I pitied him before I knew who he was. Probably like several million other people who saw the defining moment of the Russia-South Korea match in the World Cup last night/this morning.

He is Russia’s goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev.

His mistake in the 68th minute led to South Korea’s only goal in a 1-1 draw. If we assume nothing else changes, two of the three points Russia did not earn from this match are the specific responsibility of Akinfeev, who lived out a soccer nightmare.

To recap:

The 68th minute of a scoreless match. Korea’s Lee Kuen-ho, on as a substitute, received a pass near the halfway line, and angled into Russia territory.

Two defenders were ahead of him, but the one on his right actually accelerated away from him, moving to head off the pending arrival of a second Korean player, sprinting on Lee’s right.

Lee took another touch, but he was still outside the box, and the one Russian defender in his path gave him some room, presumably confident Lee would not shoot from such distance, particularly because the Koreans were advancing with even numbers; the defender probably was concerned about a much easier goal than the one that was about to arrive.

Lee looked up and weighed his options, put down his head and angled towards the corner of the box … and unleashed a fairly heavy shot from 20-plus yards.

Back in the goal, Akinfeev cannot have been very alarmed. Wary, but not “omg, this could be a goal” freaked out. The ball was coming right at him. At eye level, almost. If he stood still, that ball was not going in; it would strike him in the face.

But he did not stand still. He raised his gloved hands in front of his face, and decided, in that fraction of a second athletes at this level have, to catch the ball rather than parry it.

Or did he make any conscious decision there? Perhaps not. A fraction of a second. And years of training (and a decade as the starting keeper for CSKA Moscow) probably clicked in. “Far away, not a really heavy shot, I can catch it.”

Or was it indecision that did him in? “I will block it … I will catch it … I will parry it. … No, I will catch it.”

He settled on the latter action. Disastrously.

The ball smacked into both of his gloved mitts (white, with red on the fingers), and then popped up a little … and with its dying momentum drifted over his head … and into the goal.

To watch the video (after the 30-second commercial) is to reflect on human frailty. On many levels.

Akinfeev’s first instinct, still, was to catch the ball — even though he now was entirely inside the net. The play already was over; Korea had a goal. But he followed the ball into the net to catch it. A pointless exercise, following a disaster, that reminded me of the stories of a soldier on the D-Day beaches picking up his severed arm and carrying it with him.

And the next thing he did was to roll onto his back and cover his face with both hands. Yes, he knew right away it was a disaster. His disaster. He didn’t stare, accusingly, at his gloves. He didn’t shout at defenders. He owned it.

As the Koreans celebrated, Akinfeev came out of the net, put his hands on his knees, and we do not need much imagination to have a pretty good idea of what he was thinking.

“Oh, my God. That was horrible.

“We’re going to lose this now.

“I will be benched for the next match. Or will I be taken out right this minute?

“We can still win, but we need two goals. Maybe that will happen.

“Probably not.

“Everyone saw that. People will laugh at me.

“What happened? How did it get over my head like that?

“Did I do the right thing?

“Maybe parrying it was the thing to do. Well, of course it was.

“But it wasn’t hit all that hard.

“But my coach will tell me I should have pushed it away; never know what sort of weird change in direction a long shot might take. That is what he will tell me.

“My family saw that. They will be so embarrassed.

“My club saw that. Will this change how they see me?

“If I play long enough, will everyone forget?

“No.”

Or something rather like that. In Russian, of course.

Goalkeepers have nowhere to hide. They are out there, alone. They don’t get a chance to run around with 19 other guys, hoping to disappear into the swirl of people, like outfield players can.

And when they make a mistake of that magnitude, I believe they can feel thousands of eyes, millions of eyes, examining them anew.

Is he short or tall? Thin or wide? Handsome or homely?

Does he look like someone who would make that sort of mistake?

The British have a particular word they use for errors of that type. A “howler”.

It is a particularly harsh word, no matter how we turn it about.

“We all howled with laughter … the way we cruel humans do when another of us makes a big mistake.”

“We howled with contempt that the idiot could not make a routine goalkeeping play. We howled so that everyone would know, including him.”

The headline on the ESPN home page: “Russia draws after howler”.

The National used a less crushing word atop the match report: “Gaffe”.

The morning after, I would guess Akinfeev wishes only one thing — not that he plays again, but that Russia taking one point instead of three does not keep his team from advancing to the final 16.

Something similar happened in the 2010 World Cup. Also in the first round of games. In the U.S.-England game, actually.

Clint Dempsey hit a fairly tame shot from distance that should have been stopped by England’s goalkeeper, Robert Green, but it was not. The video shows the ball hitting him on the gloves as he leans to his right, but he was not quite in front of the shot, and it leaked away a bit further to his right, and the ball … trickled … slowly … over the line. As Green lunged after it.

(Please note, that the announcer within two seconds labelled the play “a howler”.)

That one also finished 1-1.

Two things Akinfeev may think about today.

–Green was removed for England’s second match. He has played for the national team only once since that fateful night. Is that how it will go for Akinfeev?

–The two points England did not get, against the Americans, didn’t keep the team from the second round, but it allowed the U.S. to win the group. If Green makes the play, England wins the group and gets Ghana in the round of 16, instead of Germany — who crushed England 4-1. (And the U.S. draws lots with Slovenia for second, the way I read the rules.)

The only thing worse than Akinfeev believing most of us will never forget that play … though most of us will, eventually … is that he will never forget.