Being a goal keeper is often a thankless task and Auckland City custodian Jacob Spoonley endured a difficult night in their 2-0 loss to Sanfrecce Hiroshima last night.
Although he had some good moments - including a fine reflex save from a point blank header midway through the second half- the 29-year-old will also cop some blame for both Hiroshima goals.
There were mitigating circumstances for both strikes - with a lack of defensive cover for the first and a deflection aiding the second - but on another day they would have been prevented by a keeper of Spoonley's quality and pedigree.
He cut a frustrated figure after the match but to his credit fronted up to both local and international media.
"We were unlucky at key points in the game," said Spoonley. "The first goal is questionable whether it is offside and then I try to get it away and it hits me on the rebound and falls straight to their player. The second goal was a deflection. Those are the sort of breaks you just don't want to get at a Club World Cup and unfortunately we got them."
Incessant rain made it a difficult night for the two goal keepers, though Hiroshima's Takuto Hayashi was barely tested. But Spoonley was regularly called into action from the opening minutes, and his failure to deal with a speculative shot from wide out in the ninth minute became the key moment of the match.
"I was trying to [punch] it away but it has caught my forearm and hit the deck," said Spoonley. "Unfortunately it has hit my second arm as it is coming through. On another day maybe that goes 10 yards away from goal but [yesterday] it fell to one of their players and they get a tap in."
Despite going 1-0 down so early, Auckland City worked their way back into the match, creating several promising opportunities, though the final pass or shot wasn't good enough. But they kept Hiroshima at bay until the 70th minute, before defender Tsukasa Shiotani scored from an unlikely angle, almost square with the byline.
"[That goal] probably summed up our night," said Spoonley. "Marko [Dordevic] has done well to shield him to the byline and I've cut down the angle. But the shot has come off Marko's shin and gone into the area that every goalkeeper hates, just underneath the hip. When you are stretch diving and the ball gets deflected and goes low there is not much you can do - but it looks horrible."
As Hiroshima prepare for their next game in Osaka on Sunday against African champions TP Mazembe, most of the Auckland City squad will begin their long journey home. Spoonley's will be taken with a heavy heart.
"At times I felt we coped quite well with their threats so it's frustrating to concede two soft goals the way we did," said Spoonley. "But we have to learn from this, understand what has happened and move on."
