In defense of Lars.

[Paddy]

After watching the clips (repeatedly) of the Portugal goals I cannot really blame Lars. On the first goal, I have seen this many times before; the ball is curving away from Lars. This is either the nature of the shot or a deflection. If a ball is coming at you then curves away, what can you do? It is very hard to judge when the ball comes from within a group of players and then suddenly changes direction (just look at the spin on the ball in the clip - suggests a deflection). In the other goals I would say a lot of the blame lies in the defenders not picking up men. Just look how close the attackers are to Lars and how unchallenged they are. The second goal has the ball getting past 2 defenders to an unmarked man within feet of the net. This is not Lars’ fault. Third goal has, again, a man left totally unmarked right in front of the net. Lars fault? No. Defenders. Yes! It is not Lars' job to come out and challenge this type of cross. On the forth goal the attacker is not challenge and rolls in for a textbox far post finish. I think Lars was well positioned and didn't need to come any further out of his net. You can see that the defender is well out of position and is having to desperately sprit to try and block the shot. Lars may not be perfect, but come on, he is not a washed up bum as some of you have stated. There is a very good chance that Craig would have come off just as poorly. Just watch West Ham vs. Man U. when the lost 7-0 on two occasions. One could misguidedly say that it was Craig’s fault when in fact it was the defense and the quality of the opposition.

[An Observer]

From looking at the goals again and again, Lars definitely looks at fault on the first one although I would like to see it again. He seems to dive to the right not realising the guy hit the ball off the inside of his foot...i am not sure if there was a deflection. On the next three, Reda seems at fault as on No. 2 he (or McKenna) should have cut that ball out. But Lars should have cut it out as well in my opinion so its all three of their faults. On No. 3, McKenna was just too far away from the guy heading the ball. On No. 4, he seemed to ball watch and when the guy passed to the player on the righ, he was in too much space for Reda to close him down. I would say that McKenna could have cut the ball out on No. 2 and certainly should have moved over a bit quicker on No. 4 to close the guy down so Reda could have confidence to close down the guy who eventually scored...also Kluklowski could have helped alot on that one as well (and possibly no. 3).

[Cheeta]

I don't know.

That 1st goal came from a mighty ways out. It had better have taken a deflection or that's just crap 'keeping. I honestly had the impression (in the heat of the moment) that Lars paniced. Or Fernandez just cannoned it. Likely a bit of both. But from out there Fernandez is suppose to cannon it. Lars isn't suppose to panic though.

Plenty of blame to go around on that 2nd one I thought. Sharp play by Portugal. Good for them.

[Gian-Luca]

I have to say think McKenna is at fault on the 2nd goal for not marking his man. It looked like he was marking Reda. I do think Lars could have done better on the first goal.

[Daniel]

I'm pretty sure that the first goal was undeflected, but had a wicked swerve because it was hit with the outside of the boot.

As for the 2nd one, I feel that Lars could have jumped on the ball when the carrier came into the box.

[An Observer]

Actually Daniel...i think it was the inside of his right foot whereas if he hit on the inside it would have went in the direction that Lars thought.

[CanadasBest]

I'm going to blame the ball on the first goal. That spin is very difficult to pick up until too late. The pattern on that game ball is horrible. The ball also takes quite the curve on the cross for the second goal. That and no communication between defence and keeper caused that goal. Very strange too, since Hirschfeld is one of the more vocal Keepers that I have seen on the field for Canada.