A spot kick. It’s from 12 yards out. You can either place it or go for power or just close your eyes and hope. Either way, the goalkeeper is at a massive disadvantage. There’s not much more to it than that. You should try to keep it simple, stupid.
But here are three instances when, for whatever reason, the penalty taker managed to get it all horribly wrong. These are the 3 worst penalties ever taken.
Some players just have a gift. The ability to see a play develop before it happens. The audacity to attempt maneuvers others wouldn’t dare to try. The composure to pull off moves with the weight of the world watching.
Danny Welbeck, as this recent highlight video shows, is one of those supremely talented footballers who just stands above the rest.
Danny Welbeck's vision is in 3074 while we're all in 2017. Unreal assists. pic.twitter.com/RWGfXzO5Bn
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Roberto Carlos scored the greatest free kick ever. By extension, was he the greatest free kick specialist of all-time? Absolutely not. His ability to absolutely crush the ball into a banana curve defied logic and was rumored capable of killing a cow, but his penchant for violence over accuracy meant that many dead balls reached Row Z of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu.
Valentin Costache did score the winner in this match for Dinamo Bucharest, so you don't have to feel too bad for him.
That said, instead of capitalizing on an epic error from Viitorul goalkeeper Arpad Tordai, Costache said "hold my beer" and made an equally bad error, thumping the ball into the post instead of into the goal.
Again, he scored the winner, so don't feel bad for him. That's a frightful mistake though.
You can’t teach the art of goalscoring and that natural instinct to be in the right place at the right time, but what we have here is an example that transcends the art of making something out of nothing — there’s no explanation for this.
This could only be classified as an instinctual finish, but that’s underselling this goal pretty heavily. This isn’t the mark of a goalscorer, this is the mark of a madman. This goal should be investigated, brought before the FIFA Ethics Committee and either be given the All-Time Puskas Award or outlawed.
Now, some shenanigans from the Brazilian lower leagues.
Jaja, a forward for Tupi, danced around the America Miniero keeper and instead of a simple toe poke, he went for glory, winding up for a back-heeled finish. Fellow forward Flavio Caca-Rato had other ideas, however, and decided to completely steal his teammate’s thunder. Watch him ruthlessly rob poor Jaja of a goal.