Incredible open goal miss (Video)
When it looks easier to score than to miss, you know that if the chance isn’t taken then you are going to end up on a blooper video at the end of the season. There are always many contenders to choose from and it is certainly not something that a player wants to be remembered for. Whilst admiring the talents of many players and their ability to miss an open goal from a few yards, I recently came across this effort by Fahad Khalfan from an international match in 2010. First though, let me set the scene.
Khalfan was a young, 18-year-old striker who had come through the ranks at the famous ASPIRE academy in Qatar. He was called up to the Qatar national team after impressing at club level and participated in the 2010 Asian Games. The draw for the games saw Qatar placed in Group D, alongside Singapore, India and Kuwait, with only the top two progressing to the next round. After a goalless draw in their opening match against Singapore, they then beat India 2-1, with both goals in the last ten minutes. The last game saw them emerge victorious with a 2-0 victory over Kuwait and they qualified in first place with seven points.
Now they were due to meet the challenge of Uzbekistan in the round of 16, who had only got through as a result of being one of the better 3rd place finishers. The game was locked at 0-0 with not much between the two sides. Then, the moment that Khalfan will never forget occurred; the Uzbek defender passed the ball back to the keeper, who was hounded by the enthusiastic striker. For some incredible reason the keeper decided to dummy the ball and then fall over, leaving Khalfan to collect it and run towards the empty goal. As he reached just a few yards short of the goal line he inexplicably decided to try and use the outside of his left boot to score. Instead, he sort of toe poked it straight onto the post and watched as it rebounded out towards the edge of the area. As his team mate smashes the effort over the bar, the youngster looks in shock, either because he can’t believe how bad he is or because he’s just realised that he will never, ever live this moment down! Congratulations Fahad on one of the worst open goal misses ever!
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