If not a new concept, the idea of a clutch player is at least a newish term.
It’s the Lionel Messi of Barcelona but not of PSG. It’s Massimo Maccarone for Middlesbrough in 2006 or Mario Balotelli for Manchester City as much as Sergio Aguero in 2012.
For England, at least for a little while, it was David Beckham.
It’s weird to look back at England campaigns in the early part of the 21st century and see such strong squads on paper struggle their way through qualifying campaigns.
While the 1998 World Cup and 2004 European Championships saw England look like legitimate contenders, their place was secured in both by crucial goalless draws away from home in the final qualifier, with potential play-off hiccups against Russia and Latvia respectively just one goal away.
And in 2002, an excellent squad was left on the verge of a play-off round exit before Beckham’s crucial contribution.
A team that had beaten Germany 5-1 in Munich ought to have been home and dry before their last game but somehow contrived to trail a Greece side with no points from three previous away games.
And yet, when Beckham placed the ball outside the penalty area with seconds remaining, there was a weirdly prevailing sense of ‘don’t worry, he’s got this’.
It wasn’t an ‘easy’ free-kick to convert, and even if it was, the concept of easy disappears in the final minute of a crucial qualifier where your country’s progress rides on whether you score or miss.
Easier chances have been squandered in similar high-pressure situations – Asamoah Gyan’s penalty against Uruguay is the obvious example, while if you want to go beyond football there’s Scott Hoch’s missed putt in the Masters – but Beckham’s approach and conversion seemed almost run-of-the-mill.
Perhaps it was the daytime setting removing the extra drama of a potential floodlit failure, or perhaps it was our memory of the two crucial corners against Bayern Munich two years earlier, but watching the match at home I distinctly remember thinking there was nothing to worry about.
We all know what happened next: he left Antonios Nikopolidis no chance and would step up again at a crucial moment to score a penalty winner against Argentina in the tournament proper, with only a moment of quarter-final genius from Ronaldinho blocking England’s path in the tournament.
🌍🏆 World Cup iconic moments:
📆 07 June, 2002
🏟️ Sapporo Dome, Sapporo
David Beckham fires in a penalty after @themichaelowen is…
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