Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius will never be able to live down his awful night

Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius had the worst night of his life in the Champions League Final, and it’s forever part of his legacy.

Whether you were a Liverpool fan or not, the only people in the football world not mad at Loris Karius support Real Madrid. The Liverpool keeper allowed two atrocious goals in what ended up being the difference between his team having a chance and the end result of losing the Champions League Final.

It’s always a tough spot to say it’s one specific thing that cost a team a game. Often times fans will lean on officiating since it’s ambiguous enough that theories can be supported by pointing a finger. Other times someone will say that one particular moment doesn’t win or lose you the game.

That’s not one those situations.

Loris Karius is not a bad person. He doesn’t deserve to be dragged through the streets or get hate mail from angry fans. He’s not even that bad of a goalkeeper, but he was for 45 minutes on the world’s biggest stage.

That matters. His two brainfarts cost Liverpool the match against Real Madrid, full stop. Two of the three goals scored should have never happened, and because of that, we’ll never see the alternate universe where that match goes to extra time tied 1-1.

Instead, Karius will always be the reason Liverpool lost 3-1.

Imagine being at your job, one that you got because someone else was struggling and you were brought in. You do a fine job and stay out of your own way long enough to help your company reach the very top. Then, when everything is on the line, you make two boneheaded mistakes that end up costing your company a major deal. It’s not the end of the company and no one else lost their job, but it will be remembered forever as the moment you screwed up.

That’s where Karius is right now. Liverpool isn’t going to fold because of the loss to Real Madrid. In fact, they’ll be back in the Champions League next year. Karius might not even lose his roster spot when all is said and done. But he will need a monumental moment of redemption to ever come back from this, and there’s no chance of him ever washing this from his legacy. He could become the best goalkeeper in Europe and still, whenever his name is brought up it’ll not be far removed from a mention of his night against Real Madrid.

It’s hard to equate this to anything else, which is even more embarrassing for Karius. He’s carved out his own unique brand of infamy. It’s literally an aligning of the stars for something terrible to happen to an athlete. His mistakes came against the best team in the world, in the biggest game in football, and is tied to history being made by the champions. Even if we tried to, no one will ever forget Karius’ role in this.

Maybe he’ll bounce back from this, but right now it’s really hard to blame anyone else for what happened in the Champions League Final.