File this under #DaveSaves. When last we saw David de Gea in action before tonight, he was saving anything and everything that came his way during an extremely dominant performance. Couple that with the subpar efforts of Spain current #1 Iker Casillas right now and I think you can figure out where this is going.
De Gea got the start for Spain tonight, the first of his career in competitive international play, and he put in a clean sheet! Espana defeated Luxembourg 4-0 in the 2016 Euro Qualifiers and David de Gea played all 90 minutes of perfect football.
(related: it was also a huge night for Chelsea star Diego Costa)
Last time out, Spain fell 2-1 in a shocking upset to Slovakia during the Euro 2016 qualifying round. Real Madrid’s goalkeeper Iker Casillas’ error handed Slovakia the lead in the match. Couple that with the embarrassing World Cup Casillas (and Spain overall) had. (best highlighted by the true out in the opening game, when Netherlands slaughtered them 5-0) Changes became necessary.
There were calls in Spain for Casillas to be replaced as the number one goalkeeper. Manchester United’s David de Gea became the fan favorite.
A poll by Spanish newspaper Marca saw 86 per cent of fans vote for De Gea to be given a chance as Spain’s num 1 pic.twitter.com/9fKhSIMCVL
— Man Utd News (@SirAlexStand) October 10, 2014
Change was made; you saw the result. Maybe David de Gea should indeed be the #1 full time going forward?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2