{"id":530987,"date":"2026-07-08T09:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/530987\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T09:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:43:08","slug":"doubting-jordan-pickford-is-a-fools-errand-england-goalkeeper-keeps-putting-critics-in-their-place-as-he-prepares-to-break-world-cup-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/530987\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubting Jordan Pickford is a fool’s errand: England goalkeeper keeps putting critics in their place as he prepares to break World Cup record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pickford has had plenty of memorable moments down the years, too. In 2018, he was a key part of an England side that exorcised plenty of demons in the World Cup, saving a crucial penalty as England won a last-16 shootout against Colombia before producing a Player-of-the-Match-winning performance against Sweden in the quarter-finals. <\/p>\n

He produced the goods again in the Euro 2020 final, saving two penalties during the heart-breaking defeat to Italy at Wembley. He provided similar heroics again in 2024, saving from Manuel Akanji as England beat Switzerland in a quarter-final victory. In total, Pickford has saved four of the 14 penalties he has faced in World Cup and Euros shootouts.<\/p>\n

“When it comes to a penalty shootout, I don\u2019t think I would have anyone else,” former England goalkeeper Ben Foster said in 2024<\/a>. “I reckon at that moment in time when you get a penalty shootout, he\u2019s genuinely thinking, \u2018It\u2019s showtime, baby\u2019. If you could take a blood reading or a sample of how much adrenaline is coursing through his body at that moment, I reckon it would be right at the top, right at the limit. It\u2019s like he\u2019s had six double espressos.\u201d<\/p>\n

In open play, meanwhile, Pickford has been almost mistake-free since becoming his country’s No.1. Statistical models suggest that he has made just one error that led to a goal since 2018. You’d struggle to find many goalkeepers who are so reliable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pickford has had plenty of memorable moments down the years, too. In 2018, he was a key part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[283,444,2664,85,46,242331,242332,105,6866],"class_list":["post-530987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-analysis","tag-england","tag-features","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-j-pickford","tag-norway-vs-england","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}