He shouldn't have turned his back in retrospect while closing down (It isn't going to loop up and down like that off someone's forehead or chest), but even at the time as a child I recognised it wasn't really his fault as much as it was awful luck that it went in after deflecting off him. What are the odds that it would deflect at the right angle to nip in under the bar, and keep most of the speed at the same time? It was quite freakish. Shilton may have been a bit culpable too, but it's easy to say that in hindsight- nobody expects such a trajectory from a free kick situation (I've never seen it happen before or since) and it all happens in a second or so from when Brehme struck the kick. Shilton shimmies forward rapidly, anticipating it coming over the wall in conventional fashion and covering mainly his near post so that he can react in a predominately lateral direction. He was not set right to be able to jump up, and he can't reasonably be blamed for that.
Funny how Shilton & Seaman are regarded as 2 of Englands greatest goalkeepers but Seaman was lobbed from 3 mile away by Ronaldinho and Shilton was out jumped by a shortarse Maradona (even though he used his hand) and didn't even jump for the deflected free kick against Germany. All absolutely huge moments in Englands failure to win a major tropny since 1966
@@terryfisher3483 Very true both of them were way passed their best in the respective tournaments though. Seaman peaked around 96 but was still decent enough in 98, he had no real competition. As for Shilton, it was a bit before my time, the only keeper I can think of from that era was Chris Woods.
