Chris Woods

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Chris Woods
Austria vs. USA 2013-11-19 (064) .jpg
Chris Woods as goalkeeping coach of the 2013 US selection
Personnel
Surname Christopher Charles Eric Woods
birthday November 14, 1959
place of birth Swineshead , Lincolnshire ,  England
position goalkeeper
Juniors
Years station
1975-1976 Nottingham Forest
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1976-1979 Nottingham Forest 0 (0)
1979-1981 Queens Park Rangers 63 (0)
1981-1986 Norwich City 216 (0)
1986-1991 Glasgow Rangers 173 (0)
1991-1996 Sheffield Wednesday 107 (0)
1995 →  Reading FC  (loan) 5 (0)
1996 Colorado Rapids 23 (0)
1996 →  Southampton FC  (loan) 4 (0)
1997 Sunderland FC 0 (0)
1997-1998 Burnley FC 12 (0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1985-1993 England 43 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Christopher Charles Eric "Chris" Woods (born November 14, 1959 in Swineshead , Lincolnshire , England ) is a former English football goalkeeper . He was part of the English national team between 1985 and 1993 and for many years was only a substitute for Peter Shilton . After he said goodbye to the goal after the World Cup in 1990 at the age of 40, Woods was promoted to "number 1" by coach Graham Taylor .

Athletic career

Nottingham Forest

The connection with Peter Shilton began early on in Chris Woods' goalkeeping career. The young goalkeeping talent signed his first professional contract with Nottingham Forest in 1976, but should not stand in a first-team championship game between the posts within the next three years. Above all, Shilton, whom Forest had committed in September 1977 after rising from the Second Division , proved to be an inviolable competitor. Nottingham Forest finally won in the 1977/78 season surprisingly as a newcomer to the English championship and Shilton missed it - at the expense of Chris Woods - not a game.

The agile and self-confidence radiating Woods received his stakes in the League Cup , as Shilton had already played in this competition for his predecessor club Stoke City in the early stages of the season and was thus locked there ("cup-tied"). Forest even made it to the league cup final and faced Liverpool FC at Wembley Stadium . With a good performance Woods secured the goalless draw in this game and also in the replay at Old Trafford he did not concede - after a penalty from John Robertson , Forest, trained by Brian Clough , won 1-0 and thus won the League Cup.

Despite these good performances, Shilton, who was now entitled to play again, should also compete in the League Cup in the following 1978/79 season . Forest defended the league cup - but now without Woods - and also moved into the final of the European Cup , in which the team dueled with the Swedish representative Malmö FF in Munich . Woods had to watch the 1-0 victory of his team from the bench, but received at least the winner's medal afterwards .

Queens Park Rangers

In the summer of 1979, the Queens Park Rangers offered £ 250,000 for Woods, who was not even 20 years old and had also not been able to prove his skills in a league game. The young goalkeeper became a regular in the second division and completed almost two seasons before he moved to Norwich City in East Anglia in March 1981 for a transfer fee of £ 225,000 .

Norwich City

At Norwich City Woods finally achieved the final breakthrough into the elite of the English goalkeeping team. The greatest success was after the first division ascent in 1982, the renewed participation in the League Cup final in 1985 and the subsequent 1-0 win over Sunderland at Wembley Stadium (a possible goal against a penalty by Clive Walker prevented the left post). Although the club had to go into the second division at the end of the 1984/85 season , Woods succeeded in his last season for the "Canaries" with the second division championship of direct promotion.

During this time Woods became the England international. He then held his first nomination for the upcoming North American tour in the 1984/85 season from England coach Bobby Robson and came on June 16, 1985 in Los Angeles against the United States for his first international match - but he was in the English selection in the following five years again in the shadow of Peter Shilton and was "number 2" at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico .

The performance of Chris Woods during his time at Norwich City had left such an impression there that he was inducted into the club's " Hall of Fame " in 2002.

Glasgow Rangers

After the World Cup finals, Woods left Norwich for £ 600,000 for the Glasgow Rangers and, like Terry Butcher, was part of a larger-scale purchase from the new Rangers coach Graeme Souness , who from then on increasingly relied on English players. Woods won the Scottish Championship and the League Cup in his first season in 1986/87 and set a British record between November 1986 and January 1987 with 1,196 minutes without conceding a goal.

While playing for the Rangers, Woods came on November 12, 1986 in the important European Championship qualifier against Yugoslavia for his fifth appearance - the second international game from the start - and won there 2-0 at Wembley. In addition to two other substitutions against Northern Ireland and Spain , there were other starting appearances against Turkey (European Championship qualification), in Hampden Park against Scotland (0-0 in the Rous Cup ), and against Israel ; Woods also played in two preparatory games shortly before the European Championship finals in Germany .

