6 expected assist number in the early part of the season as his expected assists metrics were better than some of the U23 attacking players in the league despite him being a goalkeeper. He also was a leader in long passes as he has a mastery of distributing possession accurately in shorter and longer passing sequences while he is undeterred in playing penetrative passes under pressure. He plays to make his grandfather proud as he was his grandfather’s only male grandson as his grandfather would cry when Parra showed him his training photos. His grandfather passed away on December 25th of 2020 after complications with coronavirus.
Parra has had an eventful few months with Universidad de Chile as he nearly lost his hearing when a firecracker exploded in front of him at the beginning of a Copa Chile match against Universidad de Catolica. He was stretchered off and immediately taken to a hospital as he faced serious trauma to ears which caused him to lose his sense of hearing for a short space of time. Thankfully, the 22-year-old managed to return rather quickly as he is a ball-playing goalkeeper with potential but will need to improve on the finer aspects of goalkeeping. He conceded 10 goals in his last three games while he only had three clean sheets in the last year while he conceded two goals or more in 11 of 13 games which ranks at 85% of his games in 2022. Despite Universidad San Martin finishing bottom of the Peruvian Primera Division, their results improved after the Chilean goalkeeper was benched.
Parra struggles with parrying shots to safety were an issue as he would consistently parry shots into the path of an attacker to have an opportunity from a rebound, he struggled to save shots with the proper body shape which is one of the reasons he struggled with parrying shots or getting his body or a strong hand to shots. When possession is being held in the wide areas, Parra is moves to close to his near post as if the ball is switched to the opposite post, he has to scamper before getting down to the ball which makes saves more difficult as he needs to improve his positioning. Parra has a massive six-foot-one frame as he can get down to shots with ease, he is quick off his line and can make saves from 1v1s as the youngster needs some improvement with his goalkeeping. He can claim aerial balls with command and confidence but in Peru, there were sometimes where he struggled with this part of his game. The 22-year-old needs some intensive goalkeeping coaching to add a more reliable shot-stopping repertoire to his ability with his feet.
At home to Atletico Grau for Universidad San Martin, he received possession with a striker pushing up to close down his passing lane to his left-sided centre-back while his right-sided centre-back was marked as Parra calmly evaded pressure with a one-touch pass to the six-space for the deepest-lying midfielder to drop into space and receive the ball. For his second pass, the ball was played to him by his deepest-lying midfielder as his midfielder and both centre-backs were marked for the 22-year-old to evade pressure with a calm one-touch penetrative pass for a midfielder in the eight space. In another situation, the ball was played for him to work an accurate switch to the right flank before he played a one-touch lobbed pass to right flank as Parra has a mastery of playing the penetrative short pass was well as the longer intermediate pass to the wide areas.
However, his issues with goalkeeping would rear their ugly head as the ball was played to the right flank as Parra was positioned too close to his near post, leaving a large gap across the rest of his goal. A ball was crossed into the box as he scampered to catch the cross but ended up parrying the ball into the path of an opposition player who headed the ball into an empty net. It was a major error for a goalkeeper to make but it is not the last time that he would make such an error or more scarily, make an error that would directly lead to a goal as if he was positioned closer to the centre of his goal, he could have taken a better angle to make the catch above the opposition attacker’s head or drawn contact to draw a foul. Some of the minute issues with his goalkeeping have led to major goal conceding situations. In a goal-kick situation, he traded passes with his left-sided centre-back to push the ball forward, attracting pressure and playing a lobbed pass to the left-back. The 22-year-old received a back-pass from Axel Moyano in the six-space to work a pass to the right-back as he can play the ball to the fullbacks which is an important pass for goalkeepers to play in evading pressure.
Despite his faults as a goalkeeper, due to his size and ability to get to ground quickly as well as his quick reflexes, Parra is a very good 1v1 goalkeeper as after a centre-back was beaten, the 22-year-old quickly moved off his line and smothered a shot from a tight angle. Parra then received possession at the top of his own box to lob a direct pass for a teammate in the 9 space before Parra showed his quickness in covering space off his line when he ran of his line to hold a through ball and deny an opposition attacker an opportunity on goal. He received possession once more to drive the ball forward and play a superb line-breaking pass to the eight space before he received possession outside of his box to work a pass to Moyano in the six-space who switched the ball. The young goalkeeper received possession while being pressured by the opposition striker to lob a switch pass to an attacker on the right flank. The ball was played to him as he moved further out of his box, positioning himself near the halfway line to receive possession and lob a pass to the nine-space. In the build-up phase, he received possession outside of his box once more to lob a pass to a runner in the left channel.
