Sporting Kansas City was one made penalty kick away from advancing in the MLS playoffs, and rookie defender Saad Abdul-Salaam had the task of converting his attempt to make that a reality.
It didn’t quite work out for Abdul-Salaam or Sporting KC, as his attempt rattled both posts before going out, keeping the Portland Timbers alive on their way to an eventual shootout victory.
Here is the miss, which will haunt the nightmares of Sporting KC fans for a long time, and be the stuff of legends in Portland forever:
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That was maybe the best penalty shootout I’ve ever seen. Sometimes when you go 10-11 kicks deep it’s just everyone making it but this one had misses too, including that crazy miss in the video above. Exciting game too with late equalizers for each side.
Agreed. Quality entertainment.
I posted pretty much the same thing after another article on the game. To which I would add that I thought it was only fitting that it would be settled by kicks by the goalies since both made some good saves.
Wow! You can’t miss any closer than that!!
craziest? nah. i’d say baggio in ’94 world cup final. arguably the best player in the world at the time, and he absolutely skies it.
Nate,
If I am not mistaken Baggio had an injured right hamstring,…which was so bad he essentially walked around the field the entire match. And you are surprised he muffed his place?
As a aside,….I realize Baggio was head and shoulders above the competition in ’94,…but he should have been on the bench for the final with that injury. Bepe Signori was sitting there in a track suit. What a mistake.
What in the world was Besler thinking? Horrible take
hind sight is always 20/20 after the fact……but why was Besler even taking a penalty kick in the first round. It seemed that SKC didn’t really know who their good PK takers were because some of them in the later round were composed and accurate. Well balanced teams in an absolute thriller but someone had to win.
Jewsberry also missed badly so two of the most experienced players both skied their attempts way over the bar. Pressure can produce some uncommon results.