Danny Gabbidon's world record equalled

  • by Staff Writer
  • Friday, 17th October 2014

Few if any of our readers will know much - if anything at all - about Vancouver Whitecaps' Costa Rican defender, Kendall Waston.

However the 26-year-old centre half now enjoys a tenuous link with West Ham United having equalled a record previously held by former Irons defender Danny Gabbidon, set in 2006.

Since Opta began tracking statistics in European football, Gabbidon - along with Palermo's Giuseppe Biava (in 2004) - holds the record for number of defensive clearances in a single game, at 18.

That was a feat unmatched anywhere in the last eight years until the 6ft5in Waston equalled the pair's record against Seattle Sounders last week in a narrow 1-0 win for his Whitecaps team.



In addition to the 18 clearances made Waston, according to mlssoccer.com, produced "four interceptions, six recoveries and three blocks in 90 minutes.

"Those numbers do not compare to anything we've seen in MLS since at least 2010, when Opta began tracking every move of the players in the league and turned them into statistics."

By comparison, when Gabbidon equalled Biava's record in the 3-2 win at Arsenal on 1 February 2006, he added seven interceptions, eight recoveries and three blocks - whilst the Italian boasted four interceptions, seven recoveries and four blocked shots.

Which by our reckoning, means that West Ham's former Welsh defender wins on a tie-break...



Highlights of Sounders vs Whitecaps, which the visitors won 1-0


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