Хөлбөмбөгийн талбайд тоглогчид хоосон хаалга руу гоол оруулж чадахгүй байх нь тоглолтын хувь заяаг шийдэж, зарим тохиолдолд тоглогчийн карьерын турш мартагдашгүй дурсамж болон үлддэг.
Хөлбөмбөгийн түүхэнд олон алдаа гарч байсны дотор 1992 оны есдүгээр сард Астон Вилла-гийн эсрэг тоглолтод Ливерпүүл-ийн Ронни Розентал хоосон хаалга руу бөмбөгөө хөндлөвч рүү цохисон нь хамгийн тод жишээ болдог. Мөн 2008 оны Дэлхийн аваргын урьдчилсан шатанд Шотланд, Норвегийн тоглолтод Крис Ивелумо, 2019 оны дөрөвдүгээр сард ПСЖ-ийн бүрэлдэхүүнд Эрик Максим Шупо-Мотинг нарын гаргасан алдаанууд хөгжөөн дэмжигчдийн дунд хамгийн их яригддаг.
2012 оны аравдугаар сард Лийдс Юнайтед-ын төлөө тоглосон Люк Варни Саутхэмптон-той хийсэн тоглолтод хоосон хаалганы өмнө бөмбөгөө алдсан бол, 2022 оны наймдугаар сард Квинз Парк Рейнжерс-ийн Линдон Дайкс Халл Сити-гийн эсрэг тоглолтод мөн л илт илүү боломжийг ашиглаж чадаагүй юм. Түүнчлэн 1996 оны арваннэгдүгээр сард Селтик-Рейнжерс-ийн дерби тоглолтод Петер ван Фоссен-ы гаргасан алдаа нь Шотландын хөлбөмбөгийн түүхэнд тод үлджээ.
Дэлхийн хэмжээний одод ч ийм алдаа гаргадаг гэдгийг 2006 оны арваннэгдүгээр сард Криштиану Роналду-гийн Манчестер Юнайтед-ын төлөө Шеффилд Юнайтед-ын эсрэг тоглолтод хийсэн цохилт нотолдог. Эдгээр мөчүүд нь тоглогч бүр хэчнээн чадварлаг байсан ч хөлбөмбөгийн талбайд алдаа гаргах эрсдэлтэй гэдгийг харуулдаг байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
They are the moments that, depending on where your loyalties lie, make fans scream in disbelief or laugh with joy. Or if you are a neutral, simply gasp.
These are the awful misses, with the goal gaping, that can define a match and sometimes colour an entire career.
Over the weekend, there were two barely believable instalments for the archives — one from Luis Vazquez and another from Calvin Stengs.
While excruciating for the players themselves, they are also moments that stick with those watching.
So we asked our writers to recall the most memorable miss from a game they have seen.
The list barely scratches the surface of the blunders, however, so readers can discuss their own nominations in the comments below…
Chris Iwelumo: Scotland 0-0 Norway, 2008, World Cup qualifying
I watched this World Cup qualifier with some Scottish friends in a pub down in Brixton, south London, and for almost a minute afterwards, they thought that Chris Iwelumo had converted the chance but the offside flag had gone up — and that was the only reason it didn’t count. No, he missed and I’ll always remember that realisation murmuring around the bar after a replay was shown. He missed.
3⃣
Chris Iwelumo
⚽ Scotland vs Norway“My missus made me delete it from the Sky Plus after four or five days so, yes, I watched it,” Iwelumo admitted afterwards. “It was hard to do but I had to do it.” pic.twitter.com/Qj0SgDNtjQ
— FourFourTwo (@FourFourTwo) February 12, 2018
Poor guy. He seemed to change his mind about which foot to use at the last minute and tied himself in knots.
Iwelumo was a decent, albeit nomadic, forward who played professionally for almost two decades. He was tall (6ft 4in/193cm), awkward and effective. Unfortunately, this happened to him on his international debut and while he did make another three appearances for Scotland, he would never score an international goal.
Seb Stafford-Bloor
Lyndon Dykes: Queens Park Rangers 3-1 Hull City, August 2022
It’s never a good sign when my memory of this game is not a comfortable home win, but an all-time classic Championship miss.
Three goals up, and pushing for more, Ilias Chair’s high press inadvertently serves up the perfect cross for Lyndon Dykes, completely unmarked, six yards out. With an empty goal to aim at, Dykes opted against a first-time finish, instead checking back, planting the goalkeeper, and opening up space to his other side. Dykes then calmly side-footed the ball wide, much to the shock of everyone in the stadium.
There is an argument that this counts as two misses rolled into one, given how free Dykes was at that moment. Bruce Lee was right when he wrote: “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
Andrew Pigott
Peter van Vossen: Celtic 0-1 Rangers, Scottish Premiership, November 1996
There’s only one thing that anybody in Scotland remembers about Peter van Vossen. But everybody in Scotland remembers that one thing.
November 1996: it’s Celtic versus Rangers in an Old Firm derby at Parkhead, at a time when Rangers were dominantly putting together a streak of nine Scottish titles. Brian Laudrup gave the blue half of Glasgow a 1-0 lead (Laudrup was everything Van Vossen wasn’t), and with time running out, Van Vossen had the chance to put Celtic to bed.
