It was the missed PK heard around MLS, but it was also the extension of a dubious streak for Inter Miami CF's Gonzalo Higuain.
The expansion side's new Designated Player striker provided perhaps the most memorable moment of the Week 14 slate in MLS when he stepped to the spot for a penalty kick in the 77th minute of his team's match against the Philadelphia Union, only to sky the attempt and get into a heated confrontation with several Philadelphia players in the aftermath.
In a streak that you might not expect given his goalscoring prowess, it was actually Higuain's fourth straight miss from the spot, dating back to his distinguished time in Serie A with AC Milan and Juventus.
It started for Juventus in UEFA Champions League play against Tottenham Hotspur on Feb. 13, 2018 — a game where Higuain actually took two penalty kicks and converted the first one before missing the second.
Just under a month later in a league match against Udinese, Higuain missed another look from the spot . His most recent miss before Sunday was on November 11, 2018, this time for AC Milan against former Juventus teammate Wojciech Szczesny.
Penalty kicks can be a fickle beast, as evidenced in some of Higuain's prime years with Napoli — per FBRef, he went 5-for-5 from the spot in Serie A in 2013-2014, only to follow that up by going just 3-for-7 the next season, before bouncing back by going 3-for-3 in 2015-16. It's also worth noting that since he left Napoli in 2016, Higuain has not been his team's primary penalty taker, having spent most of the time since playing at Juventus alongside the likes of Paulo Dybala and Cristiano Ronaldo.
All things considered, it's hard to know what to make of this streak, other than that it's certainly a statistical oddity for one of the greatest goal-scorers of his generation. Given the chances he should get with Miami, it seems likely this one will be put to bed soon enough.
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September 29, 2020 at 05:08AM
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Gonzalo Higuain's recent troubles from the penalty spot continue in Inter Miami CF debut - MLSsoccer.com
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