{"id":321883,"date":"2020-04-29T06:06:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T20:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=321883"},"modified":"2020-04-29T06:06:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T20:06:02","slug":"game-time-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/game-time-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Game time decision"},"content":{"rendered":"
Left photo shows Manchester United\u2019s Bruno Fernandes taking the penalty shot in one of their games in the Premier League last February. Right file photo has Tim Howard going for the save for the U.S. Men\u2019s National Team\u2019s game in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the Marianas Cup, the CNMI and Guam are in a deadlock, 4-4, with the opposing teams left with only one player to take the game winner in the shootout. Who will be your shooter? Your goalkeeper?<\/p>\n

Northern Mariana Islands Football Association president Jerry Tan will put his money on Manchester United\u2019s Bruno Fernandes and former U.S. Men\u2019s National Team goalie Tim Howard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think since playing for Manchester United, Fernandes hasn\u2019t missed a penalty shot,\u201d said Tan when asked to name an international or professional player that he would want to take the pressure-packed shot for the CNMI.<\/p>\n

The Man United transferee (from Sporting CP) did hit three penalty shots this season and has a conversion rate of 91 percent in 23 career attempts as of February this year. In fact, he missed only two spot-kicks since turning pro in 2013. His impressive performance with Manchester United in February earned him the Premier League Player of the Month honors.<\/p>\n

Tan also loves how the Portugal national player takes his shot and tricks the opposing team\u2019s goalie. It\u2019s not your straight up kick, as Fernandes does the hop, skip, and jump penalty technique.<\/p>\n

As for his choice for goalie, Tan believes Howard is the best keeper of the USMNT. The NMIFA head remembered how the now retired goalie was lauded in Brazil during the 2014 World Cup when he set the new record for most saves (16 versus Belgium) in the quadrennial event. Howard\u2019s fete was celebrated that much that Wikipedia \u201creported\u201d he was named secretary of defense of the U.S. after the record save.<\/p>\n

Juventus keeper Gianluigi Buffon is also a record-holder (longest streak without conceding a goal in Serie A history\u2014over 12 league matches) and NMIFA technical director and CNMI Men\u2019s National team coach Michiteru Mita, if given a chance, will put the Italian to the post to defend against the money shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a legend and the most experienced guy in international football. He is already past his peak to play a 90-minute game, but he is still good enough to play this PK,\u201d Mita said.<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old started playing for Italian national team (youth and men\u2019s) since 1993, making him the most capped in the country\u2019s football history after representing the Italians 176 times.<\/p>\n

As for the PK shooter, Mita picked former Japanese national team member Yasuhiro Endo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose Endo because his PK success rate is 88% (Cristiano Ronaldo is 83.8%) and he is a very experienced player, having played in many big matches. He would not miss in this big chance,\u201d Mita said.<\/p>\n

MP United technical director Norman Del Rosario\u2019s choice for the PK taker has a better success rate that Endo. Del Rosario selected former Liverpool star and United Kingdom player Steven Gerrard.<\/p>\n

\u201cGerrard had an impressive penalty record, as he scored 24 times from the spot and his conversion rate happens to be 92 %. He absolutely loves hitting the top corner of the net with his greatest strength being the ability to generate serious pace while striking the ball,\u201d Del Rosario said.<\/p>\n

On defense, the MP United official will pin his hopes on former Ukraine national team member Oleksandr Shovkovskiy.<\/p>\n

In a shootout against Switzerland in the 2006 World Cup, Shovkovskiy did not allow a shot, helping Ukraine advance to the quarterfinals. Shovkovskiy previously held the Ukraine national team record in minutes played (728) without yielding a goal.<\/p>\n

Sunjoon Tenorio\u2014himself a go-to-guy for the CNMI national team\u2014is tabbing his favorite player to hit the dagger.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeymar, my favorite player and one of the best penalty takers in the world. He actually has been in that similar situation during the 2016 Olympics,\u201d Tenorio said.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian phenomenon\u2019s penalty shot lifted Brazil to a 5-4 victory over Germany in the gold medal match in the 2016 Olympic Games. He was in the Top 15 in Europe\u2019s best PK takers in 2017 and this season has a success rate of 61 %.<\/p>\n

For his goalie, Tenorio selected Newcastle United legend and the Netherlands\u2019 Tim Krul <\/p>\n

\u201cHe isn\u2019t very well known, but is a hero for me growing up as a Newcastle fan. He saved many penalties, including a shootout win in the 2014 World Cup,\u201d Tenorio said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Brad Ruszala, a former member of the CNMI Men\u2019s National Team, requested that he name a player on island for the PK, but eventually selected six-time FIFA Player of the Year Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n

\u201cLionel Messi would be my choice for our fifth PK. For an off-island guy, he\u2019s kind of a combination of former CNMI players. He\u2019s got the moves of Joe Miller, the shot of Nick Swaim, and the beard of Steve McKagan,\u201d Ruszala said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor CNMI keeper, I\u2019d go with Gianluigi Buffon. He\u2019s awesome and he\u2019s 42 years old. Maybe I\u2019m biased because I play for the M-League\u2019s awesome old guys team. Maybe it\u2019s because the CNMI\u2019s first team was made up of a bunch of cagey veterans. Either way, he\u2019s our guy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the Marianas Cup, the CNMI and Guam are in a deadlock, 4-4, with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":321885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}