Wiese’s howler puts him in good company

“THAT’S the kind of mistake you make once in your life,” Werder Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese said the day after his blunder against Juventus cost his team a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

But, cruel as it may be, that one mistake in a lifetime, if it is bad or important enough, can stick with you for the rest of your life - especially if you are a goalkeeper.

Mention the name of Peter Enckelman and you can be sure that one incident will spring immediately to mind - the time, when playing for Aston Villa, he allowed a throw-in to roll under his feet and into the net in a derby against Birmingham City.

Whatever else he has achieved in his career Moroccan goalkeeper Khalid Fouhami will forever be remembered by his countrymen for the way he handed victory to Tunisia in the 2004 African Nations Cup final.

Every country, every team has had its ‘head in hands’ moment caused by a keeper. What made Wiese’s night so cruel was that his blunder came at the end of a game in which he had been absolutely outstanding - producing a series of saves that kept his team’s aggregate lead intact.

Team-mates and opponents were quick to remind him of all the good work he had done during the game but in a few years time will anyone remember what Wiese produced in the preceding 87 minutes of that tie?

The place that goalkeeping errors take in football’s collective memory depends so much on context, and that point was made perfectly 24 hours later at the San Siro stadium.

AC Milan goalkeeper Dida failed to hold on to a free-kick and allowed the ball to spill out to Bayern Munich’s Valerien Ismael who put his side back into the game at 2-1.

Had Bayern managed to win it is certain that the Italian press would have put a large share of the blame on Milan’s Brazilian keeper.

Instead Milan won 4-1 and Filippo Inzaghi claimed the headlines due to his two goals - no doubt to the great relief of Dida whose mistake was largely forgotten.

The Brazilian needs no reminder of the impact that a single error can have on a career - back in 2000 he made a dreadful mistake in a Champions League game at Leeds United - allowing a long-range strike by Lee Bowyer to slip under his body for an 89th minute winner.

Dida sent back to Corinthians on loan before getting a second chance at Milan, over a year later.

However, a goalkeeper can escape after a serious error, but he needs a lot of luck to do so as Roy Carroll had last year.

Carroll, while playing for Man United, failed to hold a shot from the halfway line from Spurs’ Pedro Mendes and looked back in horror as the ball bounced a metre over his goal-line. However, the officials - both badly placed - failed to notice the ball had crossed the line and Carroll scooped it out from behind the line to deny Spurs a last-minute goal and a 1-0 victory.

But a former Manchester United goalkeeper was not so fortunate.

In 1999, Massimo Taibi allowed a weak shot from Southampton’s Matt Le Tissier to go through his legs at Old Trafford in only his third match for the club. He played only one more match for United before Alex Ferguson sent him back to Italy.

Probably the only act of an outfield player that carries the same weight and brings equal attention as a keeper’s clanger is missing a penalty. As with goalkeeping mistakes these can remain long in the memory and haunt a player throughout his life.

Against Bayern, Andriy Shevchenko, drove his penalty wide but just a minute later he was celebrating after scoring and making up for his error from spot.

As Wiese will need no reminding, no matter how many good saves he may make - a goalkeeper can never undo a goal conceded.