Goal Took Bounce Out of His Step
CHICAGO — The ball went boinngggg.
Soccer balls are not supposed to bounce like rubber. They aren’t supposed to go bounding like a bloop single in Minneapolis. Once a soccer ball touches ground, it is likely to bounce up ankle-high, knee-high, waist-high, maybe even eye-high. But not over your head.
Poor Zubizarreta.
Bad enough spending your childhood being called last alphabetically. Bad enough being fired from your home club of Barcelona shortly before World Cup ’94. Bad enough missing a World Cup opening game against South Korea for being ejected from a qualifying game against Denmark, then watching helplessly as your replacement, Santiago Canizares, yields two goals in the final few minutes, sending an imminent victory for Spain down the drain.
But this . . .
To stand there and watch a ball go boinngggg, two feet over your outstretched arm.
To have it cost your country a triumph over Germany, of all clubs.
Even the German coach called it “a really lucky goal.”
Not for Zubizarreta, it wasn’t.
Mala suerte.
Bad luck.
There he stood, Andoni Zubizarreta, the Spanish goalkeeper, dancing on his toes. Team on top, 1-0. Second half. Taking it to the Germans, who hadn’t been defeated in the World Cup finals since the championship game of 1986. Spain’s loyalists behind him, cheering their lungs out Tuesday at Soldier Field, cheering from here to Madrid, still tingling over Juan Antonio Goikoetxea’s ricochet-bing-bang first-half goal, still anxious about getting a victory in this tournament and not being sent back home in shame.
Ball goes to Juergen Klinsmann, who has set up camp directly in front of the goal.
Weakly, he redirects it with his head.
Ball bounces once.
Boinngggg.
Over the left shoulder of Zubizarreta it bounds. He barely moves. He barely looks up.
On TV, an analyst, former American player Peter Vermes, says, “Oooh, I think he could have reacted a little bit better than that.”
About all Zubizarreta did do was bend over, retrieve the ball and lob it back toward the field, disgustedly, like a Bleacher Bum after a visiting-team home run at Wrigley Field.
And that was that.
Spain 1, Germany 1, no one won.
Later, Zubizarreta said, stating the obvious, “If I could have stopped the goal, obviously, I would have. It was a lucky goal. I would like to see it on video, because I felt a German player was offside.”
He won’t be the only one viewing the tape. According to the president of Spain’s Superior Council of Sports, Rafael Cortes Elvira, about 70% of everyone in Spain put a halt to all activity Tuesday evening to watch this game.
A pretty unhappy 70%, right about now.
Many back home apparently believe the Spanish coach, Javier Clemente, made a mistake in restoring Zubizarreta to his position in goal. Until the wild ending with South Korea, the younger-by-eight-years Canizares had played skillfully, even spectacularly.
So now what?
Spain is winless. Its captain, Miguel Angel Nadal, is in exile, having been banished for two games because of a red card he drew in the South Korea game. Its brightest prospect, 21-year-old midfielder Julen Guerrero, hurt his leg against the Koreans. Now, a goalkeeper controversy.
Mala, mala suerte.
The coach, Clemente, is putting his own spin on things, saying, “We played against the world champions, so I think we should be satisfied with the result we got.”
Maybe, but tell that to the 7,000-plus fans from Spain who made the trip, most of whom have been hanging out at the hastily arranged House of Spain hospitality lounge in downtown Chicago, what with the team playing twice here.
Clemente had insisted beforehand, “One win from two games, that’s all we need. Our luck will have to change, but we have no worries at all about the future.”
Perdone, por favor.
Pardon me, please.
Nosotros no estamos de acuerdo.
We disagree.
