Going back about 16 years in time, today a single glance in the legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon's best time in his career. Let's go back to 2006, the FIFA world cup.
At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Germany faced Italy in the semifinals on the night of July 4 in front of 75,000 spectators at Westfalenstadion in Dortmund. At that time both the teams were full of star players. If you lose, you have to make your way home from that event and if you win, you can take your dream one step further. Yes that's how a semi final actually looks like. So it can be said that Italy's war against the Germans will undoubtedly be terrible. After the start of the game both teams were well into their stride of attack, counter-attack, tackling, overlapping and more. The walk of the two masterminds in the dugout combined everything and the match was frozen. Just as the Germans missed two or three chances before the 90 minutes of the match, the Italians created an even more frustrating situation. In the 90th and 92nd minutes of the match, two Italian players, Gilardino and Gianluca Fabio's shots hit the bar. This gave the Germans a big scare, but kept them alive in the game. On the other hand, the Azzuris are moving one step forward towards the dream but two steps back.
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The Germans were very good at long passes, very much so. The age of the match was 110 minutes. Del Piero was caught by two defenders inside the Germans' box and the ball was passed to Sebastian Kehl from right back. Then Kehl to Odencore to Kehl. In the 111th minute of the match, Kehl passed from Zone 14 to Lucas Podolski, who was unmarked in the box area. From inside the box, Podolski's left footed bullet was fired with the palm of his hand by Gianluigi Buffon, the watchman of the Azzurri fortress. A sensational save after which the Commentator Said, what a save! world class save by world class goalkeeper.
It seems that the key to driving the Germans out of the biggest football festival on earth, or sending them home from their own back yard, or turning the fans' dream of happiness into a nightmare at the football temple of Signal Iduna Park was Buffon's save at that crucial moment. Who knows if Italy could have reached the final without Buffon's world class save at that very moment. And everyone knows what happened next, as they call it, history. In the final match, Gianluigi Buffon became the savior of the Azzurri by returning Zidane's tremendous head. Buffon's goal-keeping role was as much important as that of Pirlo, Totti, Materazzi, Cannavaro, Gattuso, Grosso, and Del Piero for Italy to become world champions.
Since debuting in his professional career, Buffon has been credited with consistent performances throughout his career, as well as being praised for keeping his head cool under pressure and destroying opponents' attacks. His positioning sense and shot stopping ability under the crossbar is remarkable. He is currently considered a role model for many goalkeepers and it is expected that this number will increase in the coming days. Gigi Buffon, the legendary Italian goalkeeper, was born on January 28, 1978 in Cararara, Italy. He is a former Italian and now Serie A goalkeeper for Juventus. Buffon is an absolute legend. He has accomplished enough. Enough to make him immortal in the Italian football history, and the world football too. Football owes this man a champions league medal. For which he has tried. And going all cylinders even today. We can only hope he completes his quest. For it is what keeps us going. Ambition, the driving force.