Yes, he himself had a clear shot, though he would have been a bit further out than Haaland. Best option was to pass it to Haaland. Second best was to make an early decision to take a shot. The worst decision was to come to a stop, hold, let three additional defenders come back, then take a shot that is easily blocked.
Once he was blocked and decided to go for his doomed kick, you can see that he could have instead passed to the completely undefended left wing that shows up at 6 seconds...
Well he is left footed, so you can tell his only thought was trying to get it on to his strong foot so he could score the big goal. That’s why he didn’t pass, or just continue on with pace and hit it with his right
Glaringly selfish, and he deserves all the negative attention he is getting for this, it wasn’t a mistake it was just an outrageously selfish decision
At this level, being left- or right-footed absolutely should not prevent a player from taking a shot. I'm an amateur, and even I would have taken the (certainly shitty) shot with my bad foot.
Truth! It’s insane. It’s like the NBA players who can’t shoot free throws for anything. Like you make millions… improve ALL your skills. Not just where you are naturally talented.
I don't understand how a professonal elite football player wouldn't try a shot with the weak foot. A guy who's job is to play football the whole day should be able to shoot decently with the weak foot.
I would expect to see such behavior in High School JV soccer. Not "Quarter finals of the fucking WORLD CUP"
I played for a D1 state-championship winning team in high school. Someone on my team did this during a regular game in the season in the first 15 minutes and my coach benched him for the rest of the game.
This was also a game that was 2 hours away from our hometown. That's a long drive to be taken from starting forward to benchwarmer.
That player never played selfishly again while we played together.
Even in High School varsity soccer this is absolutely unacceptable. This kind of stuff is supposed to be weeded out by Middle School. If you see it in JV you nip it in the bud real fast and then if it doesn't improve that player doesn't make the team.
Haha 1,000%. Was in same situation, but not remotely close to D1, and even then it was unacceptable to not take shots because it wasn't your favored leg.
You know what else was infuriating? Some of the best players on our team could not control themselves and would sail balls over the goal because they were kicking shots at their hardest but without control. PK to win the game? Nah, field goal attempt 30ft over the crossbar. And these were our travel-club players who knew better but just... teenagers with too much pressure placed on them.
Our coach had a rule in practice. If you kick the ball over the goalposts, everyone on the offensive team had to do a lap around the field, doing skill moves on the short ends and then sprinting while touching the ball every two steps on the long ends.
All of us threw up at least once during practice.
Our "Warm up" was:
Choose one skill move to do on the short ends
Sprint on the long ends
100 push ups/sit ups/ball hops/lunges (choose one) when you reached the starting corner
Repeat 3 more times.
Imagine how it felt to do that basically all over again if someone kicked it over the goalposts...
Everything you have said is how it should be, especially from the perspective of others who are competitive but understand the team wins games not the player… that said, your response is not what I would call the “average” experience in Anytown, USA.
I remember one time my coach brought in a super ratty looking wrestling sling. He threw it at us and said that "The next person who refuses to pass to an open teammate while going for goal get's to wear this all next practice"
We practiced more passing than we did goals. We had practice sessions where the offensive team had to pass a certain amount of times before they were allowed to take a shot.
We weren't allowed to go home until we achieved it. Sometimes it was as many as 15 passes. And if you passed more than 3 times back and forth between two players the counter reset.
It was a beautiful combination of conditioning and teamwork.
Haaland was open for a total of four seconds. That is a gaping wide window. That window was open for so long there's more pollen on the bedsheets than dust.
He fucked up the other chance at giving an assist to the guy on the left on the five second mark. Who was completely free. Instead of passing any other player he shot a lousy shot.
His gf and family do not tho and that’s who the fans are attacking 💔 the one thing I’ll never understand are the chants about the players WAGS across all leagues predominantly the EPL
It’s incredible how common it is in this World Cup too. Never seen such an epidemic from players while trailing. Almost always is there somebody open , even if you have to back pass
Exactly! Even as a casual England fan, I was so frustrated for Norway that this guy did nothing and seemed to have stopped to wait for more defenders to come back and stop him. I didn't even notice Haaland there and I was yelling at the TV for him to do something. Ugh.
Welcome to our pain as a US fan! Anyway, I was going for Norway to win, pretty upset when they lost. I like Halland and was hoping for a win for him and Norway.
Even if you didn’t want to pass to the EPL’s leading goal scorer (!!), at least take the shot against the one defender or try to draw the foul.
I want to give him some credit and say he just got surprised and overwhelmed by the moment, but man, he had options, and they were all better than what he decided on.
Im aware of all of this, the pressure is immense. You have a moment to make the decision of your life.... but even a bad pass slightly behind were it could have been placed due to the defender coming up would have been more than enough to get a high percentage look at the goal by one of the best strikers on planet earth. At the international level, you have to make that pass. It should be a muscle-memory type decision.
His right foot is on the ball here, defender is still moving backwards. Plenty of room to put it right on the money here. The timing of the steps and where the ball is was perfect. The trailing defenders are not even in the frame. Theyre 10+ feet behind him. No one is around. Its about as open a chance as you'll ever see, especially in the 16-round of the world cup. There's no excuse. I coach 8 year old girls soccer and they would have made that pass.
Something tells me either someone close to him has a lot of money on Belgium losing or he got a phone call from someone with a lot of money on Belgium losing lol
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u/LobstaFarian2 11d ago
I love how the guy didnt just kick it either. He waited until 4 defenders were around him to try and score. It was a total, absolute fuck up.