Last Saturday Southampton made their way down to the Britannia Stadium to take on Stoke City. The game had a surprising start when Stoke City scored a goal after just 13 seconds into the match! Goalkeeper Asmir Begovic kicked the ball away with his right foot and, thanks to a combination of the strong wind and the bouncing of the ball, it bounced right over Artur Borucs head and into the goal. It was a freak goal which Begovic didn’t want to celebrate. Asmir said that on one hand he was happy that he scored but on the other hand he felt bad for Boruc. “It does not make a goalkeeper look good and after it I did not want to celebrate out of respect for him.”
Watch the freak goal here:
Asmir Begovics goal makes him the 5th goalkeeper to ever score in the Premier League. But what is even more alarming is that this goal draws Begovic level with the other top scores for Stoke City. This shows that they haven’t had the greatest start in the Premier League this season.
Artur Boruc wasn’t near the goal at the time this happened and he said that he didn’t even have time to think about how to stop the ball. He was caught by surprise, as most of us were. It looks like our Holy Goalie was beaten by the wind during this match. However Artur Boruc did promise that he will get those 2 points back.
Southampton was the better playing team in the first half and did manage to turn a chance into a goal just before half time. James Ward-Prowse crossed the ball to the far post where Jay Rodriguez was waiting for it. Rodriguez headed the ball into the ground which caused it to bounce over the head of Asmir Begovic who was unable to stop the ball from hitting the net.
Jay Rodriguez celebrating his goal!
Source: Southampton FC official Facebook page
James Ward-Prowse almost scored himself when he took a free kick in the second half. The ball just curled over the top corner of the goal, just missing it’s target. Ward-Prowse is a surprising young player and it won’t be long until he will score from a free kick for Southampton as he did for the National Under-21 Squad. With the way he is taking corners and free kicks now it’s easy to see what a promising young player James Ward-Prowse is.
The Saints missed out on two penalties for handball when the referee decided otherwise. First it was Erik Pieters who blocked a cross from Nathaniel Clyne, then Ryan Shawcross decided to touch the free kick of James Ward-Prowse. Unlucky for Southampton, as it would have been interesting to see how the game could have changed at these events.
Southampton did play better than Stoke City but both teams should be happy with the point they received out of this game. Coach Mauricio Pochettino was happy with the way his team played although he would have been more happy if they had taken all 3 points home. However Pochettino doesn’t blame Artur Boruc for the opening goal. “I don’t blame him at all. I think it had more to do with the weather conditions. It was something completely unexpected, but we are aware these things can happen in football. He didn’t apologize for anything because he didn’t have to. The wind was changing gusts completely all the time and it is a ground which is open on three sides, which makes it even more windy.”
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