In 2021, a trend began in the major team tournaments. The focus on iron defenses has become on the goalkeepers who stand behind the brakes and defenders, who until now were considered the bigger stars. Gianluigi Donnarumma won the Euro 2020 Player of the Year award thanks to a superb tournament, including penalty stops in battles against Spain and England en route to victory. It was also handed down at the team level, when Real Madrid’s standout in the last Champions League final is Thibaut Courtois, who recorded nine saves against Liverpool.
The same trend has also reached Qatar 2022. The four teams that qualified for the semi-finals – Croatia, Morocco, Argentina and France – have an excellent goalkeeper in goal who has excelled several times during the World Cup to challenge Leo Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud and Luka Modric for the title of the best player of the tournament.
After they burst into consciousness all over the globe and just before only two of them will fight for the title of world champions, it’s time to introduce you to the people thanks to their selections in the semi-finals: the man who is ready to die for Messi, the best goalkeeper in the Spanish league last season who has yet to concede a goal from an opposing player in the World Cup , the man with the most saves so far and a captain who is also a world champion.
Croatia – Dominik Liebakovic
Goalkeeper mistakes in the closing minutes against Portugal is not something that only happened to Dodo Awat. Two years ago, Dominik Liebakovic dropped a high ball in the 90th minute and allowed Ruben Dias to score from close range. While Awat benefited from it at the end of a point, the Croatian goalkeeper lost three. The newspapers in the country crucified him, saying that it was not possible that he, first goalkeeper in Dinamo Zagreb, would get the place between the goalposts of the national team instead of goalkeepers who play in better leagues. Today he is already an idol.
Perhaps unlike the entire squad that flew to Russia for the 2018 World Cup, he actually remembers the experience as less good, since he is the only one in the entire squad that did not participate even for a single minute. He made his debut in the team right after the tournament, in a Nations League game against England. Although he was less outstanding in the Euros, including conceding five goals in the round of 16 against Spain, his position in the team was preserved and he was chosen to be Zlatko Dalić’s first goalkeeper again.
Two goals in 90 minutes was conceded by Libakovic in total in the tournament, which makes him a central hero – he became the Croatian goalkeeper with the most saves in one game – eight in 90 minutes and ten in 120 minutes against Brazil. Against Japan in the round of 16, he stopped three penalties and became the third in history to do so in the World Cup along with Daniel Suvasic, who was the 27-year-old goalkeeper’s teacher and mentor. After starting out as a basketball player in Zadar, being knighted and darling of the city and also getting Thomas Tuchel fired from Chelsea, he will be the one to stand between Messi and the World Cup. Who knows, maybe he too will succeed where his mentor failed and bring the World Cup to Croatia.
Argentina – Emiliano Martinez
Emiliano Martínez had only eight years and 15 appearances at Arsenal until he received the goalkeeper vest in the Corona season. He played nine games in the Gunners uniform that season, which ended with a big win in the FA Cup and his name as one of the best in the campaign. The same success filled the lack of Lionel Scalloni in the goalkeeper position, after the departure of Sergio Romero and the less good ability of Franco Armani between the posts.
Meanwhile, the Aston Villa keeper has 24 wins in 25 games as a starter for the Albiceleste, including two penalty saves in this World Cup and three in last year’s Copa America, which brought a 28-year title drought to a sweet end, also for Leo Messi.
“I am ready to die for him, he is my model. I want to bring him the World Cup as well” said ‘Divo’ in an interview after winning the jackpot, but perhaps he actually owes his place in history to someone else – Neil Moffey. A striker of Brighton at the time injured Bernard Leno, gave Martins the place in the team and the rest is history. Will his success continue with another big celebration alongside his idol?
Morocco – Yassin Bono
Yassin Bono’s success in the World Cup is no accident. Beyond the great squad he oversees, Morocco’s goalkeeper, who was actually born in Canada, is the only one so far who hasn’t conceded a single goal from the feet of an opposing player, not even in penalties. Only Naif Egur managed to defeat him with an own goal. He is the first since 2006 to keep a clean sheet in a duel and the second in World Cup history overall to do so, in a tournament that is increasingly reminiscent of the performances of Iker Casillas in 2010 and Gianluigi Buffon in 2006.
It’s not accidental because he’s like that in his Sevilla team as well. Put two brakes that know the job ahead and the wall becomes a fortress. Bono stopped a 13-year ping-pong between Barcelona, Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid goalkeepers for the Zamora Award, which is awarded to the goalkeeper who conceded the fewest goals in the league, with the Andalusians conceding just 30 goals. He himself suffered 24 in 31 games.
The one who promoted him in the national team is none other than the coach of the Saudi Arabian national team Harwa Ranar, who gave him the place in the African Championship in 2019 and since then he hasn’t left it. In 2021 he caused an uproar by refusing to speak English or French to the journalists in protest that the Confederation of African Football did not provide an interpreter who knew Arabic. Like Liebakovic, he also did not play in Russia 2018 despite being called to the squad. Now, if he stays clear-headed and without dizziness, he can make more history for the Arab world that he loves so much.
France – Hugo Lloris
It only makes sense to finish off the current world champion. The captain, who had the honor of hoisting the trophy in the pouring rain in Russia, is at a slight disadvantage against the goal of the goalkeepers who compete against him for the title of outstanding goalkeeper – he did not miss a penalty, did not make any big saves in the tournament and conceded in every game so far. So why does he have a case? Because he is the beating heart of the French national team.
From 2008 Lloris stands between the bars of the tricolor and this is his fourth World Cup. Each time he managed to advance two games – from three games in 2010 and elimination in the group stage to five games in 2014 and elimination in the quarterfinals to seven games in 2022 and winning the title. Tottenham’s goalkeeper gives confidence to his team and it is a fact that the last field goal he conceded in the tournament was against Denmark in the second round. Since then he has played two games and suffered two penalties.
According to his numbers, now is the time to balance. Out of 143 appearances for the national team (a national record), he conceded only 117 goals and kept a clean sheet in 62 of them, an average of 0.81 goals per game. Now he’s talking a goal a game and if the stats are meant to line up, as they are in most cases, France can be confident at the back on their way to more history – the first European team since Italy 1934 and 1938 to win two consecutive World Cups.