Take a bow, Eloy Room. The Curaçao goalie set a tournament record with 15 saves to lead his tiny nation of about 160,000 to its first-ever Gold Cup win, 1-0 over Honduras on Friday in Houston.
The Curaçao keeper was unbeatable to keep Honduras, the group favorite, at bay. In a great moment after the match, Room celebrated with fans of Honduras’ rival, El Salvador.
Kumi Yokoyama struck it perfectly. The ball zipped through the air at the Allianz Riviera like lightning, heading straight for the top corner of the goal from 36 yards out.
Karen Bardsley wasn’t even in the picture as it began to look like Japan would take the lead over England early in their Group D match on Wednesday. The Three Lionesses keeper had shaded to her left side of the goal and was still scrambling to her right when Yokoyama’s shot made a late swerve toward the upper 90.
The USWNT defeated Chile 3-0 on Sunday with all three goals coming in the first half. Coincidentally, that was the exact same score at halftime of the Thailand game before the U.S. added 10 more over the course of the second 45. The score could’ve certainly approached that today, but for Chile goalkeeper Christiane Endler.
The 27-year-old, who plays for PSG, certainly appeared comfortable at the Parc des Princes while pulling off a string of stunning saves to keep the USWNT at bay in front of 45,594 appreciative spectators.
It is an almost impossibly touchy subject. Should the size of women's soccer fields and goals be made smaller, scaled to the average size of women instead of the average size of men, to improve women’s soccer?
Just to bring it up would open yourself up to calls of sexism, but Emma Hayes, coach of the Chelsea Women in the Women’s Super League in England, is doing just that in a recent column in The Times.
For what seemed like an eternity, England could not find a way past Vanina Correa.
The Argentina No. 1 stopped everything the Three Lionesses threw at her, even becoming the first player to save a penalty kick taken by an England player at a Women’s World Cup.
It took, in the end, a perfect piece of play from England to finally get past Correa, resulting in a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Argentina in Group D action on Friday.
Vanina Correa made huge save after huge save against England, finishing with six stops and a career’s worth of highlights.
Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa is not happy with Mexico’s warm up matches leading up to the 2019 Gold Cup. He blasted the Mexican Football Federation after the Ecuador game, a friendly that El Tri went on to win. His biggest criticism was rooted in his belief that the federation continues to put profit over the safety of players, which has been something that’s been repeated in the past from other players.
Last we saw Christiane Endler in the States, she was saving an Alex Morgan penalty, albeit in an eventual 4-0 loss to the USWNT back in September. On Tuesday, in Chile’s first-ever Women’s World Cup appearance, Endler made what has to go down as the best save of the tournament so far.
Sweden came into its match with Chile as the huge favorite. Everyone expects Sweden to finish second behind the USWNT and advance easily to the Round of 16 ahead of Chile and Thailand.
For the third game in a row, Manchester United’s David De Gea found himself out of the starting 11 for the Spanish national team in favor of Kepa Arrizibalaga. The Chelsea keeper has proven his worth, having allowed one goal over the three games he’s started, with the goal coming off a cheap deflection against the Faroe Islands.
Former USWNT goalkeeper Hope Solo is back in the limelight while providing coverage of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup for the BBC, and guess what, she’s got some shade to throw.