Tapping the ball home into an empty net is definitely not as easy as it looks.
Bayern Munich’s Joshua Zirkzee will testify to that notion after the young talent missed one of the easiest chances one can ever get on a football pitch – rolling the ball into an unguarded goal from a yard out.
The 20-year-old was left red-faced after he dilly-dallied for too long in front of goal in Bayern’s pre-season friendly against AFC Ajax, in a clip that has since gone viral on social media.
Set through on goal in the friendly outing, Zirkzee did the much tougher part of the job as he rounded the goalkeeper – but when confronted with the easiest part of it all, he simply spent too much time on the ball, giving defender Perr Schuurs the chance to clear the ball out of danger.
The Dutch talent was a yard out from an unguarded net and he only needed a simple touch of the ball to strike it home, but he ended up completely fluffing the chance somehow.
Zirkzee’s miss was one that spoke volumes about his complacency, but Schuurs’ determination to salvage what seemed like a lost cause is definitely commendable – and it paid off when the Dutch defender connected with a tackle that took the ball out of play.
A shell-shocked Zirkzee was left stunned in front of the goal, barely even coming to terms with the apparent ease of the chance that he – or any professional footballer ever – should have buried a 100 out of 100 times.
It was a heavy price that Zirkzee had to pay for his dilly-dallying, and the youngster will certainly consider this a lesson – that nothing is ever truly simple in the game of football.
