PHOTO GALLERY: Soccer Community Comes Together To #DefendTheKeeper

Penalty kicks are a goalkeeper’s worst nightmare.

You’re stuck on the goal line, alone, facing your opponent, and all you can do is go side to side and hope for one of two things: that the shooter misses, or that you read the shooter correctly and make the save.

Your teammates are there, but all they can do is watch and pray. You take a deep breath and nod to let the referee know you’re ready. And then you wait for the whistle.

Some goalkeepers learn tricks for reading the situation, but even the best goalkeepers get beaten.

But when you do read it right and make that save? Best feeling in the world. Like hitting a game-winning home run or intercepting a pass for a touchdown.

So when the shooters lined up to take penalty shots on the goalkeepers Saturday at the #DefendTheKeeper Challenge at the Wall Soccer Club complex, it turned into a celebration of what goalkeepers can do -- flying through the air to grab the ball, snagging errant shots and watching some sail wide. Yes, plenty of shots went in -- that happens more often than any goalkeeper would like (once is too many, they will tell you) -- but every save stirred a rousing cheer and applause.

And right in the middle of it all, watching, was Michael Oehlmann. The former all-America goalkeeper from Rowan University smiled as he watched the shots, and listened to the crowd of players dressed in lime green and their parents and friends.

“It was overwhelming,” he said later, as the day was winding down. “I knew they were working on something but I had no idea it was this big.”

“They” were Tracy Connellan and her 15-year-old son, Jake. It was Jake’s idea to put together the 5-on-5 tournament to raise money to support Oehlmann, a New Jersey State Trooper who is battling lymphoma that was diagnosed in September.

And the day was exactly what Jake wanted -- a show of support for his longtime friend and mentor that focused on fun, not on cancer.

It brought people from far and wide, with teams taking on names like the E-Lime-inators and the Keepers Creepers. The New York Red Bulls lent support, as did several local businesses. Rachel Breton from Sky Blue played in the adult games and signed autographs.

“I’m used to giving. It’s hard to receive,” Oehlmann said. But the support, he said, from Tracy and Jake to every person who participated, meant a great deal to him.

“It’s surreal,” Oehlmann said.

The hardest part for him, however, was watching.

“I wanted to be out there playing,” he said to a fellow State Trooper who had come to take part.

Soccer gets in your blood like that. Especially when you’re a keeper.

(Photos by Karen Wall)