Tuesday 17 June 2014

Yeah, Gordon Banks!... Big Deal!

In my opinion, commentators and analysts from so many networks are committing somewhat of a fallacy in comparing Guillermo Ochoa's saves against Brazil today, and particularly his save on Neymar's header, in the 26th, if I'm not mistaken, minute of Brazil - Mexico 0-0, with Gordon Banks' performance in Brazil - England 1-0, also on the second matchday of the group stage, at the 1970 World Cup.

Yeah, sure, the saves are similar, and they both happened against Brazilian headers bound to go into the net, originating from overhyped players, but I'd say I've seen a save, just as good, from Algerian goalkeeper M'Bolhi, against Belgium, just one match before, at this very World Cup.
Nobody praised that one as much, though, maybe because Algeria lost, or just maybe because it was Algeria (and Belgium) playing.

So, cool it, people, with the superlatives. It's not just the Brazilian forwards that can execute good headers.
As a matter of fact, Neymar's header wasn't that good of a header, to begin with.
A good (as in perfectly executed) header, from the distance from which Neymar executed his, is always unbeatable, given the enormous size of the goal.

I'm not saying Ochoa did not do extremely well. But it's almost like a penalty, when a dangerous header goes on target. When such a strike is taken really well, the goalkeeper can do practically nothing to prevent it from going in.

Thinking about this in different terms, I would say Ochoa did, actually, a lot better than Banks.
Mexico did not lose said match, whereas England sadly did.
Ochoa did not let in one single goal during this match, whereas Gordon Banks sadly did.

So, there, that was, pardon my English, a quite silly, and totally unnecessary, comparison, that most very likely not even Ochoa would appreciate too much!

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