Skip to search.

Breaking News Visit Yahoo! News for the latest.

×Close this window

Dirty Tackle - World Soccer

Dirty Tackle

Wed Nov 17 05:33pm EST

Nani ruins Cristiano Ronaldo's wonder goal against Spain

By Brooks Peck

Oh, Nani. I know it's your birthday and all, but this is goal greed to a cruel degree.

[Photos: More of Ronaldo and his Mohawk]

Cristiano Ronaldo pulled an absolutely brilliant move to not only send Spain defender Gerard Pique sliding into oblivion, but chip a perfect ball over Iker Casillas. Nani had to go and put his freshly mohawked head (a style he copied off Ronaldo, by the way) to the ball when it was already all but in the net. He was called offside. The goal was disallowed. 

[Video: Footballer's 'worst miss ever']

This is like if da Vinci's little brother tried to put a finishing touch on the Mona Lisa by drawing a stick figure with a Sharpie on her forehead. Still, Portugal ended up beating the world champions 4-0, it was just a friendly and the referee might have been just as much at fault for a questionable offside call and the possibility that the ball was already over the goal line when Nani headed it. But even with all that, Nani just shouldn't have touched it.

UPDATE: There won't be any simmering grudges here -- Nani has already apologized to Ronaldo for what happened. From ESPN:

"I touched the ball because I thought I wasn't offside," Nani said. "Everything happened so quickly. After having time to think about it I apologised to Ronaldo. It was a great piece of play and I shouldn't have ruined it.''

That was certainly nice of Nani to say. I'm sure he'll be back on the guest list for Ronaldo's next house party now. 

[Video: Hockey player's epic goal fail]

Other popular stories on Yahoo!:
• Teammates: NHL star is the 'perfect human'
• Photo: Ochocinco proposes to reality star girlfriend with 10-carat ring
• John Daly says that weight loss has hurt his golf game

digg delicious

Related Articles

Launch Article Browser

Dirty Tackle

Add to My Yahoo! RSS

Related Photo Gallery

More SOW Photos »

Featured World Soccer Video

More Videos »

Y! Sports Blog