CURACAO’S 0-0 draw with Ecuador at the 2026 World Cup produced one of the most remarkable individual performances the tournament has seen. Goalkeeper Eloy Room made more saves in 90 minutes than any goalkeeper in World Cup history, single-handedly keeping the smallest nation ever to qualify in the competition alive for a first-ever World Cup point.
Room’s performance put him in rare company. A handful of goalkeepers have produced extraordinary shot-stopping displays on the biggest international stage, but few have done it while dragging a team as unfancied as Curacao to a first-ever point. It’s the kind of story that plays out alongside the bigger picture, while the traditional heavyweights are the ones being fought over in the odds to bet on Spain vs Argentina in the World Cup final. Here, we look at the most saves ever made in a World Cup game.
Eloy Room – Curacao vs Ecuador, 2026
Room’s display against Ecuador stands apart not just for the number of saves he made, but for the context around it. Curacao were making their first World Cup appearance, a nation of around 150,000 people stepping onto the same pitch as a side that reached the 2022 quarter-finals.
Ecuador pressed relentlessly, and Room answered every time, making a record 15 saves, the most across 90 minutes in any World Cup game.
Curacao lost their opening game 7-1 against Germany, but the second group stage fixture saw Room demonstrate exceptional positioning and reflexes. By full time, Room had kept a clean sheet and earned Curacao their first point in World Cup history, a result that would have been unthinkable without him.
No goalkeeper has produced a save tally like his across a standard 90-minute World Cup fixture.
Tim Howard – USA vs Belgium, 2014
Tim Howard holds the overall record with 16 saves, though that figure came across 120 minutes after Belgium took the round-of-16 tie into extra time. Belgium won 2-1, with both goals coming in additional time, but Howard’s performance that evening in Salvador remains one of the most celebrated individual displays in World Cup knockout history.
Howard faced one of the tournament’s most attack-minded sides and kept the USA in the match long after most teams would have been out of sight. His 16 saves are the most by any goalkeeper in a single World Cup game, including extra time, and the performance helped cement his place as one of the United States’ greatest-ever players.
Ramon Quigora – Peru vs Netherlands, 1978
Quiroga’s record stood for 36 years before Howard broke it in Brazil. Peru faced the Netherlands in the second group stage of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, and Quiroga produced 13 saves to keep the eventual runners-up at bay in a 0-0 draw.
The Dutch side that year still had much of the generation that had reached the 1974 final, and keeping them out for 90 minutes was no straightforward task.
Quiroga was Argentine-born and had taken Peruvian citizenship, a fact that drew considerable attention throughout that tournament, particularly given Peru’s 6-0 defeat to Argentina in the same group stage that helped the hosts reach the final.
He was also booked during the competition for fouling a Polish midfielder in the opposing half after charging upfield, which was entirely in keeping with a goalkeeper who earned the nickname El Loco long before that summer.
His 13 saves against the Dutch in 1978 placed him in World Cup history, a mark that stood so long it outlasted decades of shifting bet on sports odds before Howard finally matched the moment in 2014.
Article by George Stanford
