Jordan Pickford Pecahkan Rekor Penampilan Piala Dunia Inggris Lawan Norwegia

Kiper tim nasional Inggris Jordan Pickford resmi memecahkan rekor sebagai pemain dengan penampilan terbanyak untuk negaranya di sejarah Piala Dunia ketika turun sebagai starter melawan Norwegia di babak perempat final di Miami pada Sabtu, 11 Juli 2026.

Asosiasi Sepak Bola Inggris (FA) mengonfirmasi bahwa penjaga gawang berusia 32 tahun asal klub Everton tersebut mencatatkan penampilan ke-18 di Piala Dunia, melampaui rekor sebelumnya yang dipegang oleh Peter Shilton dengan 17 pertandingan.

Laga perempat final ini juga menjadi penampilan ke-90 Pickford bersama skuad Tiga Singa di semua kompetisi sejak melakoni debutnya melawan Jerman pada November 2017, di mana ia telah mencatatkan 44 clean sheet dan hanya kebobolan 59 gol.

Sebelumnya, Pickford tampil heroik di babak 16 besar untuk membantu Inggris mempertahankan kemenangan 3-2 atas Meksiko di Stadion Azteca, meskipun tim asuhan Thomas Tuchel harus bermain dengan 10 orang sejak menit ke-54 akibat kartu merah Jarell Quansah.

Mantan penjaga gawang Inggris, Paul Robinson, menilai kontribusi Pickford selama ini sering kali kurang dihargai oleh publik meskipun ia menunjukkan konsistensi yang luar biasa baik di level klub maupun internasional.

"I think he has been under-appreciated for Everton and England when you look at the numbers he's posting, the games he is playing and the number of clean sheets he has." ujar Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Robinson menambahkan bahwa catatan clean sheet Pickford di Premier League dalam dua musim terakhir hanya kalah dari David Raya dari Arsenal, padahal keduanya bermain untuk tim dengan level kekuatan yang sangat berbeda.

"He is only second behind David Raya in the last two seasons for clean sheets and they are playing for very different teams." kata Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Selain itu, faktor pengalaman Pickford dalam membawa Inggris melangkah jauh di berbagai turnamen besar menjadi modal yang sangat krusial bagi tim nasional.

"With England, you look at his experience, the way he has gone deep into tournaments. I always talk about competitive caps, but he has lots of tournament caps, which is so important." tutur Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Menurut Robinson, kiper utama Everton tersebut juga terus berkembang pesat dalam aspek kemampuan teknis dan pembawaan dirinya di lapangan.

"I think he's matured as a person and a professional. I think he's worked on himself. He's an excellent shot-stopper, his distribution is second to none." jelas Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Kemampuan distribusi bola jarak jauh milik Pickford bahkan menjadi senjata tersendiri bagi Inggris yang memicu lahirnya salah satu gol saat menghadapi Meksiko.

"He's worked on his distribution. You can see his long distribution is superb, which England used as a weapon in Mexico – it led to one of the goals. I also think he's worked on his short distribution as well and I think he's evolved as a goalkeeper and a person. I really like what I see." ungkap Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Kiper utama Inggris ini dinilai tidak memiliki pesaing sepadan yang mampu menggeser posisinya sejak dipercaya tampil sejak Piala Dunia 2018.

"I think he's the first name on the team sheet. There is nobody else." sebut Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Robinson menguraikan statistik sebelum turnamen dimulai yang menunjukkan bahwa lima kiper pelapis Inggris jika digabungkan bahkan hanya mengoleksi total 11 pertandingan kompetitif.

"As a nation, we have again gone into a major tournament with a keeper who has racked up the caps, while others beneath him have only got a handful. I checked the stats before this tournament, and out of the five goalkeepers who could have been picked alongside Jordan Pickford, they had 11 competitive games between them." urai Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Meskipun pergantian kepelatihan terjadi ke tangan Thomas Tuchel, posisi Pickford sebagai nomor satu tetap tidak tergoyahkan oleh kritik dari pihak luar.

"There will always be an opinion, whether it was Peter Shilton, David Seaman, David James or myself when I was England's keeper. Somebody has always got an opinion. You are there to be shot at.

If it's not you in goal, everyone's got an opinion as to who they think it should be. I think the biggest credit you can give Jordan Pickford is that that noise isn't there. He's been that good.

There's nobody saying it shouldn't be him. The noise hasn't been there for a very long time because he is that well embedded. He's made the position his own and, including keepers like myself and David James, the talk around the position hasn't been this quiet since David Seaman was there.

It's taken as read that Jordan Pickford plays." jabar Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Penampilannya saat melawan Meksiko dianggap menjadi pembuktian kematangan mentalnya setelah sempat melakukan kesalahan di fase grup saat melawan Republik Demokratik Kongo.

"It was a very brave display of goalkeeping. I really admired what he did out there in that second half and his two saves in the first half kept England in the game. They could have been out of it by half-time if it wasn't for him." puji Paul Robinson, Mantan Kiper Inggris.

Eks pemain Everton, Richard Dunne, turut menyampaikan pandangan serupa kepada media ECHO terkait kritik media nasional Inggris yang tidak berdasar terhadap sang kiper.

"Does Jordan Pickford get the credit he deserves? Definitely not." tegas Richard Dunne, Mantan Pemain Everton.

Menurut Dunne, para pelatih tim nasional terus memilih Pickford karena sang pemain selalu mampu memberikan performa terbaik setiap kali diturunkan.

"But he gets it from the managers because they keep choosing him and he keeps performing. There’s always an underlying theme among certain sections of the national media in England that they think he’s not good enough. Maybe it's because he's not playing in the Champions League or for one of the so-called 'big clubs.'

He’s performed every time for England and he's performed every time for Everton. It’s one of those where if he makes a mistake it gets highlighted, but everyone makes mistakes. No goalkeeper is going to go through an entire season and play perfectly.

Jordan has also improved a lot over the years. He’s matured as a player and as a person. He was outstanding against Mexico and made some great saves.

Whether he gets the recognition, I'm not too sure, but he seems to enjoy it when he does which is a nice thing. He’s been outstanding for England and to become the player with the most World Cup appearances is a special record." pungkas Richard Dunne, Mantan Pemain Everton.

Dunne juga menyoroti bahwa dalam sembilan tahun terakhir, kompetisi Premier League yang dianggap terbaik di dunia belum mampu melahirkan kiper lokal lain yang bisa menyamai level ketangguhan Pickford.

"Goalkeepers are always different because there’s only ever one of them in the team rather than centre-halves where you have a partnership. The English national media have one person to pick on in goal and it’s always him. The fact is though that for almost nine years now since he won his first cap, nobody has been able to challenge him or take the spot.

The Premier League is the best league in the world and over that entire time, they’ve not been able to find another English goalkeeper who is better than him. That’s not that there aren’t good goalkeepers but that’s the level he’s at. He’s outstanding and I’m sure after his display in the Azteca as England beat Mexico, there will be a bit more respect for him and people will finally realise that he is a top keeper." sambung Richard Dunne, Mantan Pemain Everton.

Berdasarkan data statistik dari Opta dan The Analyst, Pickford kini mengoleksi enam clean sheet di Piala Dunia, menyamai catatan Gordon Banks dan hanya terpaut dari Peter Shilton yang mengantongi 10 clean sheet.