Wales on-line gave him a 7 fwiw. Everyone seems pretty happy with everything in Cardiff at the moment. He's credited with 3 saves. Whoscored also gave him a 7, 5th best on the side, all fwiw.
Sounds like he made at least one quality save, in addition to being under pressure all day. Not to point fingers at players like Matt who shall remain nameless, but I like this quote from the manager post-game: "with (goalkeeper) Ethan (Horvath) there now we can also play better from the back."
Well, what do you know: from Wales Online match report: Ethan Horvath - 7 Looked comfortable throughout and came to his side’s rescue on more than one occasion. Did brilliantly well to stop Sykes’ rasping effort through a crowd of bodies in the first half before saving his header in the second. Crowd showed their appreciation..
Finished 1-0 in Horvath's favor - three wins on the trot. Cardiff City scored at 30' and made it stand up. Horvath faced 11 shots, 2 on target, 3 corner kicks, and made 2 saves.
SS has .30 xgot & 2 saves in the box. So he seemingly had some work to do to keep the clean sheet, but nothing super-heroic was required in this one. Norwich losing was huge for Cardiff as well. They had to be worried about them even more than Hull. Now Cardiff are 4 points off Coventry for 8th, 5 off Norwich for 7th, 7 off Hull for 6th, and 10 off WBA for 5th. Ethan's promotional power is strong. This is going to be the biggest test though. He only has 3 months to work. And the first 2 games were spent shaking off the rust, against a couple of the aforementioned playoff battlers, meaning 6 point swings. Otherwise they may be right up in that mix already. I wonder who was holding up the move until the end of the window. We know Cardiff dragged their feet on ascending him to his rightful throne. These may be regrets.
The two saves, looks like the first was a big one as it is mentioned on both match reports: https://www.htafc.com/matches/fixtu...rdiff-city-vs-huddersfield-town-on-06-mar-24/ https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news/match-report-cardiff-city-1-0-huddersfield-town
Huge win for Cardiff today - or at least a huge loss for Ipswich. Ipswich were the hottest team in the EFL, winning 6 in a row and sitting up in the top 3. Not much Ethan could do on the goal allowed, it was a great shot, and Cardiff score 2 in stoppage time to get a win they deserve, and perhaps claim the title of the hottest team in the EFL now. I don't know if there's enough season left, and there's a lot of teams in the middle, but if they keep winning every week who knows? If not, I'm already looking forward to Ethan stonewalling Luton in next year's promotion playoff
Bully for you but I'm not. I still haven't given up hope of Luton staying up, because I've got 100 euros riding on it and because I want Chio Ogbebe playing EPL football again next season. That and because I love their shitty stadium. What an atmosphere!
You can't stop the Horvath Effect. Even when he allows a not totally unsavable goal late, his team's going to revert to the mean and score 2 in stoppage time to move closer to the promotional playoff. He played decently. Just wish he could have gotten his hand up quicker on that snap shot far post. But he did have a solid save on a far post curler earlier. And generally managed the game well.
With only 9 games left in the regular season, they're 5 points off 6th place with a much inferior GD on everyone above them so they're de facto 6-points off the playoffs. Closing a 6-point gap in 9 games is a very tall order. The last game of the season is at already-relegated Rotherham so they should win that and 2 of the others are 6-pointers with other playoff contenders (Coventry & Hull). OTOH, next up is the South Wales derby with Swansea and they have to play Southampton as well. In a nutshell, they have to 1) go unbeaten for the rest of the season, 2) win both 6-pointers, 3) beat Rotherham and one other side, and 4) hope other results go their way. It's not impossible - Coventry did something similar last season - but it's unlikely and Cardiff's record against other playoff contenders and is poor.
Just for fun, here's Ethan celebrating after the winning goal in extra time: O’Dowda 100th minute, just look at Ethan Horvath😍Inject it pic.twitter.com/d0kqn0wDJK— SWS (@samwestonshep) March 9, 2024
It's away in the South Wales derby, baby. Ethan will have to be on top of his game. If he is, the fans, who have undoubtedly seen the videos of his numerous flubs will be won over, possibly permanently. If he isn't . . . Fingers crossed.
Swansea won 2-0 and completely dominated by the statistics (xG of 2.88). Horvath made 3 saves, and the two goals were both basically chances with Cardiff's defense caught off guard and Horvath having to defend 1-v-1s.
The good: Not much to do but he wasn't at fault in any way for either goal The bad: Cardiff's defence, their midfield, their attack The ugly: With 8 games left and a de facto 9 point gap (8 points, plus GD), promotion is gone