Rare thinking outside the box
QUESTION Have many soccer goalkeepers played games in outfield positions?
ONE famous example of this was when David James played up front for Manchester City against Middlesbrough in 2005.
It was the final match of the 2004-5 English Premier League campaign for both sides, and it was actually an important one; the two teams were vying to secure seventh place, which would guarantee a place in the Uefa Cup the following season.
Middlesbrough needed just a draw to achieve this, while City, the home side, needed a win.
Not a time to experiment with playing a goalkeeper in an outfield position, you might have thought, but City boss Stuart Pearce had other ideas.
Explaining his rationale to TalkSport in 2019, Pearce recalled: ‘I was sat at home the night before thinking I’ve got to win the game. I was thinking about what I could do if the match was a stalemate late on. I thought to myself: I’ll put James up front. I had that up my sleeve.’
The manager took the unusual step of not bothering to inform his goalkeeper of his cunning plan beforehand. Pearce recalled: ‘I told the kitman to print me an outfield James number one shirt and I said, “Don’t tell him for goodness sake”. He didn’t know anything about it.’
James started in his usual role as keeper, but at half-time he got an inkling of what lay in store.
The goalie later recalled: ‘The kitman mentioned at half-time that he had printed a shirt up for me, and I was like, “What do you mean?”, and he hinted that there may be a chance that I would go up front.’
With just two minutes of normal time remaining, the game was tied at 1-1. It was time for Pearce’s plan to swing into action.
The manager replaced midfielder Claudio Reyna with second-choice goalkeeper Nicky Weaver, freeing James up to take on the role of centre-forward.
This was seen as insulting towards Jon Macken – a striker by trade, capped by the Republic of Ireland the previous year – who was left on the City bench. Explaining this snub, Pearce said Macken ‘was not scoring and playing well’ at the time.
But he could hardly have fared worse than James, who crashed around aimlessly, swinging wildly at the ball and looking more like a pub player than a professional.
Reflecting on his performance later, the England international said: ‘I didn’t know where I was supposed to be. Had I been told the day before that there was any chance, I’d have stayed around for an extra hour at the end of training and just practised everything that I would have needed to do as an outfield player.’
There was almost a happy ending to this rather bizarre chapter in City’s history, though, as they were awarded a penalty in injury time, for a handball.
Mercifully, James was not tasked with taking the penalty, but alas, City striker Robbie Fowler’s spot-kick was still saved by Boro keeper Mark Schwarzer – delivering an important lesson that it’s best for goalies to remain in their proper position.
Middlesbrough held on for a draw, and James failed to make himself an unlikely hero. Stephen Clarke, Dublin.
QUESTION Did Joe Kittinger break the sound barrier when he performed his 19-mile jump?
FOR years, the record for the highest freefall parachute jump was held by U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger.
Over Tularosa, New Mexico, on August 16, 1960, he stepped out of a balloon at a height of 102,800ft (19.5 miles) for a free fall of 85,800ft (16.3 miles) lasting four minutes 38 seconds. During this time, he reached a top speed of 625.2mph.
Yet this wasn’t enough to reach the speed of sound, which is 760.98mph at sea level and 659.78mph above 36,098ft.
Kittinger’s achievement stood for more than 50 years until October 14, 2012, when Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner made a freefall jump from a height of 127,852ft (24.2 miles).
A lack of air resistance at height meant he reached 843.6mph, thus becoming the first person to break the sound barrier while in freefall, one of several world records set that day. On October 24, 2014, Baumgartner’s record for the highest freefall parachute jump was broken by Alan Eustace, then Google’s senior vice president, who jumped from a height of 135,899ft (25.7 miles). Tim Mickleburgh, Linconshire.
QUESTION
Do any nations take the matronym for the surname?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, Filipinos are given their mother’s maiden name as a middle name. For children born out of wedlock and not recognised by the father, the child, by law, must have the mother’s surname. Carla Smith, Painswick,
Gloucestershire.