So what? Surprised it does not happen more often. The keepers vision was screened from seeing the ball until the last second and the forward came close to heading it. When a forward shanks a sure opportunity to score, do we call it an "incredible blunder" ?

>Amos, still no excuse... what about Dempsey's goal vs England last year? Was the Brit GK's vision "screened from seeing the ball?" Nah! Come now, mistakes, blunders, errors, etc., is a human trait, but when it comes or happens to footballers, gad forbid!!!

The Brittish keeper's error was a lot different. There was no issue with his seeing the ball. He simply misplayed it and failed to get his body in proper position. My main point was that when a keeper makes a mistake, some call it an "incredible blunder" and post a Youtube video about it, but if a forward makes a dumb mistake, it is usually ignored. In this case, I didn't think it was any more of an error than what happens when a keeper comes out and fails to contact the ball before it is headed in.

No, what happened was the goalkeeper knew this was an easy one and was over anxious to throw the ball to a target before he collected it.... He was ahead of himself a mental error he will probably not forget, nor will the fans for a while. Robert Green was too casual on a routine play... thats my read of the situation

Michael's assessment is on target. "The keepers vision was screened from seeing the ball until the last second . . . ." That's clearly not true. Check out the video from 0:22 on, which gives pretty much the keeper's pov. The ball had a lot of loft, and the keeper had a perfectly good view of it coming in. ". . . and the forward came close to heading it." That's an accurate observation, and a more relevant one. The near-miss of the leaping attacker may well have distracted the keeper. Of course, a keeper playing in Belgium's top pro league would be expected to handle such an ordinary element of the action without making a disastrous mistake. That's part of what makes this an incredible blunder. It's kicked right *to* him. The pace is manageable. It's in his *hands*. And he starts to look away, and turn away, before he's actually caught it (not coincidentally, those are common mistakes among receivers attempting to catch passes in American football). And yes, when a forward "shanks a sure opportunity to score," we *do* call it an "incredible blunder"! And I've seen them end up on youtube! So, if *this* isn't an "incredible blunder" in goalkeeping, *what* on earth *is*???