Of course, awesome and acrobatic goals are beautiful. Goals from free kicks, from midfield, or after a joint action are even more so. But few things have as much fun as a very easy but sensationally wrong goal, especially if the attacker of the opposing team makes the mistake. Indeed, when such an event occurs, one rejoices even more than for a goal, because humiliation for the opponents must be added to the narrow escape.
We, here on Five Beautiful Things, generally do not like to rejoice in the misfortunes of others. But in sport there are no misfortunes: it is all a great show, and even mistakes must be taken with sportsmanship. This is why we thought that we could all have four laughs together regarding the most glaring mistakes under the goal in recent football history. Also to console us that we ourselves will be scarce, but there are those who can do worse than us.
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Frank Mill with Borussia Dortmund
The most sensational missed goal in Bundesliga history
Frank Mill’s name probably doesn’t tell you anything. Yet, the player born in 1958 was the fourth striker of the German national team who became world champion in Italy ’90. But in those years, already thirty-two, Mill was in that phase of his career in which he transforms himself from center forward into assist-man, and perhaps for this reason he remained quiet in the shadow. However, he was an idol in his own club team, Borussia Dortmund, in which he played for 8 seasons.
With the yellow and black jersey, however, Mill ran into a sensational mistake, which is still remembered in Germany today as the most famous missed goal in history. The match was Bayern-Borussia, certainly not a trivial match; and even if the Dortmund team were not playing for the title then, Bayern certainly did. Add that it was the first of the championship, on 9 August 1986, and that Mill was making his debut with the new shirt after coming from Borussia Mönchengladbach. A debut that would have been impossible for him to forget.
Diego Forlán with Manchester United
When he graced Juve in an American friendly
Do you remember Diego Forlán? The Uruguayan player who made an appearance in post-Mourinho Inter Milan and was quickly forgotten by the Nerazzurri fans? Well, it will not surprise the Italian fans to know that one of the five funniest missed goals in football belongs to him. But don’t judge the striker too badly: apart from a few hiccups, Forlán did very well with Atletico Madrid and Villarreal and in 2010 he also finished fifth in the Golden Ball standings.
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The mistake we chose dates back to when he was still very young and had just arrived in Europe after four seasons with the Independiente Argentines. He was chosen by Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, a team in which he would play for two seasons, but scored few goals. During the summer of 2003, Forlán and Manchester went to America for a tour that was to also touch the Giant Stadium in New York. There, Ferguson’s men were expected by Marcello Lippi’s Juventus. The result was a friendly that was of little importance – the Red Devils won 4-1 – but which remains in the memory for the mistake (favored by Fresi and Chimenti) that you can see below.
Jon Dahl Tomasson with Feyenoord
When it is wrong it is much more difficult to score
Speaking of players who passed, perhaps quickly, through the Italian fields, let’s talk now about Jon Dahl Tomasson. Tomasson, one of the strongest strikers in the history of Denmark, arrived in the peninsula in 2002, signed by Milan on a free transfer after some excellent seasons at Feyenoord. For the striker it was the second big opportunity: a few years earlier he had been signed by Newcastle, but in the Premier League he had disappointed expectations. In Ancelotti’s Milan, on the other hand, he managed to find a dimension of himself, often starting from the bench but scoring a fair number of goals.
But Tomasson is not only famous for his goals, but also for his missed goals. In fact, on more than one occasion in his career the Danish center forward missed goals that seemed to have already been scored, causing the fans to bite their hands. The most sensational of these errors, in our opinion, is the one you can see below, made with the Feyenoord shirt in a match against NAC Breda. In which, as they say, it was much more difficult to make mistakes than to put them inside.
Ilija Sivonjić with Dinamo Zagreb
Stop here on the goal line
Let’s move, for the last two mistakes of our selection, to minor leagues and tournaments. On the other hand, when the talent decreases it is easier for daring or paradoxical situations to occur. In this case, we move to Croatia, during a 2009 match between Dinamo Zagreb and Cibalia, a team that now plays in the local Serie B but was then in the top division. The protagonist of the action is Ilija Sivonjić, a winger with the “vice of scoring” who, however, in this case, ignored his fame.
Around half an hour of play, Dinamo was unexpectedly losing at home and needed to score as soon as possible. Cross from the right, assist from Chilean Pedro Morales and the ball reaches Sivonjić practically on the goal line, just a few millimeters from the goal. But instead of pushing it in, for some reason that he probably doesn’t even understand yet, the Croatian doesn’t push the ball in, he stops it. Currently, the striker born in 1987 plays for Hrvatski Dragovoljac, also from Zagreb.
Fahad Khalfan with Qatar
Play a single real match with the national team and leave this memory
However, the most absurd of all these missed goals is also the most recent. November 15, 2010: the Asian Games are being played in Canton, China, a sort of Olympics reserved for that continent. The football tournament has reached the quarter-finals, and Qatar and Uzbekistan face off in one match. Theoretically, we shouldn’t expect too much from such unclassified teams, but instead, the show is just around the corner. A colossal duck of the Uzbek goalkeeper, in fact, allows the Qatari wing to fly undisturbed towards the unguarded goal. The player, perhaps for fear of making a mistake, focuses, so as not to have to shoot from too tight a position. Before the defenders reach him he hits the ball of the left-winger, directing it towards the unguarded goal. But he sends her to the pole.
The player in question is Fahad Khalfan and was, in that game, on his debut in an official match with his country’s shirt. A debut that has remained unique, since no coach has since had the courage to field him for Qatar. Khalfan, for his part, is still very young, since he was born in 1992, and will have time to make up for it. He currently plays in the Al-Sailiya Sports Club, also in Qatar.
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