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The story
Aston Villa’s Zion Suzuki stopped a clear-cut chance early in the away match against Newcastle with a fingertip save, and the team went on to win 1-0. In Premier League Matchday 7, Suzuki has now started six consecutive matches. The thread was split between praise for his growing defensive stability and skepticism, since the team itself has lost 3 of its last 4 matches and hasn’t found its rhythm this season. The discussion also touched on his battle with Nishikawa for the starting spot back at Urawa Reds, and how his development at Sint-Truiden fed into the growth he’s shown now.
First win in two matches
In Premier League Matchday 7, played on October 17 local time, Aston Villa, with Zion Suzuki, faced Newcastle away from home.
Villa, whose Japan national team goalkeeper has now started six straight matches, faced a clear-cut chance in the 9th minute. Jackson broke free on a pass from Alisson, got past his marker to go one-on-one with the keeper, and finished with the outside of his right foot — but couldn’t convert.
Source: soccerdigestweb.com / Original article here
What people said
With Zion keeping a clean sheet, you can go win it on penalties.
Nah, I think Villa's in a relegation battle this season.
Newcastle's form is bad too — they got thrashed by Coventry last match.
3 losses in their last 4 games.
Nothing's changed since his Serie A days.
Hope he's as durable as Brad Friedel.
That's just forced propaganda-style reporting (lit. "Imperial GHQ announcements" — slang for overhyped media spin).
He's really not performing, same as back in Serie A.
Honestly, no sign of growth.
Truly grateful to Sint-Truiden for developing him.
Sint-Truiden's contribution to Japanese football has been massive.
But back in his "Urawa Republic" days (fans' half-joking nickname for Urawa Reds' fiercely loyal fanbase)… mighty Man United were already trying to snap him up early (lit. "rice-paddy poaching" — signing a prospect before they're fully grown), so doesn't that just prove how great Urawa's development is?
Stuff a normal keeper would just catch head-on, he turns into a "super save,"
so to the untrained eye he looks like a great keeper.
There's no way you're catching that shot head-on, lol
To think he'd grow this much in just 4 years…
At the Asian Cup he was just made the scapegoat for Itakura and Morita's sloppy defending.
Zion's shot-stopping was fine — he only conceded off a rebound.
And conceding off a rebound means the opposing player was wide open in front of goal, which means whoever was marking him slacked off.
Yamal, Mbappé, Olise, Bellingham, Zion
Mbaye
Plus Brazil's Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos are also mixed Black.
Even Cristiano Ronaldo's great-grandmother was Black.
Palmer's the same way — there are guys who don't look mixed Black at all.
In mulatto cultural regions, being mixed-race is just the culture, so there's no concept of "half" like in Japan.
People are mixed in all kinds of ways, and it's different from America's one-drop rule.
There are even categories like cabra, pardo, and mulatto based on degree of mixing.
Without him, Zion wouldn't be here.
Like you develop that much in the short time you get with the national team.
No matter how you slice it, the move to Parma and the Reds' development that led up to it mattered way more.
Was Zion always good with his feet?
I recall he lost his starting spot to Nishikawa at one point, right?
He's said himself that seeing Nishikawa's kicking shocked him into training on it.
Apparently he hasn't skipped kicking practice a single day since.
The reason he couldn't take the starting job back from Nishikawa is that Urawa brought in a foreign GK coach specifically for Zion's sake,
but it ended up being Nishikawa who improved more under that coach.
Maybe Nishikawa just meshed better with him.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Zion Suzuki is still only 24, and starting six straight Premier League matches as a goalkeeper at that age is an unusually high level of trust. The thread recounted the story of him competing with Nishikawa for the starting spot back in his Urawa Reds days — reportedly stunned by Nishikawa’s kicking technique, he threw himself into extra practice as a result, which came up as part of the backstory to his technical growth. At the same time, Aston Villa itself has lost 3 of its last 4 matches, and the gap between praise for his individual performances and skepticism toward the team’s results was the biggest source of disagreement in the thread. Worth noting: evaluating Suzuki personally and evaluating the team’s standing and form are two separate axes, and which one you weigh more heavily tends to shape your overall impression.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Geisportsu Hōchi+) thread “[Soccer] Zion Suzuki’s Fingertip Super-Save Denies Clear-Cut Chance! Aston Villa Beat Newcastle 1-0 Away!“
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