Soccer: Goal bloopers live on forever

KOBE - Eccentrics, men of steel or just plain crazy, the players between the posts will probably be the forgotten heroes and remembered scapegoats of the World Cup.

Once the final is played on June 30 in Yokohama, highlight videos of the best goals will be produced, and fans will talk about those that should have been stopped.

A month from now, after 64 games throughout Japan and South Korea, will there have been an utterly insane moment like the one involving Colombia's colourful goalkeeper Rene Higuita in the 1990 World Cup in Italy?

Or will there be something that equals "The Save," the amazing stop England's Gordon Banks pulled off on Pele in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico?

Higuita made what he admits was "a mistake as big as a house" when he set off on one of his trademark dribbles up the field, only to have the ball stripped away by Cameroon striker Roger Milla, who then casually stroked it into the empty goal.

The mistake was actually bigger than a house because it knocked Colombia out and put Cameroon into the quarter-finals.

Banks' save is still argued over in bars and pubs, with fans trying to figure out how he managed to throw himself back across the goal to push a downward header from Pele over the bar.

Although the Banks save may be the best known from the World Cup, and possibly even in soccer history, mistakes still fill the memories.

Such as Spain's Andoni Zubizarreta, who knocked a simple cross into his own net, sucking the wind out of Spain and handing Nigeria an opening-round win in 1998.

The extroverts who will tend goal in the World Cup come in all sizes and cover the whole hair spectrum, from France's Fabien Barthez, the shaven-headed hero of their cup success in 1998, to England's pony-tailed David Seaman.

At 1.71m, Oscar Perez, of Mexico, is the shortest starting goalkeeper in this year's tournament, while the tallest, Chinese back-up Jian Jin, towers over him at 1.98m.

All of them will be trying to copy Italy's Walter Zenga, who has the cup record of not letting in a goal for 518 minutes, in 1990.

To be avoided is the example of El Salvador's hapless Luis Mora, who picked the ball out of the net a record 10 times in 1982 against Hungary.

They will also be hoping to be selected as the top goalkeeper in the tournament, an honour that went four years ago to Paraguay's Jose Luis Chilavert, who may best represent the zanier side of the goalkeeping fraternity.

Chilavert, who regularly scores from free kicks, is his team's captain and icon, with ambitions to be president of his country.

He has scored more than 50 goals from free kicks and penalties during his career and, after failing to score in all four of his team's World Cup matches in France four years ago, has stated he will achieve his ambition this time of becoming the first goalkeeper to score at a World Cup.

- REUTERS

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