A solid, steady goalkeeper is a key ingredient to any team’s success. It is a simple statement, but much like “I love you”, “It’s free” and “Con Air is the greatest movie ever made”, it is a sentence probably not uttered often enough.
This month’s public demise of Spain’s once-great Iker Casillas may prove the quintessential example of a subpar goalkeeper dragging his side down. Naturally, the blame cannot fall solely at his door but a player who was once seen as a captain with incredible goalkeeping abilities must now only be seen as a captain.
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The reverse occurred in the case of Guillermo Ochoa. The possibly never-before-called-great Mexican goalkeeper is out of contract after his French side, AC Ajaccio, shipped 72 goals en route to relegation from Ligue 1. Yet it was down to Ochoa’s heroics against Brazil that ensured Mexico left Fortaleza with a point on Tuesday. Yesterday evening, in Recife, Gianluigi Buffon became only the fifth Italian in history to appear at four World Cups when he returned to the line-up for his country’s tie with Costa Rica. If you look up Europe in the Big Book of Great Goalkeepers, Buffon is pictured there, staring back at you with those watery blue eyes.
Against England, the Juventus veteran – a 2001 world record €45 million (Dh224.6m) signing from Parma – sat out after twisting an ankle and was replaced by Paris Saint-Germain’s Salvatore Sirigu. However, despite Sirigu putting in a solid performance, he found himself on the bench on Friday as Italy lost 1-0. Buffon looked shaky and unsettled and while the goal his side conceded was a close-range header, that unfriendly and unforgiving beast called social media soon questioned the Italian captain’s role.
“Buffon is done,” one armchair warrior tweeted. Another expert: “Buffon just pulled a Casillas”.
In truth, his performance was no such thing. Yes, he flapped at a corner and generally did not look like the commanding presence Italy has grown to know and love for the past 16 years, but he was by no means any more culpable for his side’s defeat than the Italian defenders who failed to track their runners, the midfielders who failed to dominate or the strikers who failed to score.
That said, his involvement was unnecessary. Sirigu is the future – at least for a few years until Udinese’s Simone Scuffet steps up – and had done his job correctly against England. He should have remained in the side. Dropping him showed a reluctance to change the guard; a situation that has already been proved fatal to Spain’s chances this summer.
At the opposite end of the pitch was Costa Rica’s Keylor Navas, who might well find himself involved in a gloved wrestling bout with Ochoa for best goalkeeper of the group stages. After an assured display against Uruguay, in which he was beaten only by a penalty, the Levante stopper hardly put a foot wrong for the second time.
Navas is helping elevate Costa Rica to a new level and was instrumental in their passage to the knockout stages for the first time since 1990.
Buffon, asked about his country’s surprise conquerors, said: “There are no Cinderellas in world football any more.”
It is true. Yet there is still a ball and certain people must, for their own sake, be willing to leave when their allotted time is approaching.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
RACE CARD
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,200m
6pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 (PA) Listed Dh230,000 1,600m
6.30pm: HH The President’s Cup (PA) Group 1 Dh2.5million 2,200m
7pm: HH The President’s Cup (TB) Listed Dh380,000 1,400m
7.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh70,000 1,200m.
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The 10 Questions
- Is there a God?
- How did it all begin?
- What is inside a black hole?
- Can we predict the future?
- Is time travel possible?
- Will we survive on Earth?
- Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
- Should we colonise space?
- Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?
- How do we shape the future?
