The last couple of afternoons in football have seen two of the worst misses of the year so far.
After Joshua Zirkzee of Bayern Munich missed the open net from a yard out a couple of days ago, Nicolas Reniero of Argentinos Juniors did one better last night with a horrendous miss against Newell’s Old Boys.
While Zirkzee’s miss came in a pre-season friendly, Reneiro’s blooper was not as less consequential as it took place in an Argentinian top-flight league outing.
A lapse of communication between the Newell’s Old Boys goalkeeper and a defender handed the ball to the Argentinos Juniors man on a platter.
Reneiro had no problem rounding the goalkeeper with an important touch – and with the goal gaping in front of him with no defender in the vicinity, he chose to do the impossible and blazed his effort over the crossbar from the 6-yard line.
The miss was an inexplicable one as Reniero looked like he wanted the ground underneath to open up and swallow him whole – to save him from the embarrassment that the forward just caused himself.
A stunned Reniero put his head in his hands, almost in disbelief about the ease of the chance that he was so welcomely handed – and his reaction was shared by the online football community amongst whom the video of the miss went viral after the match.
With the score reading 1-0 to Argentinos Juniors, a goal could’ve buried the outcome right then and there in stoppage time, but the incredible miss meant that a desperate Newell’s Old Boys had one more chance to get the ball upfield to try and find an equaliser.
Reniero would argue that all is well that ends well, as it proved to be too late for the opposition to salvage anything from the game.
