Curacao’s Eloy Room, goalkeeper without a club, just broke a World Cup record
In the dying minutes of a World Cup qualifier against Jamaica, with Curaçao 90 minutes from their first-ever World Cup, the referee pointed to the spot. Eloy Room turned to him and said: “It doesn’t matter if you give the penalty. I’ll save it anyway.” The referee looked at him like he was crazy. VAR overturned it. He didn’t need to find out if he was right. That is the kind of man who stood in the Kansas City goal on Saturday night and made 15 saves against Ecuador. The most by any goalkeeper in a World Cup match in regulation since saves became an official statistic in 1966. More than Ramon Quiroga’s 13 for Peru in 1978. Equal to Tim Howard’s total against Belgium in 2014, though Howard needed extra time to get there. Room did it in 90 minutes, representing a nation of 150,000 people whose stadium capacity he had just filled twice over. Ecuador had 28 shots. Curaçao won a point. Their first ever. Lesley Room is from Curaçao and has been …
