The big day came and went and instead of celebrating a massive win for the USA or a comprehensive display by England only one thing captured the headlines immediately afterwards.
We can only imagine how a goalkeeper must feel after making a big mistake but perhaps it's akin to embarrasing yourself at the office party or being caught out in a very bad lie. Except that it's not in front of a handful of people. No, it's in front of millions. An estimated 13 million viewers tuned in to the Group C game, the most ever for a FIFA World Cup opening-round match in the USA and the highest for a US men's national team contest since 1994, compounding the tortuous feeling Green must have felt as he watched 'Jubalani' roll over the line. But at least that is far fewer than watched Italy beat France in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in Germany on 9 July - 300 million people watched, reportedly the largest television audience ever for a football game.
But back to the game. We canvased opinion around the New York GWR office about the game and here are a selection of the responses we got:
"Fair result but the USA could have won"
"It was a bad mistake but England will bounce back"
"Both teams could have played better really but the pressure was on England to perform"
"What World Cup?"
"Stop annoying me Stuart"
Indeed, time will tell how this all plays out but at least this infamous moment gives us a chance to focus on some other, more obscure Guinness World Records facts which, sadly for Robert Green, he won't be breaking this time around.
Let us look at goalkeepers in general as a start. Tall, powerful and alert right? Well you may be surprised to learn that the biggest of them all did not run par to the course (really mixing up my sporting metaphors here). His name was Willie Henry "Fatty" Foulke (1814-1916) and he goes down as the Heaviest Goalkeeper Ever weighing in at 141 kg or approximately 310 lb. Standing 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) the last team he played for was Bradford City in England and apparently he once stopped a game by snapping the cross bar - excuse me?
A couple of records Robert Green would have liked are those held by Walter Zenga, Peter Shilton and Fabien Barthez. Zenga is responsible for the Longest World Cup Finals Clean Sheet Ever, playing for 518 minutes (almost six games) without conceding a goal while playing for Italy in 1990.
Peter Shilton and Fabien Barthez are the only two goalkeepers who have each had 10 clean sheets in their World Cup Finals careers. Shilton did it while playing for England between 1982-1990 and Barthez for France between 1998-2006. And who can forget Barthez's habit of pulling up his shorts while he waited for a penalty kick - that's one way to distract the opposition!
Although amazing accomplishments, all pale in comparison when compared to how much the most expensive goalkeeper in the world costs. When Robert Green transferred from Norwich to West Ham in August 2006 he apparently cost £2 million (around $3.7 million at the time). When Italian Gianluigi Buffon moved between Serie A clubs Parma to Juventus in July 2001 it was for a world record fee of £32.6 million ($46.8 million). That's a lot of mula.
One thing is goalkeepers letting in goals, the other is goalkeepers scoring goals. Believe it or not, there are also Guinness World Records for that too. Indeed the most goals scored by a goalkeeper is an amazing 88 goals! Who else could hold this record but a Brazilian and his name is Rogerio Ceni playing for Sao Paulo Football Club in Brazil since 1997. He is still active so could well reach 100 by the time he retires - keep going Rogerio!
We don't know how many goals Rogerio has scored in one game but that honor goes to none other than Jose Luis Chilavert from Paraguay. During a game in the Argentinian first division, Chilavert scored three goals in a 6-1 drubbing of Ferro Carril Oeste for his team Velez Sarsfield - the most goals ever scored in one game by a goalkeeper.
We hope this provides modest inspiration as we await the USA's and England's next game. There's certainly a long way to go still and plenty of time for Green to recover and do us proud. Good luck to all of the players in both camps and indeed to all the teams in South Africa as this splendid tournament continues!
Robert, I know a place that sells really nice goalkeeping gloves...fancy a pair?
source: http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Record-breaking-goalkeepers/blog/2398045/7691.html?b=
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