With the Rangers Woods had previously been able to defend the League Cup in the 1987/88 season, but in the more important competitions the titles were reserved for local rivals Celtic Glasgow that year . Here, the Rangers goalkeeper was in an Old Firm -Duell after a dispute with Celtic striker Frank McAvennie a field reference and had to following along with his teammates Terry Butcher and Graham Roberts next McAvennie even responsible court - and was shared with Butcher as Polluter also punished.

When the English selection started with two defeats at the European Championships in 1988, the third group game was already meaningless and so Robson called Woods for Shilton in the last game against the Soviet Union . This was his first appearance in a final tournament, which, however, in his thirteenth international match, could not prevent the 1: 3 defeat and thus the yield of zero points from three games.

While the Rangers were able to win the Scottish Championship again in 1989, Woods was absent for almost half of the season due to an ear infection that permanently disturbed his sense of balance. In the English national team, David Seaman of the Queens Park Rangers had another rival in the fight for the successor to the aging 100-time national player Shilton and made his debut in Riyadh in a draw against Saudi Arabia . In addition, Dave Beasant developed another alternative to the position of England goalkeeper, who eventually went to Italy for the 1990 World Cup as England's third goalkeeper (Seaman was originally nominated, but suffered a thumb injury after his arrival). Still, Robson saw Woods as Shilton's immediate substitute.

Before the finals in Italy Woods had won another Scottish championship with the Rangers, but did not get into the games of England, which led to the semi-finals. When the semi-finals against Germany threatened to result in a penalty shootout, Robson briefly considered replacing Shilton, which would not have worked in favor of Woods, as only Dave Beasant was considered a better "penalty killer". Ultimately, however, Robson rejected this option. Also in the game for third place Robson stuck to Shilton and got him his 125th and final international appearance. After the tournament, Robson resigned as England coach and passed the reins to Graham Taylor , who immediately promoted Woods to "number 1".

One last Scottish championship won Woods with the Rangers in 1991, with coach Walter Smith , however, due to a UEFA rule which in the case of Rangers maximum prescribed three non-Scottish team players in European club competition, for a change on the goalkeeper position in favor of the Scots Andy Goram from Hibernian Edinburgh ruled. The Rangers career of the now 24-time England national player, who was also a regular in the qualifying games for the 1992 European Championship , came to an end.

Sheffield Wednesday

In August 1991, Sheffield Wednesday offered Woods £ 1.2 million and the Rangers accepted the offer. Wednesday had just won the league cup, had also been promoted to the First Division and ended a six-year absence from the English elite class. In the English selection, he went to the European Championship in Sweden as a regular goalkeeper and remained clean in the first two games. However, since both games could not be won, the team needed a win in the last encounter against the hosts. However, the game was lost with 1: 2 and so ended the first final tournament as a regular for Woods with a disappointing premature out.

For the time being, Woods was also in the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup in the United States between the posts, but in which they lost an important game against Norway in Oslo . When the team finally lost to the hosts on June 9, 1993 during a summer tour in the USA in Boston , the sports management experimented with two other alternatives in the goalkeeping position and then decided on David Seaman as the new England international goalkeeper. Woods should never again be in the goal of the English selection after 43 caps.

His club career in Hillsborough turned out to be disappointing. The league cup final in 1993 Wednesday lost 2-1 to Arsenal and the two teams faced each other in the FA Cup final. The first game ended in a 1-1 draw and the replay was level with 1-1 goals until the 119th minute before an Andy Linighan header marked the decisive goal for Arsenal, which Woods was not to blame for. Ironically, both Linighan and Woods were former Norwich City players and that Arsenal FC win should mean Norwich City, rather than Sheffield Wednesday, was allowed to compete in European club competition the following season.

End of active career

In 1996 Woods was no longer the first choice in Sheffield and was briefly loaned to Reading FC before moving to the United States for the Colorado Rapids . From there he was loaned to Southampton FC , which was now coached by Souness, with the prospect of a final transfer - as a substitute behind Dave Beasant. This did not materialize, however, because Woods broke his leg in a game at Blackburn Rovers and returned to the USA to regenerate.

Before his final resignation, he played two more times in England and was there briefly with Sunderland FC and Burnley FC .

Coaching career

Chris Woods became the goalkeeping coach of Everton FC on July 1, 1998 , who was then coached by his former Rangers coach Walter Smith. He then kept this role under the new coach David Moyes .

Since 2011 he has also been in charge of the US national soccer team as a goalkeeping coach . This was because the national goalkeeper Tim Howard played at Everton and was already looked after by Woods.

On July 1, Woods joined Manchester United with Moyes . When Moyes was fired, Woods was the only one left on the United coaching staff. However, he left the club on May 13, 2014.

successes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "BBC Sport - Ask Albert - Number 53"

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Woods, Chris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woods, Christopher Charles Eric (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English football goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Swineshead , Lincolnshire , England