Stargazers around the world will be out en masse this weekend, as debris from the Temple-Tuttle lights up the nighttime sky. If the meteor shower includes a soccer ball-like object, they should thank Neymar.
On Wednesday night, the Brazilian star badly missed a penalty kick, and he blamed the earthly turf in the swampland of New Jersey for it.
Neymar’s gaffe came in the second half of Brazil’s exhibition game against Colombia at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
The game was tied at 1-1 in the 80th minute when the 20-year-old ran up to the spot and launched his kick into … we’re not exactly sure where it landed, but it certainly wasn’t in the Colombia goal.
The game ended in a 1-1 draw, but Neymar’s lowlight stole the headlines.
After the contest, he chided the turf for not giving him the proper footing to calmly dispatch the penalty, Reuters reports.
“The penalty was horrible but you probably noticed the state the pitch was in, it didn’t have any stability,” he said. “I tried to take it slowly but it didn’t work out … these things happen.”
Many won’t bother to remember that Neymar had already scored an excellent goal in the second half. The Santos and Brazil standout proved that he is human and prone to the odd mishap, after all.
Watch Neymar’s failed penalty kick in the video below (and beware falling objects).
Have a question for Marcus Kwesi O’Mard? Send it to him via Twitter at @NESNsoccer, NESN Soccer’s Facebook page or send it here. He will pick a few questions to answer every week for his mailbag.
