Curaçao goalkeeper Eloy Room made history by making 15 incredible saves as he led Ecuador to a 0-0 draw in Group E, earning his country their first-ever World Cup point.
Room 37 set a new record for the most saves in 90 minutes of a World Cup match since records began in 1966. The outstanding performance of the team incredibly kept their qualification hopes alive for a team with a population of just 158,000 and ranked 81st in the world, despite losing 7-1 to Germany in their opening match.
Ecuador, who many expect to advance to the knockout stage after a promising qualifying campaign, had 27 shots on target to post an xG of 3.05, but suffered another gap after losing 1-0 to Ivory Coast and now need to beat table-toppers Germany to go through.
Ecuador’s Ener Valencia was stopped by Eloy Rum in the third minute of the first half.
Ener Valencia was the most wasteful of the Ecuadorian forwards with seven shots on goal. On an incredible night in Kansas, Room’s best save was denied three minutes from time before Gonzalo Plata had a close-range header saved by the invincible goalkeeper.
Big moments in Kansas…
3: Huge discount! Curacao goalkeeper Room stopped Valencia with a brilliant shot.
69: Find your room again! The goalkeeper did an excellent job of blocking Plata’s close-range header from a corner kick.
60: Save twice! But not in Room as Curacao denied a shock lead.
79: A room makes history! Room made his 15th save when he blocked Angulo’s piledriver from outside the box.
90: Stop woodworking! Ecuadorian substitute Preciado saw his cross hit the crossbar.
Who is Eloirum?
He plays room for second-division Miami FC in the USL Championship, having signed with the club last December.
The 37-year-old won the Eredivisie title with PSV in 2017/18 and before that spent most of his career with Vitesse, making over 250 appearances on two occasions.
After PSV, he signed with MLS team Columbus Crew in 2019, making 102 appearances and winning MLS Save of the Year and the MLS Cup.
A space for heroes…
Save and save!
Ecuador in crisis
Sky Sports’ David Richardson:
The problem with Ecuador’s qualifying campaign is that they have repeatedly resorted to 0-0 draws, which now risks ending in an embarrassing group stage exit.
Amad Diallo’s last-minute winner in Ivory Coast denied them a draw in their opening match after recording eight stalemates in 18 qualifying matches. They won 1-0 against Argentina, who finished the preliminary round, but ended up with four consecutive 0-0 draws.
That pattern continued. In eight friendlies prior to this tournament, they had drawn five times. Sebastian Beccacece’s side struggle to score goals, often scraping wins with the odd goal and rely heavily on Enner Valencia, who has 49 goals in 107 games. The next highest scorer is Gonzalo Plata with eight.
Despite 27 shots against the 81st ranked team in the world, a 0-0 draw was in itself a significant achievement. Beating Germany and advancing to the knockout stages would be an even bigger task.
