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Just what is the problem with the goalkeepers of the English national team. Not only do the English lack a goalkeeper who can save the team in difficult situations, but also the ranks of the goalkeepers available are decimated by injuries. Yesterday it became known that a goalkeeper, who received a serious wrist injury on March 13, will not be able to recover before the start of Euro-2004.
Since the retirement of the excellent English goalkeeper Peter Shilton, the goalkeeper position of the English national team has been considered one of the most vulnerable. In many cases, due to goalkeeping errors, the English could not, and still cannot achieve significant victories in World and European Championships.
Fans from the British Isles still cannot forget the bizarre goal scored by Ronaldinho against David Seaman's goal in the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup. Seaman managed to miss a half-cross - half-shot from a sharp angle. After Seaman's mistake, the Brazilian national team defeated the football pioneers with a score of 2:1 and progressed further. Seaman and company were left with a "hole in the glove". And this was far from the only mistake made by English goalkeepers playing for the national team.
Approaching Euro-2004, the situation with the number one position of the English national team not only did not improve, but also causes more headaches for Sven Goran Eriksson. After Seaman's retirement, who played fairly reliably despite the mistake against Brazilians, serious contenders did not emerge. However, the Swedish specialist still settled for three candidates: the main goalkeeper, the first reserve goalkeeper, and the second backup Chris Kirkland.
Chris represents special hopes for the English... in the future. This 23-year-old goalkeeper, with his stable play for Coventry in the 2000/01 season, made English fans believe that they would never have problems in the goalkeeper position. However, Kirkland was supposed to travel to the European Championship in Portugal as the third-choice goalkeeper, "protecting" James and Robinson.
But after it became known that Kirkland would miss Euro-2004 due to a wrist injury, Eriksson will have to find a new third-choice goalkeeper. The 23-year-old goalkeeper got injured on March 13 during a training session. Since then, he had hoped to recover quickly, but only now it has become clear to doctors that Kirkland's hopes of playing in Portugal will not come true.
At first glance, it may seem that this loss is not so significant for the English national team and does not need so much attention - after all, it is not . Yes, of course, Kirkland does not have as much influence on the national team as Beckham or even James. But he was not a superstar before the 1998 World Cup. Who knows, maybe thanks to Euro-2004, all of England would have been carrying Kirkland on their hands. After all, a European Championship is needed to create new stars.
