A brilliant performance from the British-Nigerian wonder kid, Owen Goodman, have seen the Crystal Palace U21 team zoomed into the finals of the Premier League International Cup.
A rare review from English soccer pundits described the performance of the 19-years old goalkeeper as the hero of the semi final clash between the English club against the Spanish side, Valencia Mestalla.
In the match which ended 1-1 at both the regulation and extra time, saw the British born goalkeeper pull off a number of saves that kept the hope of Crystal Palace qualification into the finals alive.
The 19-year-old goalkeeper stepped up again during the spot-kicks at Selhurst Park, diving to his right to deny Jose Luis Perez.
This gave Palace the platform to finish off the shoot-out and secure passage to their first ever PL International Cup final, which will take place later this month against PSV Eindhoven at Selhurst Park.
Goodman who has been consistence in his performance since 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons for his club, said he was happy to have played his part to see to the qualification of Crystal Palace for the finals.
He however said, “Everyone’s exited. Everyone’s happy. 120 minutes plus penalties… it’s just a graft! Everyone’s dead in their legs!
“Luckily we’ve got tomorrow off to get ready for Saturday’s game as well, but everyone’s buzzing.
It’s just a buzz in there. It’s all good.
“It’s big. A cup’s a cup. It’s a Premier League cup, against European opposition… it’s not often you get to play a European opponent in a Final. I think we’ve got to take it, go and win the game… it’s amazing. It feels amazing.”
Speaking on the game, Goodman said ill luck denied them of more goals in the first half of the energy sapping match.
“The first-half I thought we could’ve gone up two or three. Jadan took his goal really well. David Omilabu got unlucky hitting the post, Tayo Adaramola had one cleared off the line, so we had some really good chances.
“It’s good because we were building from the last two results, which weren’t great performances. I thought today was fantastic from everyone, and then Valencia got one back and extra-time, everyone grafted, everyone put the work in… then penalties, and I had to come big and make a save!
“For me, I try to look at the player and their type of technique. I feel like the more technical players like to go across [goal]… but for me it’s just a guess at the end of the day.
“We didn’t have any penalties from them really, so a lot of them were just guesses. I went the right way and made the save!”
Goodman now hopes for an even bigger turnout when Palace host PSV in SE25 later this month.
“Imagine if we could fill this whole place!” he declared. “I don’t think it’d probably happen, but if we could get a lot of fans here, it’d be amazing.
“It’d be a great experience for us – a brilliant atmosphere. We’ll take it to PSV and we’ll try our best.
“I’m just happy. I’m enjoying life, I’m enjoying my football – I’m enjoying everything!”
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