TFC goalkeepers feel Karius’s pain
Toronto FC goalkeeper Alex Bono knows Loris Karius’s pain.
Two costly flubs in Liverpool’s 3-1 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League final have doubtless left the German ’keeper with haunting memories. Bono has endured similar gaffes, if not on the world stage.
“It’s a really dark point,” says Bono. “And you feel like everyone’s pissed off at you, everyone’s mad at you. And you feel like you let the team down. For me that’s the worst feeling that you can have as goalkeeper. I definitely felt for him.”
Karius gave up one goal when his attempt to roll the ball to a teammate landed on the foot of opposition striker Karim Benzema. And, late in the second half, he saw Gareth Bale’s longrange shot somehow squirt through his hands.
Both of Karius’s mistakes struck home with the 24-year-old Bono, who won his first U.S. international cap in a 3-0 win over Bolivia on Monday.
Bono recalled a college game playing for Syracuse when he tried to fake rolling the ball to a teammate and it slipped out of his hand. Watching Karius misplay Bale’s shot for the second gaffe, Bono said he “immediately flashed back to San Jose two years ago.”
That’s when Bono misjudged a Simon Dawkins long-range shot, flailing his left hand as the ball flashed past it to give nine-man San Jose a 2-1 win in July 2016.
Bono remembers running into the locker-room as soon as the game ended. He recalls veteran French midfielder Benoit Cheyrou putting his arm around him in the dressing room, saying “Listen, there’s another game coming up ... Get it out of your system, get it out of your head.”
Bono just hopes that the Liverpool ’keeper gets a chance to shed those bad memories.
“It’s a really tough mental barrier to break through sometimes. I think he’s a good goalkeeper, I think he’s a very good goalkeeper obviously. I hope that he can break through that barrier and continue his career.”
Clint Irwin, Bono’s goalkeeping teammate at TFC, also felt for Karius.
“As goalkeepers, we all know that feeling. Maybe not at that stage or that type of game but you know the feeling of ’I really screwed up and that goal was completely on me.’ ... We’ve all been there but I think it skews a little bit because he’s playing in the biggest club match in the world. So it’s tough.”