The Algarve Cup began Wednesday with six matches. The highlight was supposed to be Japan, a finalist in the last two World Cups, against the Netherlands, the reigning European champion. However, the match was hardly competitive, with the Leeuwinnen thoroughly dominating the match. The only notable aspect of the 6-2 rout was four miserable seconds from Japan goalkeeper Sakiko Ikeda.
Dutch goalie Mark Flekken is really into hydration. How else do you explain perhaps the worst goalkeeping error we’ve ever seen here at The18?
Flekken, who plays for MSV Duisburg in the Bundesliga 2, was caught in his own net grabbing a water bottle while FC Ingolstadt scored an equalizer. A teammate attempted to head the ball back to him to pick up, but Flekken was nowhere to be found.
Apparently, soccer comebacks are all the rage right now. Landon Donovan is back playing with León, Freddy Adu rediscovered his love for soccer with the Las Vegas Lights, Marco Reus is back scoring for Dortmund and now a Gianluigi Buffon Italy return appears imminent.
Goalkeepers are a peculiar folk. For all the glory field players conquer, goalies made the choice to stay behind and save goals instead of scoring them.
Did something go wrong? At what point in one's life does one abandon the ideal of becoming the league's top scorer in order to become the player with most clean sheets?
Now enough with the joking. To be fair, goalkeepers play a fundamental role in soccer.
You’ve seen it before: Goalkeeper makes a great save on a PK, pops up and saves the rebound. But this Dynamo save is something different; Houston keeper Chris Seitz made four saves in about five seconds in a preseason friendly against Phoenix Rising FC on Wednesday.
Back in 2003, NHL goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was unreal, but the following offseason, with Giguere’s infamously large gear the inspiration, the NHL implemented pad restrictions and a $25K fine for teams found guilty of ignoring the rule. In essence, Giguere could no longer resemble the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.
Watching David de Gea tend the net is like watching Giguere in the days of yore. He’s obviously cheating.
Maybe you’ve never heard of John “Budgie” Burridge. That’s understandable, because although his career lasted nearly 30 years, he spent that time bouncing around 29 different clubs. However, he did make over 50 appearances for eight different teams: Blackpool, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Sheffield United, Southampton, Newcastle United and Hibernian.
Liverpool are reportedly sizing up a move for Roma's bearded Brazilian goalkeeper, Alisson Becker.
(Please ignore the reports from today that the move is off. We will be over here pretending they do not exist.)