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Vicario and his absurd save against Roma — Sportellate.it

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Vicario and his absurd save against Roma — Sportellate.it

Vicar in Roma-Empoli made a save that is already iconic.


We talk about William Vicar as of one of the best goalkeepers in Serie A for over a year but it was Saturday night that his name went viral on the web. It happened after hers triple pared in the 46th minute of the match between Rome and Empoli. A triple intervention that immediately clogged our feeds accompanied by captions overflowing with disbelief and exploding brain emojis.

Empoli lost the match 2-0 with two goals conceded within the first 6 minutes of the game. Vicario’s multiple save in the 46th minute therefore didn’t help keep the match open: this is a factor that increases the absurdity of that feat; which gives it a life of its own as if that gesture were released from the game and created at the table to go viral on social networks – just like a TikTok choreography. In addition, it is significant that Vicario made such a spectacular save against the Romaa team this year in the dramatic offensive underperformance. While Vicario stretches like a cat to repel of foot the header of Abraham, it is difficult to understand whether the save or the way in which the English forward manages to waste yet another opportunity is more spectacular. Abraham who is the fourth player in Serie A with the worst Goal-xG differential, better only than wasteful artists such as Lasagna, Deulofeu and Lorenzo Pellegrini.

Looking at this freeze frame, would you ever say that the ball won’t enter?

Vicar, on the other hand, is a goalkeeper specializing in miracle saves. Last season nobody conceded more shots than him in Serie A and nobody made more saves (Fbref data). With a save percentage of 69.9% he was one of the best goalkeepers in the league and in the summer he looked ready to leave Empoli. He was close to both Fiorentina and Lazio, but then nothing came of it because there was always a few million missing from the 15 that the Empoli president Corsi was asking for. This season Empoli, which in the meantime passed from Andreazzoli to Paolo Zanetti, has put something in place in the defense of defensive transitions and concedes less to their opponents. Vicario is confirming himself on last year’s levels in terms of saves: his saves for 90 minutes have dropped from 3.95 to 3.1, but on the other hand the percentage of shots conceded has risen to almost 73%.

In the last transfer window, as expected, the big clubs came looking for him: Juventus, Rome, Naples. In January the Bavaria Monaco offered 20 million euros to make Neuer’s successor Vicar. Corsi refused and further raised the price to 30 million: having arrived at these prices, it is now unlikely that Vicario will be able to go to an Italian team next year.

Having said this, it is easier to understand why the triple save against Roma generated so much euphoria. Empoli-Roma was played immediately after the market closed, at the height of the international fame achieved by Vicario (until now, at least) and the clip of the speech that starts circulating on social media seems the official baptism of Vicario as the next king of the transfer market. The classic video that Studio Sport would repeat ad nauseam: starring an exotic talent now close to abandoning the niche, intended to trigger an international auction at the earliest opportunity. The fact that the opponent was Roma with its chronic inconclusiveness, then, seems a circumstance written specifically to enhance the characteristics of Vicar. A goalkeeper with a reputation for blocking everything contrasted with attackers who make a lot of mistakes in the sills; the spider-like elasticity of Vicario against the heaviness of a Rome that is dangerous almost only on set pieces.

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And in fact, Roma’s action begins in the 46th minute right from the free kick. Pellegrini delivers a right-footed corner to return. Luperto heads away towards the edge of the area, where El Shaarawy dominates Baldanzi and recycles the ball for Dybala. That one coordinates to kick first with the left. It’s an elegant coordination, Dybala has plenty of time to twirl his body like a ballerina and hit the ball cleanly. Perhaps too clean, they say in these cases, because the ball that comes off Dybala’s instep heads towards the goal with a straight and not too powerful trajectory. It rises from bottom to top with what appears to be a uniform motion, devoid of acceleration and oscillation like the motion of a Frisbee. Vicario doesn’t need to move from his position at the near post to intercept the shot, but perhaps he sees the ball leave late – it’s covered by Parisi – and his rebound is a bit awkward: with fists together, towards the center of the area . The first of three parades who probably opened the doors of international football to Vicario, therefore, it is a technically not flawless save.

The rejected falls on the feet of Mancini, more or less placed at the height of the penalty spot. With Vicario still far away, near the post, Mancini fired with a sure shot, aiming towards the unguarded portion of the goal. It is at that moment that Vicario gathers the maximum flexibility at his disposal, and reorganizes his body to launch himself towards the opposite post and intercept Mancini’s shot with his right hand, diving. AND this type of one-handed parry that characterizes the style of Vicar. With the slim silhouette, long limbs and small stick insect head, Vicario defined his style around the reactivity cricket ball with which he seems to teleport on the trajectories of the shots. When he was Venice’s second goalkeeper he was nicknamed “tegoina”, pod, for his long and light figure and for the green shirt he wore. It is in saves like the one on Mancini that his mild physicalityalmost immaterial, like this unusual for a goalkeeperallows Vicario to suddenly coordinate and find strange configurations of his body even in the air.

