Understanding the X-block with Pascal Zuberbühler

FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) and Football Performance Insights team are identifying changes in the number of X-block saves performed at their competitions. The number of saves performed using this technique at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ increased by 100% when compared to FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. In this article, FIFA’s TSG Lead and Senior Goalkeeping Expert, Pascal Zuberbühler, explains this saving technique in more detail, suggests how coaches can help their goalkeepers perfect it, and recounts the technique’s sporting origins. The piece is based on an interview with Zuberbühler where he reviews the goalkeeping performances from the Club World Cup, which you can view below.

Zuberbühler, a former Switzerland number 1, explains that the X-block was not a common technique during his playing career, which spanned until 2011. Goalkeepers in futsal, however, have been performing a similar technique for years. The smaller goal mouths and pitch size, coupled with the game’s transitional nature, make the method an effective tool in a futsal goalkeeper’s repertoire for blocking shots.

In recent times, though, the X-block has spilled over from the court to develop into a key shot-stopping technique on the grass. Although the body shape adopted by the futsal and football keepers during the X-block is similar, the difference in goal sizes between the two sports means the way football goalkeepers use the block differs, notes Zuberbühler.

“In the 11-a-side game, the goal is far bigger, so the goalkeeper must come out and attack the oncoming opposition player when executing the X-block. In futsal, the goal the keeper has to defend is much smaller. This means, as a goalkeeper, to execute an effective X-block, you need to stay closer to your goal line to protect the smaller goal. But the attitude and behaviour goalkeepers need to demonstrate when executing this block is very similar.”

In football, coaches now formally train it with their keepers, and an X-block even features as one of the most iconic stops in World Cup history, when Argentina’s Emiliano Martínez pounced on Randal Kolo Muani’s shot in the 123rd minute of the 2022 final in Qatar to deny France victory. The football world has caught on to the explosiveness, extensive reach and the element of surprise the X-block provides goalkeepers, and has adopted it as a technique of its own.

Like most techniques, executing a strong X-block requires practice, explains Zuberbühler. Repetition helps the goalkeeper become more comfortable to jolt into the X-block position, with strong limbs and a head-on stance. Below, FIFA’s Senior Goalkeeping Expert walks through three of the save’s critical phases.

Phase 1: Judging six metres of distance 
For Zuberbühler, the first decision a goalkeeper must make before performing this technique is to decide whether the oncoming attacker is i.) through on goal and ii.) within six metres. “An X-block is about reading the situation well at the right moment with the right timing. Is it between one and six metres? Is it six metres and above?” states Zuberbühler. If the attacker is further than six metres away, performing the X-block is not necessary.

Commenting on the clip above, Zuberbühler explains “Before performing an X-block, you need to be clever. Here, you can see that it's a 12-metre distance. With 12 metres of distance, you as a goalkeeper don’t need to go into an X-block situation. There is a situation where you need to set your body well… here we have [Thibaut] Courtois, who does this very well. Once you’re set, you need to react to the shot on target.”

Phase 2: Timing the X-block 
As a goalkeeper, it is vital to execute the X-block just before the attacker takes his shot. However, if you deploy too soon, you lose your element of surprise, and the attacker can easily bypass you. If you deploy too late, the span of your X-block isn’t protecting the goalmouth, making it straightforward for the attacker to shoot on goal. 

“If you look at the clip above, you see Weverton. He reads the situation very well; the defenders are out, and in this moment, he needs to position his body to make the X-block before the attacker kicks the ball. Often, you see the goalkeepers are already fully in an X-block position before the ball gets kicked, which isn’t ideal.”

Phase 3: Adapting to the situation  
Attackers in the modern game often possess impressive speed and technique, which means they are elusive when 1v1 with a goalkeeper – even in the milliseconds after the goalkeeper performs an X-block. Zuberbühler stresses there are some instances where the goalkeeper needs to reconfigure their position after executing the stop.

“In the clip above, [Yassine] Bounou wants to come out and create an X-block situation, but he reads it very well that the player didn’t shoot and wants to go around him”, explains Zuberbühler.

Crucially, the Al Hilal goalkeeper has the hunger to adapt and improvise, “He keeps going with everything in his body – even with the wrong hand saving at the end, he showed us this hunger as a goalkeeper, ‘you will not beat me’. If a goalkeeper were to focus only on an X-block in this situation, he would be out [of the picture]. You have to think, you have to read, you have to smell what’s going on.”