Iker Casillas to Porto Transfer News: Captain Finally Gone from Real Madrid?
Iker Casillas looks like he will be leaving Real Madrid. His destination? Porto.
The Casillas situation has been one of many to shadow the team's offseason. Many have wondered whether the goalie would finally leave the team, allowing for either Keylor Navas or David De Gea to come in and take the reins.
There has been fear that Casillas, who is still under contract with the team, would opt to stick around and fight for his place as a starter. That would likely put the team in a continually awkward situation with the long-time keeper potentially taking a place from a better netminder.
Casillas was relegated to the back up role in 2012-13 when then-coach Jose Mourinho ultimately opted for Diego Lopez as his main man. In the ensuing season, Carlo Ancelotti took over the reins and kept Casillas as the goalie for the Copa del Rey and Champions League while Lopez remained the main man in the Spanish League. Casillas wound up winning two trophies that season with Madrid, but many questioned whether he would ever regain the legendary form of the 2011-12 season.
The worst fears were confirmed that summer when Casillas had a poor turn in the World Cup, conceding seven goals in two games and looking insecure throughout. Three of the five Dutch goals in the opening match, a 5-1 loss for Spain, were a result of Casillas' poor positioning or touch. In the second game against Chile, Casillas hit the ball back into the middle of the pitch off a set piece, thus giving Chile a second chance to score a goal. They did.
Yet Casillas remained the main man in 2014-15 for Real Madrid. The gamble did not pay for, despite Casillas finding his best form for a brief run at the end of 2014. However, the rest of the year was mired with poor control on setpieces and some woeful mistakes that proved that the keeper, who was always an elite shot blocker, had lost his once-sensation reflexes.
With Porto he gets a chance to remain in major European competitions, though he will likely be facing less troubling shooters than he was in Spain.
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