Parra is accurate in rolling penetrative line-breaking passes in the build-up phase while he can also play the ball longer with accurate lobbed passes in the air. At home to the Sport Boys Association, he was positioned perfectly to rise and claim a cross in a congested box before lofting an accurate pass to the nine-space to start a counter-attack. He received possession in the build-up phase to drive the ball out of his box, switching a pass to the right flank for the winger to work a pass for a teammate to drive into the box. The 22-year-old saved a shot from an angle on the left flank before as he pushed the ball towards a teammate who slipped for an attacker to have a shot blocked from a rebound as Parra saved a third opportunity and dove on the ball. He made a mistake from a long throw-in, rushing out of goal as he was nowhere near the ball as he was lucky that the ball was bundled away from goal.
Parra lobbed an accurate long goal-kick to the nine-space before making a catch from a delivery to his mid-riff before lobbing a pass for Carlos Arroyo to make a run in behind. The 22-year-old’s vision and ability to hoof accurate passes to teammates to instigate attacking moves is one of the reasons that his ball-playing shines brightly statistically. For every good thing he does with his feet, he has a heart stopping moment with his hands as he misjudged the angle of a ball into the box, misjudging it as he was caught under the ball as he had to dive on the ball in an incident which could have led to a penalty. Away to his parent club, Huachipato for Universidad de Chile, instead of rushing out his box, he held his ground, focused on his positioning and set his feet for a 1v1 as the attacker placed a shot towards the far post for the 22-year-old to make a fantastic save. Parra is comfortable with the ball at his feet as he entices pressure at some points as he received possession, waiting and engaging a striker pushing up to press him before taking a touch and playing the ball to a teammate.
Parra conceded the second goal of the game when he saved a shot from his left as he was positioned too close to his near post, parrying the ball towards a striker who weaved past him and scored. With Parra’s ability to get to the ground quickly, he should not position himself so close to the near post as he can move closer to the centre and get to ground to save shots. Being positioned so close to the near post forced him to parry the ball into the striker as his angling on the save was wrong as if he was diving from a more central angle, he could have tipped the ball around the near post for a corner. He will also need to improve on getting his body behind saves as initial shot was so tame that with a better body shape, he could have held the ball if he got his chest and body behind the save. One of his centre-backs lost possession, allowing his attacker to surge through on goal as the attacker attempted to dribble past him for Parra to heroically get to ground as he palmed the ball into path of another attacker who slotted home. Parra tends to parry balls into the central spaces as he needs to focus on parrying balls wider as he is very good at saving shots from angles as parrying the ball wider, gives goalkeepers the opportunity to recover and make a second save.
With the ball at his feet, Parra lobbed a long pass into the left channel for a teammate to receive possession as he received possession, holding the ball and playing a sideways pass to his right sided centre-back before he received possession once more to take a touch and evade the first wave of the opposition press with a line-breaking pass into the midfield line. He received possession to work a pass to his left back before he conceded the fourth goal, positioning himself too close to his near post once more as he got down and could not put his body behind a shot which rolled under his body. Parra’s positioning as a goalkeeper affects his ability to get his body behind shots as he tends to concede a few goals from shots that he should be saving. With his feet, he received possession to play a one-touch pass to instigate a build-up move before he made a save, getting down to save a shot, parrying the ball wider where he could recover and hold the ball. This save showed that with good positioning and parrying, Parra could be a more effective goalkeeper as he had an attacker in front of him and parried the ball wider to deny the opposition an opportunity from a rebound.
In another situation, Parra moved too close to the near post when the ball was switched to his right, a cross was played across the face of goal as an opposition attacker had the opportunity to tap into an empty net for the fifth goal but hammered the ball over. When Parra is positioning himself too close to his near post, he is not taking up good angles to save shots while he is not covering the width of his goal as he would have given himself a better opportunity to cover the shot at the back-post if he positioned himself closer to the centre. He constantly has to scamper across goal when a ball is played to the back-post. At the end of the Chilean Primera Division season, Parra would have a terrible performance against Cobresal, suffering with the same issues that have plagued him in previous games. The 22-year-old parried a shot into the path of a striker for a goal that was conceded before he played a one-touch pass to a centre-back to evade pressure.
