Winning by not losing

It's the season for all things football, and YouTube, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., are full of some amazing videos of football action from the past. Obviously, the most numerous are those of great goals. A much smaller number is that of great saves by goalkeepers. This is understandable, as the part of football that is easiest to enjoy is the goals, with saves being a distant second. I came across one, which was a compilation of some truly great saves at the mouth of the goal by defenders. To my (admittedly untrained) eye, these look much more remarkable than goalkeepers' saves because, obviously, these are done without hands. Saving one's side from a sure goal is just as much of value in football as scoring a goal and there are similar situations in most sports. In cricket, there's a saying that 'a run saved is a run scored'. Of course, all these g