{"id":4750,"date":"2026-06-22T01:35:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=4750"},"modified":"2026-06-22T01:35:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:35:02","slug":"world-cup-2026-eloy-room-equals-saves-record-as-curacao-create-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=4750","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Eloy Room equals saves record as Curacao create history"},"content":{"rendered":"


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As Ecuador forward Enner Valencia raced through on Curacao’s goal inside the opening three minutes, the outcome seemed inevitable.<\/b><\/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<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Ecuador forward Enner Valencia raced through on Curacao’s goal inside the opening three minutes, the outcome seemed inevitable. About…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}