Edwin van der Sar Ain’t Done Nothin’

By: chris | February 12th, 2009

Not yet at least. As Manchester United continues to play stubborn – Can we end the formalities and play the Barca v ManU Champions League final next weekend? Pretty please?* – Edwin van der Sar is climbing towards goalkeeper infamy as the minutes of cleanliness pile up. But just how close is he? How close to the worldwide goalkeeping record for minutes without conceding?

Someone asked The Knowledge of the guardian and they…well, they dropped some knowledge.

Quick answer: Edwin’s got a long way to go. Seven more clean sheets long way. A seven game clean sheet streak made all the more difficult by a couple of fixtures against Aston Villa and Liverpool (albeit both at Old Trafford).

As of today van der Sar only sits 11th on the list with 1,212 minutes of stubborness.

1 Mazaropi (Vasco da Gama, Brazil) 1,816mins

2 Thabet El-Batal (National, Egypt) 1,442mins

3 Dany Verlinden (Club Brugge, Belgium) 1,390mins

4 José María Buljubasich (Universidad Católica Santiago, Argentina) 1,352mins

5 Thabet El-Batal (National, Egypt) 1,325mins

6 Essam El-Hadari (National, Egypt) 1,288mins

7 Abel Resino (Atlético Madrid, Spain) 1,275mins

8 Gaëtan Huard (Bordeaux, France) 1,266mins

9 Zetti (Palmeiras, Brazil) 1,242mins

10 Marios Praxitelous (Omonia Nicosia, Cyprus) 1,221mins

However, there is some controversy surrounding Mazaropi’s actual tally:

There remains some doubt over the legitimacy of Mazaropi’s record, with several of the 20-and-a-bit matches he kept clean sheets in played at a regional level, but if it’s good enough for the IFFHS it’s good enough for us.

So what you’re trying to tell me is that a Brazilian has maybe-kinda-sorta fudged his record with maybe-kinda-sorta games in order to achieve a world record and/or significant numeric milestone?

Poppycock. I don’t believe you.

Ignoring Mazaropi for a moment, how far does EvdS need to go in order to surpass Thabet El-Batal? Let’s see.

That would be….trusty abacus…..three fixtures of clean-sheet spectacularness in order to ascend into the “second” position. (Or just after halftime of the third game from a minutes perspective.)

So that’s three home fixtures against Fulham, Blackburn and, um, Portsmouth.

Suppose now’s as good a time to order the plaque as any.

* – Right this moment, who wins that game?

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Category: English Premier League, World Football

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andy

The Portsmouth game is postponed because of the League Cup Final against Spurs the next day. Utd's next League game after that is against Newcastle. Then Liverpool ...
Weston (@wpazzurri)

not if JUVENTUS have anything to say about it... from their hospital beds. and btw, i thought italy bred the best keepers, but look at egypt, they have 3 in the top 11!
dp

Barca, but Man U won't get into the finals. Mourinho will troll Sir Alex yet again in Europe, and Liverpool, unfathomably (like the rest of their season), will bumble and play 3-6-1 and player mutinize their way to a sixth European Cup. Or at least I hope they will--it's not as if they haven't done it before.

Btw, since Resino played in a top European league, does it mean that his record counts more? Just wondering.
Charles

Has he really done anything to deserve credit for clean sheets lately? Each of the Man U. games I've seen lately were pretty much devoid of any difficult saves by their keeper.
elle

Manchester United. And after the game Vidic eats the ball in celebration. Cause he can.
Shazback

I'm trying to find more information about the 1977 and 1978 seasons of Vasco de Gama, and sadly the IFFHS doesn't provide any sources or information... So I've looked at RSSSF, who list the games for these two seasons (both at regional and Campeonato A level, but don't indicate who played each individual game. On May 18 1977 Vasco da Gama beat Bonsuccesso 2-1, and I suppose Mazaropi was in goal then. Vasco went on to not concede another goal until the end of the season (2 games for the 1st stage, 14 games for the 2nd stage, 1 tie-breaker). So, on Sep 28 1977, by not conceding against Flamengo, if Mazaropi played every minute of every game, he would have over 17 consecutive clean sheets (over 1530 minutes). But this is at a regional level, so it's surprising that they include it, but don't include Steve Death's record... Anyway, Vasco de Gama qualified for the Campeonato A 1977 that started on Oct 11 1977, with Vasco drawing 1-1 with Americao RJ. Perhaps Mazaropi missed that match. On Oct 23 1977 and Oct 28 1977 Vasco won 3-0 (vs. Brasilia and Goias), but on Nov 2 1977 Vasco won 6-2 against Goiana. Perhaps Mazaropi also missed that match, but if that was the case, then he probably missed a few other matches during the season (why not choose your #1 keeper who's on a 1,600+ minute clean sheet streak for the most important competition?). Anyway, although Vasco remained goal-tight in the Campeonato A, they conceded a total of 10 goals in 18 games, so if Mazaropi was the #1 goalkeeper, he conceded a goal between Oct 11 1977 and March 5 1978.

The IFFHS stop Mazaropi's record on 7 Sept 1978, when Vasco won 2-1 against Madureira in the Rio de Janeiro regional league... Their second game of the season. So it seems that IFFHS count Mazaropi's record ONLY in the regional league. I'm somewhat confused by this... Sure the Campeonato A in the 70s was a complicated almost tournament-like competition, but it was the national league.

In the regional league, Mazaropi had a 1816-minute clean sheet streak, but in the national league he didn't get close to that. If we combine both he still has an extra-ordinary 1600-odd minutes without conceding.

Clean sheets against Fulham, Blackburn and Portsmouth would make the record his, since Thabet El-Batal is currently (IMO) the man that's got it.
Hawk

Barca wins the game, crushing any clean sheet record dreams EvS might have.