How Jordan Pickford defied his critics to become England’s saviour against Colombia
In the end, it was Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport that summarised it best. "Pickford performed the miracle," they wrote. "The Everton goalkeeper was the priest who scared away the demons of England’s past."
It was a fitting choice of metaphor. In making the crucial save from Colombian striker Carlos Bacca, the young Everton goalkeeper, cast as an exorcist, had not only banished fears from past penalty shootout failures but also delivered the most fitting of retorts to all those that had sought to question him over the past week.
It had been a difficult seven days for all those associated with Pickford - if not necessarily the player himself. Despite the protestations of several high-profile former goalkeepers, the predominant narrative in the mainstream media had centred around his supposed technical failings for Adnan Januzaj's decisive goal in the game against Belgium.
Everton great Neville Southall, ex-Sunderland goalkeeper turned pundit David Preece and a raft of others had been quick to leap to his defence, pointing out that the much-maligned decision to lead with his left hand had in fact been the right one. But the damage had been done by ITV's punditry team on the same night, comprising Lee Dixon and Gary Neville, and a seed of doubt had been planted.
Not that this was ever likely to faze Pickford, who tends to grow in stature the higher the calibre of opposition he is facing. Those Sunderland and Everton supporters who have watched him at close quarters know this, but England supporters should have done too. Back in November, the Washington-born stopper excelled on debut against Germany at Wembley, saving two one-on-ones from RB Leipzig forward Timo Werner and delivering a Man of the Match performance. In another friendly against the Netherlands in Amsterdam, Pickford had started a flowing team move that ended with Jesse Lingard firing home. These were actions of a goalkeeper in the nascent stages of his international career that already felt as though he belonged. There is confidence - bordering on arrogance - in his ability that makes him such a tough proposition for opposing players and critics alike.
This has been a consistent thread since his days as an academy scholar in the north-east. Those familiar with the Sunderland youth setup recall the time coach Kevin Ball told Pickford that he wouldn't make it in the professional game because of his attitude. The reply: "I bet I will," spoke volumes.
"He thought he was the best," Ball told the Daily Mail. "He knew he had potential and athletic ability. But you have to work hard to achieve that, and he has. He wanted to be in the first-team at 17 and was pushy, but I liked that. He challenged me."
Perhaps, this unshakeable belief - an obvious positive when faced with the barrage of media scrutiny directed at him this week - had been wrongly interpreted by Ball and others at the time. "He's a typical, down-to-earth local lad, there is no arrogance to him, it's all confidence," recalled Adrian Tucker, Pickford's former goalkeeping coach, in another interview with the Mail.
Here though, it was the difference between success and failure.
Much had been made in the build-up to Tuesday's game of Pickford's supposed shortcomings from penalties. One paper had even led with a story that the Everton man faced the prospect of being substituted for the larger Nick Pope in the eventuality of a penalty shootout. What had been forgotten, apart from Pickford's voracious appetite to prove himself at the top level, was that the 24-year-old boasted a superior record than his rival in this area over the course of the club season, having saved three of the eight penalties he had faced for Everton. Burnley's Pope, by contrast, had stopped just one of six.
In essence, what the debate had again boiled down to - wrongly - was a concern over the 6 ft 1 'keeper's frame. This had been a recurrent theme after the Belgium game in particular, with opposite number Thibaut Courtois further sticking the boot in during his post-match interview. "The goalkeeper is 10cm smaller than me. I would have caught it," he said.
Again, in typical fashion, Pickford responded in the best possible way. The full-stretch save to tip wide a shot destined for the top corner from Mateus Oribe was arguably the most impressive of the tournament to date and showcased an astonishing level of elasticity. "I have got power and agility," Pickford told reporters rather pointedly after the match. "I don’t care if I’m not the biggest keeper because it’s about being there in the moment and making the save, and I was."
In the end, the England goalkeeper will be remembered far more for what followed later on in the shootout; the superlative save from Uribe becoming a distant memory on a night that will ultimately end up being condensed down into several short moments from 12 yards.
Maybe that's a tad unfair given what had come before, but in truth all of this matters little now. This was Pickford's night; perhaps as it was always destined to be.
