Real Madrid's Iker Casillas Equals All-Time Spanish Goalkeeping Record

Real Madrid's captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas equaled iconic Spanish keeper Zubizarreta's record of 126 international matches in Spain's 1-0 loss to England at Wembley Stadium last night. Casillas has been with Madrid all his life; almost as long as he has been playing for the Spanish national team--he made his debut for the top side on June 3, 2000, and hasn't stopped since. With any luck, he'll break the record in Spain's next match against Costa Rica on Tuesday. 

For the record, Iker didn't concede a goal during Spain's loss--he played the first half of the friendly, and the goal came on a set play in the middle of the second. Ironically, the goal looked preventable (at least to this partisan analyst), and probably would have been stopped by Saint Iker Casillas. Unfortunately for Spain, Pepe Reina was manning the posts at that point, and there was nothing the Liverpool man could do to stop the bouncing set piece. 

In actual analysis, here's my take on the game: Spain looked like Barcelona on a bad day on offense, dominating possession, but without any teeth, any bite to their play. They bored me to tears with the passing that never lead to any good shots, while England's defense was fantastic against the semi-pressure of Spain's horizontal attack. Sure, Spain dominated the match according to the peripheral stats, but England won deservedly due to their tight defense and Spain's lack of aim and bite on offense.