Euro 2012: Spain look to make history as CR7 "misses" penalty opportunity

Nothing gives me goose bumps like watching a game winning goal. Cess Fabregas netting the penalty kick that catapulted La Furia Roja to the Euro 2012 final was a beautiful sight.

The biggest controversy regarding the game is, obviously, the one surrounding Portugal manager Paulo Bento and super star Cristiano Ronaldo for not having taken a penalty shot. Ronaldo was due to take the fifth penalty, but because Portugal had missed two and Spain made four, Ronaldo didn't have the opportunity to take a spot kick. But WHY? Why in the world would you place arguably the best penalty shooter in the world fifth in the order?

Ronaldo had this to say: "It was just a question of me speaking with the coach. He said to me, 'Do you want to take the fifth one?' and I said 'yes'. Sometimes I take the first, the second or the third.  I agreed to take the fifth."

Im not sure about how often penalty shoot outs even reach the fifth shooter, but it certainly isn't always!

In hindsight the decision agreed upon by Ronaldo and Bento to place Ronaldo as the fifth shooter was absolutely idiotic. Perhaps they both anticipated the drama of a long-lasting back-and-forth shoot out. This all boils down to the fact that Ronaldo "missed" his opportunity; he missed his shot at a penalty by agreeing to shoot fifth.

We all know how much Cristiano Ronaldo loves the lime light, attention, and, most of all, gory, but he got a little ahead of himself on this one. Trying to be the hero, ultimately made him a zero. Zero participation in the shoot out, and a big fat zero next to his name on the score sheet.
This will no doubt be a defining moment of the tournament, and Bento could likely lose his job over it.

Ultimately, the match was close and the penalties did neither team justice. I, for one, don't particularly like penalty shoot outs. There's too much luck involved, and not enough actual soccer. Both Spain and Portugal had several goal scoring opportunities throughout the 120 minutes of play, they did, after all, play overtime before the penalty kicks. Portugal could not take advantage of counter attacks and fast break opportunities and Ronaldo really squandered the opportunities he had. He took quite a few free kicks, which were good chances, but not one of those has was on target. And 103 minutes into the match, Iniesta miss a wide open shot from just 3 or four yards out.

In the end, Spain maintained possession over the Portuguese, out passed and outshot them. Portugal were the biggest test Spain had faced thus far, and though both played well, Spain was more deserving of the result. Personally, I was happy to see the defending champs advance to the final as they try to make history and become the first team to win 3 consecutive major titles. (They won the 2008 EURO and 2010 World Cup.)


But what brought most joy to my heart today was that the guys from PTI began their show discussing this controversey! Yes, Kornheiser and Wilbon actually talked about soccer for longer than 3 seconds! Congrats soccer!