July 17 – Baggio’s Penalty Pain
IS there a more cruel invention than the penalty shoot out? England fans would struggle to think of anything worse, and so would Italian forward Robert Baggio.
The Iti front man had arrived at the 1994 World Cup in the USA with massive expectations on his shoulders but this seemed to weigh on him and he struggled in the group matches with his teammates carrying the burden of getting Italy through to the knock out phase.
In the round of 16 the Italians were drawn against Nigeria and after going down to an early Emmanuel Amuneke goal, they toiled and toiled trying to unlock the Africans’ defence. It was Baggio who finally found the key when he scored with just one minute to go.
He said in his autobiography ‘Una Porta Nel Cielo’ (A Goal In The Sky): “But everything changed from the moment I equalised in the final minutes against Nigeria. I got the ball, kicked it and it went through the defender’s legs and landed on the right post. It was impossible to save. Many people called it lucky, and when you score in the 90th minute there’s always a little bit of luck, but then again… maybe there was something special in that moment.
“After that goal I stopped feeling so anxious. I started playing with ease. I freed myself once again. It was a fundamental moment. From then on my World Cup got a lot better.”
It got a lot better almost immediately and he went on to score the winning goal in the match with Nigeria – ironically a penalty – which sent them through to the quarter-finals. There they met Spain with Baggio again scoring a late winner on 87 minutes.
He continued his hot streak in the semi-final with Bulgaria, bagging a brace in a 2-1 win, but picking up an injury in the process.
He said: “It wasn’t anything serious, just a tired muscle, but it affected my preparation for the final. What would have been a minor injury in any other situation was more serious because of the situation. But I was desperate to play. I would have played even if they’d cut off my leg. My appearance in that game still causes controversy but I felt OK, otherwise I wouldn’t have played.”
He did play in the final which was held on this day in 1994, but not well, and the match was a stalemate and went to penalties. Baggio takes up the story: “As for the penalty, I don’t want to brag but I’ve only ever missed a couple of penalties in my career. And they were because the goalkeeper saved them not because I shot wide. That’s just so you understand that there is no easy explanation for what happened at Pasadena. When I went up to the spot I was pretty lucid, as much as one can be in that kind of situation. I knew Taffarel always dived so I decided to shoot for the middle, about halfway up, so he couldn’t get it with his feet. It was an intelligent decision because Taffarel did go to his left, and he would never have got to the shot I planned.
“Unfortunately, and I don’t know how, the ball went up three metres and flew over the crossbar. As for taking the penalty in the first place, I was knackered, but I was the team’s penalty taker. I’ve never run away from my responsibilities. Only those who have the courage to take a penalty miss them. I failed that time. Period. And it affected me for years. It the worst moment of my career. I still dream about it. If I could erase a moment from my career, it would be that one.
“What is sometimes forgotten is that even if I had scored, Brazil could still have won with the last penalty because before me Baresi and Massaro had both missed. That’s part of the game. I missed the last penalty, thereby ‘cancelling out’ those by Baresi and Massaro. They had to chose one image from the finals and they chose my mistake. For a change. They wanted a lamb to slaughter and chose me. Forgetting that without me we would never have reached those finals. After my miss I looked stunned, and that look stayed with me for a long time. I just couldn’t accept how it had ended.”
Unsurprisingly Baggio is still not keen on the concept of penalty shootouts. He said: “Looking back I have to say that losing a World Cup final on penalties is something that I’ll never agree with. If you lose on the pitch, that’s fine, it’s right. Even if you deserved something different. But with penalties, no, that’s not right. Is it right that four years of sacrifice are decided by three minutes of penalties? I don’t think so. Losing that way isn’t right, and neither is winning that way.”
Have a look at the fateful miss below and click here if you want to know what was happening in football three years before Baggio skied his spot kick.
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Rethinking The Shootout - Roberto Baggio | SoccerShout.com on July 18th, 2008
[...] subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!By an amazing coincidence, yesterday (July 17th) was the anniversary of Roberto Baggio’s penalty miss in the final of the 1994 World [...]
Phil McThomas on July 18th, 2008
What a wonderful coincidence that this anniversary falls right as I am writing a series of blog posts about the problem of penalty shootouts – and what can be done to make them better.
http://soccershout.com/2008/07/16/rtg-rethinking-the-shootout-part-1/