{"id":750213,"date":"2026-06-21T05:34:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750213\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T05:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:34:19","slug":"world-cup-quick-hits-eloy-room-a-curacao-icon-germany-deals-with-snakes-and-a-refs-watch-is-nicked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750213\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup quick hits: Eloy Room a Cura\u00e7ao icon, Germany deals with snakes and a ref’s watch is nicked"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Cura\u00e7ao goalkeeper etches out a piece of World Cup history, Germany faces some slippery training pitch invaders and a referee’s watch is briefly nicked \u2026 by a player.<\/p>\n

Check out the full World Cup schedule here<\/a> in Australian timesABC Sport podcast: Check out the latest episode here<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are the quick hits for today’s action at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

1. Eloy Room’s brush with World Cup history<\/p>\n

As Cura\u00e7ao celebrates a famous day in its nation’s football history, it has one man more than any other to thank.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Eloy Room produced one of the most stunning performances with the gloves in tournament history, making 15 saves to lead his side to a 0-0 draw and its first-ever point at a World Cup.<\/p>\n

\"Eloy<\/p>\n

Eloy Room waves to the crowd after his performance against Ecuador. (Getty Images: Maja Hitij)<\/p>\n

Those 15 saves put him second on the all-time list, though with a caveat and some conjecture.<\/p>\n

On top of the single-game saves chart at a World Cup is Tim Howard, who FIFA says made 16 saves against Belgium in 2014.<\/p>\n

However, worldwide stats provider Opta has always had Howard down as having made 15 saves in that game, which, of course, would leave him now tied with Room.<\/p>\n

The other caveat is that Howard’s match went into extra time, so he had 120 minutes to make the saves, whereas Room only had 90.<\/p>\n

\"Eloy<\/p>\n

Eloy Room applauds the fans. (Reuters: Issei Kato)<\/p>\n

Either way, the fact that Cura\u00e7ao’s Eloy Room can stake a reasonable claim for the best goalkeeping performance ever at a World Cup is remarkable enough. Certainly worth the celebrations that will be unfolding currently on the tiny island nation.<\/p>\n

2. Raise the bat, the 100 is up<\/p>\n

When Cody Gakpo finished off a brilliant, sweeping move to score the Netherlands’s fourth goal against Sweden, he also happened to net the 100th goal of this World Cup so far.<\/p>\n

The milestone was brought up in the 33rd game of the tournament, not yet halfway through the group stage matches, with goals coming at almost exactly three per match.<\/p>\n

\"Cody<\/p>\n

Cody Gakpo scored the 100th goal of this World Cup in the Netherlands’s win over Sweden. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Of them, there have been seven own goals (including one from Socceroo Cam Burgess) and 13 scored from outside the penalty area (including one from Socceroo Connor Metcalfe).<\/p>\n

The picks of the bunch so far? Take your pick of any of Lionel Messi’s third against Algeria, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9’s second against Senegal, Giovanni Reyna’s trivela against Paraguay, Yasin Ayari’s opener against Tunisia and Vin\u00edcius Jr’s finish against Morocco.<\/p>\n

Oh, and Nestory Irankunda’s beauty against T\u00fcrkiye of course.<\/p>\n

3. Snakes on a training pitch<\/p>\n

Germany might have been pleased to make the trip to Toronto for its second game against C\u00f4te d’Ivoire, and not just because it is a lovely city.<\/p>\n

The Germans have been based in North Carolina for most of the tournament, where they have been shocked to discover the presence of some venomous copperhead snakes.<\/p>\n

\"Joshua<\/p>\n

Joshua Kimmich is wary of Germany’s training ground snakes. (Getty Images: Federico Gambarini)<\/p>\n

Joshua Kimmich said the players were told to keep their distance from the snakes, otherwise a trip to hospital could be on the cards, but at his press conference in Toronto, coach Julian Nagelsmann didn’t seem too concerned.<\/p>\n

“It was a big anaconda,” Nagelsmann joked.<\/p>\n

“It was only a small one, and we love all the animals on this planet. We are happy the snake found a beautiful place to live there.”<\/p>\n

4. New dads face a World Cup conundrum<\/p>\n

For many footballers, a World Cup represents the highlight of their lives. For others, some things will always be more important.<\/p>\n

The birth of a child is one of those things, and at this World Cup is an issue that has strangely come up more than you’d expect.<\/p>\n

Belgian star J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku has been open in saying he would leave camp if his wife, who is due in mid-July, went into labour while Belgium were still in this tournament.<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku says he will leave the Belgium camp if his wife goes into labour. (Getty Images: Henry Rodenburg)<\/p>\n

For this Doku has been criticised, including by Belgian journalist Frances Pierron who said, “You’re living out a childhood dream, yet you’re going to walk away from it all to attend the birth of your child \u2014 a pretty unpleasant moment, if you’ll pardon the expression, where the dad is completely useless”.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Norway’s Leo \u00d8stig\u00e5rd became a father days after scoring against Iraq. \u00d8stig\u00e5rd chose to stay in camp and followed the birth by FaceTime.<\/p>\n

“I’m completely exhausted myself, it was absolutely amazing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Word of advice, Leo. Don’t say that to your partner.<\/p>\n

5. Refs watch gets nicked by a player<\/p>\n

The Paraguay-T\u00fcrkiye was utter bedlam from start to finish. Full of spirited challenges, spicy confrontations and a world-first red card, it was often hard to know where to look.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, one eagle-eyed viewer took their eye away from one of the many first-half scraps and spotted something on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Paraguay's<\/p>\n

Paraguay’s Mat\u00edas Galarza picks up the referee’s watch. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

As did Paraguay’s Mat\u00edas Galarza. It was the referee’s watch, which somehow had fallen amid the madness.<\/p>\n

Galarza, for some reason, decided to pick up the watch and put it on. He strolled around looking at it while the biff unfolded around him, and a moment later, Miguel Almir\u00f3n said something with his mouth covered and was sent off.<\/p>\n

\"Paraguay's<\/p>\n

And then Paraguay’s Mat\u00edas Galarza puts on the referee’s watch. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

What happened next? Galarza gave the watch back and was named man of the match as Paraguay won 1-0, eliminating T\u00fcrkiye. Just another day at the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cura\u00e7ao goalkeeper etches out a piece of World Cup history, Germany faces some slippery training pitch invaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,284484,360206,596,5717,16255,7104,73708,85,4200,21418],"class_list":["post-750213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-curacao","tag-eloy-room","tag-football","tag-germany","tag-netherlands","tag-paraguay","tag-quick-hits","tag-sports","tag-sweden","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}