Germans are masters of penalties, especially at World Cups. They had won the last four shootouts before Paraguay’s 6’6” goalkeeper Orlando Gill beat them at their own game. Gill made himself look even bigger to make two crucial saves in the tie-breaker to script a historic South American victory.
The Netherlands, blessed with incredible attacking prowess and midfield riches, are known to settle matters in open play. Morocco held them 1-1 for more than 120 minutes, and later held their nerve to win 3-2 on penalties. The last kick of the game, a cool calculated strike to the right of the goalkeeper, was by a Moroccan who learned the tricks of the trade in the country he had just eliminated. Ismael Saibari plays for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
In a matter of hours, two European giants, usually among the last to leave the World Cup, were on their flight home. The global football map was reshaping, and so was continental hierarchy.
There was barely an element of surprise in Morocco’s triumph as they are ranked above the Netherlands. Germany’s exit was a bigger shock. Though a shadow of their past selves, the four-time World Champions faced a team that had not featured in this competition since 2010, and there was a 22-place gap between the teams in the FIFA rankings.
Paraguay coach Gustafo Alfaro did not shy away from highlighting the contrast. “They graduate from top-tier academies. We come from the red land, playing barefoot on soil,” he said after the upset of this World Cup.
This was why the hero of the day for Paraguay, goalkeeper Gill, was mobbed by teammates as he stood by the corner flag with his arms spread. All through the game, he had defied the Germans, looked every bit the man who held up a roof.
Two years ago, his wife had put out an emotional post that not many read: “When Lauti (their son) was born, we had nothing. Orlando sold his old club’s clothes.” The tweet sat unnoticed until his saves against Turkey in the group game a few days back. This was when the post got a second life.
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When it mattered the most, Gill rose. Not once, but twice. Two stunning saves to deny Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade. The second save, in particular, was the kind that goalkeepers spend careers chasing and rarely get more than once. Two saves from four German kicks, and the door was open.
Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill was the hero of the penalty shootout against Germany in their World Cup round of 32 match. (AP Photo)
Paraguay could not have been closer to the finish line when the timeless Manuel Neuer nearly made the story about himself. The 40-year-old legend, a World Cup winner in 2014, had come up with a vintage save on the fifth Paraguayan attempt to take the game to sudden death as the scores were tied after five penalties each.
Jonathan Tah, who had already had a perfectly good header chalked off by VAR in extra time, stepped up last and could have made himself the night’s hero twice over, but he put the ball into the stand behind the goal. Jose Canale did not miss. Paraguay had beaten Germany at a World Cup, and the win belonged to Gill before it belonged to anyone else.
Before the shootout, Paraguay sat deep, soaked up wave after wave of sterile German pressure, and waited for the one moment the game was going to offer. It came on the counter in the 42nd minute. Neuer punched a corner kick, one he should have caught. Miguel Almiron, alive to the loose ball, passed inside to Matias Galarza, and then the ball reached Julio Enciso, a forward built for long-range strikes. Enciso arrived at the near post to bury the cross with a header. Paraguay needed one moment of carelessness, and Neuer gave it to them.
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In the 54th minute, Havertz answered. The forward is not, by his own admission, a natural header of the ball, and yet his last five World Cup games keep finding a way to disagree with him. Florian Wirtz’s cross was exact. Havertz let it arrive and turned it past Gill, who could do nothing about it. The game was tied 1-1.
There was drama in extra time. In the 119th minute, Tah rose to head in a corner from Nathaniel Brown, only for the goal to be ruled out, Waldemar Anton judged to have fouled Gill in the build-up. The monitor sat wedged into a technical area so narrow the referee had to ask both benches to physically move so he could reach it.
It was that kind of night, somewhere short of a classic. Two headers, the only goals from open play across two hours of football, and a shootout needed to find a winner. The goalkeeper who once sold his clothes to keep his family standing finally got his day in the sun.
Germany are out, the tournament’s first big casualty, but they had lost their aura long ago. The exit was merely a reflection of the rot in their once clockwork system. Paraguay are through to the last 16 on the back of a goalkeeper nobody outside Asuncion could have named a month ago.