“Sir Alex Ferguson hailed Ben Foster as an England first-choice goalkeeper in waiting after the youngster’s fine penalty shoot-out save from Jamie O’Hara proved pivotal in Manchester United claiming the Carling Cup to complete the second leg of what would be an unprecedented haul of the three major domestic trophies, the Champions League and the World Club Championship,” Dominic Fifield reports for The Guardian.
“Foster, who had spent the moments before the penalties watching footage of Tottenham Hotspur’s players taking recent penalties on an iPod, dived to his left to palm away the luckless O’Hara’s attempt, Tottenham’s first after the teams had failed to muster a goal in 120 minutes, with David Bentley’s subsequent effort wide of the left-hand post serving to wrest the cup from the Londoners. It fell to United’s Brazilian midfielder, Anderson, to confirm a 4-1 shoot-out success, though victory owed much to Foster whose saves, particularly from Aaron Lennon in normal time, had helped to prolong parity,” Fifield reports.
Full article here.
Matt Dickinson reports for The Times, “The sight of Ben Foster staring at an iPod shortly before yesterday’s penalty shoot-out might have sent Manchester United supporters into all kinds of anxieties. Was this really the time to be listening to Coldplay? Or watching a video of Shakira?”
“In fact, Foster was watching footage of Tottenham Hotspur’s penalty-takers, which had been prepared by Eric Steele, United’s goalkeeping coach — a level of research and preparation that deserved to be rewarded with the Carling Cup, particularly with Spurs understood not to have practised spot-kicks,” Dickinson reports.
Full article here.
Sky Sports reports, “Foster told reporters: ‘Just before the shoot-out I was looking at an iPod with goalkeeping coach Eric Steele. On it were images of Spurs taking penalties. I’d been told if O’Hara took a kick that he would probably go to my left. It was great that was exactly what happened and I managed to get a hand to it… The iPod is Eric’s innovation. It’s an amazing tool, you can brush up straight away.'”
Full article here.
Stuart Mathieson reports for The Manchester Evening News, “Foster hailed the contribution of United’s goalkeeping coach Eric Steele for the innovative idea that helped the Reds gain the upper hand in the dramatic spot-kick lottery… ‘The iPod idea was a new one for us when Eric came to the club in the summer. I have never seen anything like it before. I don’t think any of the other keepers have. It is a fantastic tool for us. It certainly helped us out at Wembley. Over the last couple of days we have had a lot of things to look at and study. Eric and I were then looking at the iPod with videos on it before the penalties were taken. It shows you clips of where players will normally put the ball that he has compiled for us.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