Parra started the game by lobbing switch passes to his left-back before grabbing a ball in the air to launch a counter-attack with a long pass. He continued to position himself too close to his near post as he was rarely prepared for shots to the far post. With the ball at his feet he worked passing combinations with his centre-backs before playing direct passes to his defensive midfielder before he received possession under pressure, allowing the ball to roll to his weaker left foot before moving the ball to his right foot to play a direct pass to the six-space. In a crossing situation, he had a similar situation to the Huachipato game, moving too close to the near post for a crossing situation as the ball rolled across the face of goal as he was a tap-in away from being beaten for a goal. He showed promise in using his height to claim aerial balls while he did not have a solid body shape to hold a tame shot as he parried a shot for a corner. In another situation, eerily similar to a goal he conceded against Huachipato, he raced off his line to take up a good angle to save a 1v1 before a parrying a shot into an attacker who applied the finish from a rebound.
In another error that constantly plagues his game, Parra positioned himself too close to his near post in a crossing situation as he had to scamper to the back-post after a cross as he got a weak hand on a tame shot that he could not divert wide. It was his positioning at the near post and his inability to get his body behind saves that led to this goal-conceding error as the shot was directed straight at him, but he was unable to parry the shot wide. With his feet, he drove the ball forward, attracting pressure before playing a line-breaking pass to the six-space before he conceded his fourth goal of the game, diving for a delivery from a corner that he could not hold as the ball bobbled into the path of an opposition attacker who poked the opposition into the lead. Universidad de Chile went 1-0 down early before scoring three goals as they ended up losing 4-3 due to goalkeeping errors.
The concerning issue about Parra’s game is that at two clubs, the issues have remained the same without any improvement as a lot of the goalkeeper’s issues can be fixed with coaching. The 22-year-old is still in the early stages of his career and is in dire need of high-level goalkeeping coaching to fulfil his potential. He constantly moves too close to his near post in crossing situations which has created issues in both saving shots at the near post and saving shots at the back-post as altering his positioning could instigate an enhancement in his shot-stopping. The Chilean is quick off his line while being comfortable in saving 1v1s as he will need to be more effective in parrying his shots as this is also a major issue when he is on his line as with better parrying of his shots, especially in parrying his shots towards the wide areas instead of the central areas, a few of the goals that he has conceded could have been averted. With actually saving shots, getting his body behind shots to hold the ball while also being able to get stronger hands to shots would also help his game as there are many instances where the youngster could hold the ball.
One of the more concerning facets of his game is his ability to claim balls in the air as he will need to pick up good angles to move off his line and clam balls, especially holding them while in a more competitive league, he will need more strength to battle bigger defenders. Parra’s biggest asset is his ball-playing as he can distribute possession with long and short passes while being able to play on his first touch while also attracting pressure to play line-breaking passes. In modern-day football, it is commonplace for goalkeepers to be as good with their feet as they are with their hands as if he begins to fix his issues, he also has immense potential in saving 1v1 situations and from tight angles as he could develop into a high-line goalkeeper. He will need coaching to improve with the essential fundamentals of being a goalkeeper.
A European move could be the best move for his career as being a back-up or playing at a lower level would allow him to fix his issues. Parra could be an intriguing option for City Group, especially for their Lommel SK NV affiliate as he could get improved coaching for a team that plays in the Belgian Second Division as that affiliate of clubs could harness a player with his unique skillset. A move to Midtylland where he could be their second or third choice goalkeeper would be intriguing as he would get improved coaching as he could also be a back-up and develop at a club like Bologna, Sassuolo, Atalanta while a move to a Serie B team like Parma would also help him, especially with Gianluigi Buffon being at the club. Any team with a B Team which would allow him to gain coaching and experience with less pressure as playing with Jong Ajax for a few years could be pivotal for him. Parra is in need of coaching as the same issues persist with him from game-to-game as he has immense potential and needs to ensure that his goalkeeping career does not stall.
