Emi Martinez, the latest among Argentina’s steely shot-stoppers

“I have scored more than a thousand goals in my life and the thing people always talk to me about is the one I didn’t score.” The comment sums up arguably the greatest competitive moment in World Cup history.

It was Pele recalling years later about the one that got away from the goal machine, the man regarded as the game’s greatest, in 1970 Mexico where England goalkeeper Gordon Banks pulled off an almost impossible save.

A vintage colour footage shows Pele send a downward header from the right wing cross and throw up his hands in celebration, only for Banks to somehow tip over. Pele and Brazil went on to win their third title, but it cemented the friendship with Banks, one of the game’s greats and the 1966 World Cup winner.

“I thought that was a goal,” Pele would say later. “You and me both”, Banks would respond.

It is unlikely that Argentina and Netherlands would sit together anytime soon to go through the dramatic moments of Friday night’s thrilling yet bad-tempered quarterfinal. Argentina’s hero in the end was goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

His two brilliant saves off the first two attempts, blocking Virgil van Dijk’s effort diving to the right and Steven Berghuis’ attempt to the left, showcased his skill and temperament, breaking the Dutch hearts in the penalties. Argentina won the shootout 4-2 after the teams were tied 2-all at the end of extra time.

This has been a World Cup of goalkeeping heroics. Morocco’s Yassine Bounou was the hero in the shootout win over Spain in the last 16 while Croatia’s tactics itself has been worked around the brilliance of shot-stopper Dominik Livakovic. The shootout hero in beating Brazil on penalties will be up against Martinez in the semifinals on Tuesday.

Martinez saved Argentina in the last 16 too with a reflex block in added time denying striker Garang Kuol, at 18 years and 79 days the youngest in a World Cup knockout match after Pele in 1958, the equaliser for Australia.

Long gone are the days when goalkeepers in South American football were seen as a mere extra to the artists showing off their skills high up on the pitch.

And Argentina have a tradition of finding goalkeepers with inner steel forged by their tough path. In 1990, Sergio Goycochea was the penalties hero in the quarterfinal and semi-final wins over Yugoslavia and Italy respectively, after thwarting Brazil in the 1-0 second round win for Argentina.

Goycochea was only the understudy of 1986 winner Neri Pumpido at River Plate and the national team. Pumpido broke his leg in the second game against Soviet Union, thrusting Goycochea into the limelight.

Argentina found a goalkeeping hero in the run to the 2014 World Cup final as well. Sergio Romero, struggling for first team football with Monaco—some reports even said he trained in a park to stay fit, who saved shots from Ron Vlaar and Wesley Sneijder in the 4-2 semi-final shootout win over the Netherlands.

Martinez has risen through a career filled with uncertainties. Scouted from Independiente by Arsenal in 2010, the 17-year-old was reluctant to move. “(My family) lacked a little financially. I did it more for that than sports,” he told the Spanish newspaper El Pais. A nudge by Pepe Santoro, a coach at Independiente, helped. “He told me that the train only passes once in a lifetime.”

Nine years of obscurity followed in Arsenal—he made only 15 appearances between 2011 and 2020, when he left. Martinez finally got a break in 2020 when Mikel Arteta took over as manager. The young Martinez had in Arteta a mentor when the Spaniard was a Gunners player.

Injury to first choice Bernd Leno meant Martinez took over. For someone who had been loaned out season after season, he didn’t just see out the season, but was a key man in the FA Cup final win over Chelsea and in the Community Shield, in which Arsenal beat league champions Liverpool on penalties.

With Leno to return, Martinez asked to be made first-choice or given a transfer. Arteta let him to go, and the 30-year-old is the main man for Aston Villa after 15 clean sheets in his first season (2020-21).

Martinez’s Argentina career too was reward for a long wait.

His first call up was in 2011, the second in 2019. He was unused in both the friendlies. He made his Argentina debut only in June, 2021 with the Copa America last year his first tournament with the Albeceleste. His three saves helped beat Colombia on penalties in the semi-final before beating Brazil 1-0 in the final gave Argentina and Messi an emotional victory. Martinez was awarded the Golden Glove as the best keeper.

Brazil brought two of the world’s finest goalkeepers in Liverpool’s Alisson and Manchester City’s Ederson, yet they were sent home by Croatia on penalties in the last 16.

Martinez is not seen at that level yet. But with Messi pulling the strings up front, the team would care little. Argentina know they have a warrior under the bar.