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But the action isn’t over yet. Vicario fumbles backwards towards the goal line and so his rebound doesn’t have enough momentum and the ball stays there. Perfect for the head of Abraham. The one sinks his head into his shoulders and dives to gore without fail. If we take the frame from a few paragraphs ago, the one in which Abraham hits the ball, the goal is practically done: the attacker who also hits well (at least it seems), two meters from the goal, the goalkeeper lying on the ground, Smalling, Mancini and Pellegrini in the area with their arms half raised ready to cheer.

And instead Vicar para. Block with the sole of the left foot. This is the parade of the three that has aroused the most dismay and the most questions: did the Vicar parry or did Abraham throw his boot? Vicario extends his legs towards the ball voluntarily or is that breakdance pose – the chest on the grass, the head bent horizontally and the legs in the air – is it only due to the fall after the previous dive? In short, he was vicar Also well done o solo fortunato?

It is difficult to answer these questions, and perhaps even useless. It is more interesting instead to make other considerations. For example, it is legitimate to admit that the three saves overall were technically not that great. In the first the rebound is wrong, and in the third luck (and Abraham’s imprecision) clearly helps Vicario: according to Sofascore, before the Englishman’s shot a shot from that position is worth 0.33 xG, after the header the post-shooting xG value drops to 0.17. A sign that Abraham peels the ball, he lowers the quality of the shot compared to what was expected. In short, maybe it’s not this triptych of saves that shows the best of Vicar’s qualities between the posts. For that there are other saves and other matches – for example the one again against Roma in the first round, in which Vicario block with the legs a shot face to face with Bove, or intercept with an open hand a shot by Belotti comes out.

Last Saturday’s triple save, on the other hand, is truly exceptional provided you consider it as an oddity, an objectively chaotic and absurd match event. The exceptional nature lies in the spectacular escalation of the three interventions: in an action with growing pathos, as in all situations of hitting and hitting in the area, Vicario makes three saves that are in turn progressively more unpredictable and spectacular. It is no coincidence, on the contrary, everything is explained by the talent of Vicario: a goalkeeper – trivially – very strong at parrying shots and exalted in chaotic situations. A flashy goalkeeper, therefore, with a reactivity such as to be able to splash and intercept a shot in the most unpredictable ways, as if he had a trampoline under his feet to give him momentum.

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There’s another photo that was re-shared on Saturday along with Vicario’s foot parade – the most curious and indecipherable of the three, so let’s focus on that one. Depicts Ed Warnerone of the protagonist goalkeepers of Holly & Benji, in his iconic gesture of jumping on the post and using it as a springboard to give himself the momentum to save penalties. Although the geometry of the body can be superimposed on Vicario’s intervention, Warner’s is therefore not exactly a foot save.

Warner borrowed that move from karate, an art in which his family has a great tradition, yet if we really want to compare Vicario’s parade to a martial art, it seems to me that he looks more like a figure of capoeira, a fighting art hybridized by elements of dance and which finds its meaning in the missed but only simulated physical contact. An art, therefore, which presupposes that the two duelists know prima the opponent’s moves, that the two follow a predetermined choreography.

Anticipating the opponent’s moves is one of the few tools available to the goalkeeper on a football field – think of the extreme case of the penalty, in which the goalkeeper’s only hope is guess where the penalty taker will kick – and Vicario’s reactivity really seems to depend on a particularly developed sense of anticipation. Take a good look at the intervention on Abrahamto the way the two duelists seem to know each other’s moves. It actually looks like capoeira: Abraham who supports the ball to Vicario in one point pre-establishedVicar who takes the momentum to get to the point pre-established with a roundhouse kick.

In this sense the vicar parade is very different, for example, from the one of Dudek su Shevchenko in the extra time of the 2005 Champions League final. A similar save in some respects, in particular for the unpredictable way in which the goalkeeper on the ground deflects the tap-in shot without fail. Shevchenko pounced on Dudek’s first clearance and unloaded the ball into the goal with all the violence he was capable of. A violence that contrasts with the placidity with which the goalkeeper imposes his hands and bars the door. The parade of Dudek it seems absurd to us because the goalkeeper it is motionless and seems to magnetically attract the ball to itselfthe one of Vicar why the goalkeeper keep moving towards the ball while in the middle of a stunt, while still being aware of your body in space at all times like a martial artist or gymnast.


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