In 2006, Italy became an improbable World Cup champion. Known for having an impenetrable defense, they were also suspect for giving up a lot of scoring chances to the opposition.

Fortunately, the team had Gianluigi Buffon, arguably the greatest goalie the world at the time, manning the nets. Buffon was given the Golden Gloves at the tournament for being the best keeper, an award that he amply deserved.

Buffon's first few games were not particularly eventful. Italy won 2-0 against Ghana and then drew 1-1 with the United States. The lone USA goal was an own goal scored by Cristian Zaccardo. But then Buffon had his work cut out for him in the final group match against the Czech Republic. The Czechs needed to win the game to advance to the next round and poured on the pressure throughout the match.

But Buffon would not budge.

He made a series of spectacular saves that won him the Golden Gloves right away. Buffon was particularly busy in the opening game where he was called upon to make a series of terrific saves. He faced a number of point-blank chances as the Italian defense had a knack for leaving the middle of the field wide open. At one point he stopped a point blank shot from Pavel Nedved in the second half.

Buffon would get to make more saves in the round of 16 against Australia, but really had to pull his weight in the quarterfinal game against the Ukraine where his goal was under siege throughout. At one point he stopped a header from the right side of the goal and hit his head on the post upon making the save. He recovered and then made another heroic stop on a free kick from Andriy Shevchenko. He made another huge save on Oleh Husyev, who had a mini-breakaway down the right wing.

Buffon continued to get better and was the main reason why Italy overcame host nation Germany in the semifinals. The Germans dominated possession and put tremendous pressure on Buffon, particularly on the counter. At one point he was forced to get his hand on a clear shot to glance it over the net. Later on, he stopped Lukas Podolski on an almost identical play. He also shut down Miroslav Klose as he barreled through the entire Italian defense.

And then came the final and the focal point of Buffon's legacy. He conceded his second goal of the tournament on a penalty by Zinedine Zidane, but then struck back for a number of splendid saves. First was one against Thierry Henry, but the most impressive of all was a diving parry on a header from Zidane that was headed into the back of the net and would have won the game for France. While Buffon was unable to stop a single penalty (France's lone miss hit the cross bar) he had already done more than enough to win the Cup for his team.

Buffon tied the record for least goals allowed in a World Cup tournament at two; the most impressive part of this statistic is that one of the goals was an own goal and the other was off a penalty. He kept five clean sheets and managed a shutout streak of 453 minutes.