It’s 28 years since Peter Van Vossen was officially inducted into The Ronny Rosenthal Hall of Fame…
— A Funny Old Game (@sid_lambert) November 14, 2024
Jorg Albertz did the hard work, drawing goalkeeper Stewart Kerr and presenting Van Vossen with a sitter in front of an open goal. Van Vossen wasn’t the only forward in 1990s Scotland who finished like he was blindfolded (Celtic’s Harald Brattbakk was also special in that respect) but that effort over the crossbar? Absolutely chronic. The Dutchman left Ibrox in 1998, with five league goals to his name. Gone but not forgotten.
Phil Hay
Luke Varney: Leeds United 3-0 Southampton, League Cup, October 2012
How do you sum up Luke Varney and his time at Leeds United? Leeds were back, they had Neil Warnock in charge and were charging for promotion by… signing four players from a Portsmouth side who had been relegated the season before.
Varney was, on paper, the most exciting of the quartet. He was a forward. He had scored six goals the season before. He had played in the Premier League (on loan, for Blackpool).
#LUFC pic.twitter.com/BYi3Aean0j
— Leeds United Out Of Context (@LUFCnocontext) April 3, 2019
Quite quickly, everyone realised Varney was not going to be the answer to Leeds’ promotion problems. He had his moments — and arguably ended up keeping Leeds in the Championship — but the one that he will be remembered for in West Yorkshire was this miss against Southampton.
Leeds won 3-0. No one will remember that. Instead, they will recall El Hadji Diouf knocking the ball down, Varney meeting it in front of a completely empty net, and somehow sending it back towards Diouf and out for a goal kick.
Amitai Winehouse
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting: Paris Saint-Germain 2-2 Strasbourg, Ligue 1, April 2019
What made Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s effort for Paris Saint-Germain against Strasbourg in April 2019 so spectacular was not just that he did not score, but also that his attempt actively stopped a team-mate from doing so.
Christopher Nkunku’s chipped effort had beaten Strasbourg goalkeeper Matz Sels and evaded the last-ditch dive of a defender. Choupo-Moting, who had opened the scoring in the 13th minute and was no doubt keen to make the most of a rare start, attempted to get the final touch on the ball to add to his tally.
You may never ever see a worse miss than this beauty from former Stoke striker Choupo-Moting…
It genuinely beggars belief 😱pic.twitter.com/OZBp6AJv6x
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) April 7, 2019
For U.S. readers…
Choupo-Moting with the MISS OF THE CENTURY for PSG 😱
(via @beINSPORTSUSA) pic.twitter.com/1JAyEVdzrZ
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) April 7, 2019
The Cameroon international, who had been relegated from the Premier League with Stoke City the previous year, got his feet tangled up and, rather than helping the ball on its inevitable journey into the net, blocked it on the line.
Choupo-Moting ended up in the net but the ball did not, as it was scrambled away from danger. A victory would have wrapped up another title for PSG, but the game ended in a draw instead. The French club still, inevitably, won the league by 16 points but Choupo-Moting is most remembered at the club not for the nine goals he did score, but for the one he prevented.
Colin Millar
Ronny Rosenthal: Aston Villa 4-2 Liverpool, Premier League, September 1992
Autumn 1992 was a time of change; the Premier League had started, but what was different? Not too much, not yet.
Liverpool were in it, were they changing? Yes, they were, no longer the best team in the country as they had been for most of the 1970s and 1980s. This version lost eight league games before Christmas, and the most memorable of those came in September at Villa Park, thanks to Ronnie Rosenthal’s jaw-dropping, era-defining miss.
The build-up was an early ’90s industry classic. A long ball from David James was misjudged by Villa defender Shaun Teale and collected by Rosenthal, who nimbly jumped past the advancing Nigel Spink to leave himself with a dream scenario (above): a completely open goal with the ball on or around the penalty spot. All Ronnie had to do was roll it home.
Instead, he got his foot under it and lofted it straight against the crossbar. There’s a wonderful fraction of a second when the Villa fans in the Holte End have to adjust from impending despair to utter joy.
The Premier League had its first viral moment (unless you prefer Simon Tracey’s red card for Sheffield United at Tottenham Hotspur 17 days earlier, in which case I won’t judge you). How do I know? Children in the playground at my school would shout ‘Rosenthal’ when anyone missed a sitter. Brutal.
Duncan Alexander
Cristiano Ronaldo: Sheffield United 1-2 Manchester United, November 2006
There are a couple of reasons we enjoy watching the absolute greats of the game make incredibly basic, embarrassing mistakes. One is straightforward schadenfreude, the human instinct to ensure those who get a little big for their boots are knocked down a peg or two. Another is the reassurance that these people are fallible; that just because they are capable of athletic feats doesn’t mean they’re closer to aliens than human beings. They’re still capable of messing up the easy stuff. Another is that unrivalled, peril-free dominance or brilliance isn’t very interesting.
@sheffieldunited 19 years ago today… 🫣 #cr7 #ronaldo #cristianoronaldo ♬ original sound – Sheffield United
Cristiano Ronaldo hadn’t quite become ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’ yet in November 2006. This was the last year when he still existed on the same plane as most other human beings, ascending to something loftier the following season when he scored 42 goals and Manchester United won the Champions League. In this game, against Sheffield United, he somehow managed to flick a chance over the bar from around four yards, the goal waiting to welcome the ball. Perhaps he could blame a bobble in the goalmouth. Perhaps it was the universe reminding him there was still work to do on his journey to greatness. Perhaps he’s just a man, and men make stupid mistakes.
Nick Miller
