If anyone forgot why Mario Gomez is no longer the striker for Bayern Munich, came his incredible miss on his first Serie A match for Fiorentina, ignoring the completely wide open goal and sending a shot straight into the post, which didn’t stop his team from beating Catania 2-1.
Giuseppe Rossi and David Pizarro with a beautiful goal were good enough to score prior to Gomez’ miss in order to give Fiorentina the expected win on their season opener. Rossi was also the one who set up Gomez with a chance that couldn’t get any easier, and yet Gomez still managed to send the shot into a place it’s more difficult to hit than actually score.
While Gomez has been one of the more productive strikers in Europe over the last few seasons (scoring a total of 99 goals over the last three seasons in all competitions), but it doesn’t change the fact that he tends to come up with some incredible misses.
He cost Fiorentina €20 million to purchase in the summer, with some declaring him their next Gabriel Batistuta, although Gomes has a long way before he fills those shoes or comes even remotely close to who might be the greatest striker of the 1990’s.
There’s a reason Gomez left Bayern, or lost his place in the lineup to Mario Mandzukic. It wasn’t just his injury early last season, but the fact that he doesn’t do much but prowl around the box and finish. While his numbers are impressive, teams need more from their strikers these days, and when it comes with incredible misses like this, Fiorentina fans are in for a bumpy ride with the German striker.
