{"id":750320,"date":"2026-06-21T06:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750320\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T06:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:49:12","slug":"world-cup-2026-eloy-room-equals-saves-record-as-curacao-create-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750320\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Eloy Room equals saves record as Curacao create history"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Ecuador forward Enner Valencia raced through on Curacao’s goal inside the opening three minutes, the outcome seemed inevitable.<\/p>\n

About 10 yards out and with just the keeper to beat, he looked certain to score. It would give Curacao a mountain to climb – and, as it did in the 7-1 defeat by Germany<\/a> in their World Cup opener, possibly set the tone for what was to come.<\/p>\n

But goalkeeper Eloy Room anticipated where Valencia’s shot was headed, stooped low to his left and clawed the ball around the post. It was an improbable, barely believable save. <\/p>\n

And the tone was, indeed, set.<\/p>\n

By full-time, BBC Sport pundit and former Arsenal defender Martin Keown was joking a calculator might be needed to tot up the number of times Room had bailed his team out.<\/p>\n

Yet it was Ecuador who were left counting the cost of their missed chances as World Cup debutants Curacao celebrated their first-ever point in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Room, the 37-year-old Miami FC keeper, produced a remarkable and record-equalling performance, making 15 saves to keep his country level and eventually secure a goalless draw<\/a> which will live long in the memory of the island nation.<\/p>\n

Since records began in 1966, no goalkeeper has made more stops in 90 minutes of World Cup action, according to Opta.<\/p>\n

Only Tim Howard has made as many in a single game but, unlike Room, he failed to keep a clean sheet after conceding twice in extra time for the USA against Belgium in 2014.<\/p>\n

Room joked after the 0-0 draw that Howard would have been “sweating at home” watching the game and his performance means he “needs a statue in Curacao”.<\/p>\n

“Take a bow, Room,” added Keown on BBC One. “Absolutely magnificent.<\/p>\n

“The number of saves, you were almost getting a calculator out at the end of the game to count them up.<\/p>\n

“It just became a shopping list of saves. His reactions were first class. He seemed destined to keep a clean sheet all night.”<\/p>\n

It was a performance that inspired Room’s country to their biggest-ever result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Ecuador forward Enner Valencia raced through on Curacao’s goal inside the opening three minutes, the outcome seemed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-750320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750320","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=750320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}