You’ve Seen Awful Misses Before But You’ve Never, Ever Seen One Like This

We’ve seen players miss open goals before. Hell, even some of the finest strikers on the planet manage to put shots wide with the goal at their mercy. But this miss in a Serbian lower league match has no equal.

Usually, players contrive to miss chances when forced into a first time shot — the football takes an unlucky bounce before reaching them or they scuff the attempt. Here, this poor man is able to take three touches to roll the ball right in front of goal. It's the old cliche of having too much time to think about it.

From there, he could’ve easily finished the play by getting on his hands and knees, a la Ronaldinho, and nudging the ball into the goal with his head. Instead, he uses the outside of his left boot to send a rasping curler spooning over the net. 

I know he just wants the ground to swallow him up so he can disappear from the pitch, but I can’t stop watching it, resurrecting the ghost of his miss over and over again. This is now an important piece of history.