In soccer, a good goalkeeper can make the difference between a win and a draw, or between a win and a loss. Thibaut Courtois, goalkeeper of the Belgian national team, is like that.
The Belgium team owes him the fact that he came up to beat the Canadian team 0:1. In the tenth minute, Courtois deflected a free kick kicked by Alphonso Davies. Although the kick was weak, it was kicked, in my opinion, due to the lack of confidence of the kicker, seeing the Belgian giant, who is 2 meters tall, land on his goal line with ease. In those moments, the goalkeeper of Belgium seems to be blocking the entire goal with his body and arms. In this, Courtois reminded me of Lev Yashin, the greatest of them all, the goalkeeper of the Soviet Union team in the 1950s until the mid-1960s. His very presence in the goal, and his panther movements, had a negative effect on the strikers of the opposing teams.
Thibaut Courtois is Yashin’s successor in our times. With all due respect, the Belgium team cannot continue to rely only on him. It is her duty to dramatically improve her ability. Last night she really disappointed.
They say that a goalkeeper is worth half a team, yet if you ask Belgian footballers, they will probably tell you that Courtois is worth much more. This is also the place to mention that this year in the final of the Champions League, he made several saves and it was thanks to him that his team Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1:0. At the end he was chosen as the outstanding goalkeeper of the game, and later by UEFA as the goalkeeper of the season.
And if the World Cup, then this is exactly the place where national teams and players can buy their world. Saudi Arabia already did this in a 1:2 victory over Argentina and like it the Japanese team which beat Germany with the same result. From such victories, other national teams must draw encouragement and at the same time worry those who enter the games as candidates to win. A World Cup with surprises is exactly the World Cup that will be talked about for many years to come.