Penalties: The Most Heartbreaking Thing About Football

When your team wins a penalty shoot-out it feels like you're on top of the world. You're elated by the fact that a member of the opposition has just taken a disastrous penalty and your team is victorious.

On the other hand, when your team loses on penalties you feel so low you don't know what to do with yourself.

I have been in this position many times before, especially when playing football. On one occasion our match went to penalties and we lost before it got to my turn. For some reason I was relieved that I didn't have to take one, yet I was disappointed at the fact that we went out of the cup.

More lows came when watching Oxford United lose to Exeter City in the Playoff semifinals on penalties. Being an Oxford fan for most of my life I thought I had seen it all but being 1-0 up from the first leg and then drawing the whole thing 2-2 was just unbelievable.

Extra time brought a glaring miss from our striker, Rob Duffy and the match went to penalites. The deciding penalty in fact was to be taken by the goalkeeper, Billy Turley. Guess what, he missed.

We led the league for ther majority of the year and ended up missing out on promotion altogether.

I was gutted.

However, I have experienced good times with my adopted/glory supporting team, Manchester United. All though I shouldn't have, I cheered when England captain John Terry missed his penalty in last year's Champions League final. The only reason I can think of is because like all football fans we desperately want our team to be successful.

Man Utd's recent loss in the FA Cup semifinal on penalties did hurt, but then again I can moan about the team selection and Dimitar Berbatov. A story for another day I think.