Van Vossen will be toasting that miss!
SAYS GORDON DALZIEL
ONE gruesome gaffe in front of goal in an Old Firm derby was all it took for Rangers striker Peter van Vossen to enter Scottish football folklore.
Presented with an empty net by Jorg Albertz back in November 1996, the Dutch international somehow scooped the ball over the bar at Celtic Park.
It was an extraordinary miss that meant ‘doing a Van Vossen’ became the yardstick for glaring errors in front of goal for the next 22 years.
But after Sunday’s events at Ibrox, that particular entry in the big book of Scottish football phraseology may now be in need of updating.
Rangers fans were left in stunned silence when their Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos squandered an open goal two minutes from the end of a costly 3-2 home defeat to ten-man Celtic.
But former Ibrox striker Gordon Dalziel believes the moment will have been greeted by a loud roar in Holland, where Van Vossen is now manager of Dutch side Fortuna Sittard.
‘I think Peter van Vossen is sitting in his house, drinking champagne and celebrating as we speak,’ Dalziel told Sportsmail.
‘Alfredo Morelos is always going to be remembered for the worst miss ever in a Rangers v Celtic game. Van Vossen’s lost the title!
‘I could not believe Morelos did not score on Sunday. He should have scored — and he will know it. I was at the game and Morelos was the first guy out of Ibrox afterwards.
‘He looked like a boy that just wanted out of the place. He knew how big a chance it was. I have sympathy for him. It’s okay for us to look at the incident time and time again after the game.
‘But it’s happened in the last couple of minutes of a massive game, with his side a goal down and I just think he panicked.
‘He went with the wrong bit of the foot and he went with the wrong foot. He will be playing it back in his head over and over and wondering why he didn’t take it with his left foot or at least side-foot it with his right.
‘Referees get a hard time but they have to make a decision in a fraction of a second and it’s the same with Morelos. He’s made an instinctive reaction but it’s going to live with him for a long time.’
Morelos is the second-top scorer in the Scottish Premiership and recently signed a new deal keeping him at Rangers until 2021 amid multi-million pound interest from China. But the prolific 21-year-old is no stranger to missing chances.
In the last Old Firm game at Celtic Park he could have sealed all three points but headed straight at Craig Gordon and sent another headed effort wide.
He was wasteful in front of goal against Falkirk in the Scottish Cup last weekend and ‘did a Van Vossen’ against Ayr United in an earlier round.
Now he has joined Chris Iwelumo and Ronny Rosenthal in the pantheon of all-time high-profile missed sitters.
‘The boy is known for missing a lot of chances,’ said Dalziel, who won the League Cup with Raith Rovers in 1994 and is now a pundit on Radio Clyde’s
Superscoreboard. ‘I think back to the header at Celtic Park when he really should have scored.
‘But I’d give him a bit of leeway with the one against Ayr United because it took a horrible bobble beforehand. But this miss will open up a can of worms.
‘Ally McCoist is the record goalscorer at Rangers. People would talk about the amount of chances Ally missed — but they always remember Ally’s goals.
‘Morelos is still the top scorer at Rangers but I think it’s the opposite to Ally McCoist — people will remember this miss.
‘I was lucky in my career that I didn’t miss one from as close as that. But there were times when I had missed a chance and I would come into training and get a ball out and re-enact the situation.
‘Morelos will have to live with this. It’s going to be shown before Rangers v Celtic games in the future.
‘But maybe the fact he is from overseas and has not been brought up with the Rangers and Celtic rivalry is a good thing.
‘I don’t know what I’d have done if I had missed it. But, hopefully, he will shrug it off.’
Not all Old Firm sitters prove fateful. Patrick Roberts made a similar howler in a Scottish Cup semi-final loss to Rangers at Hampden two years ago. But he recovered to become an Invincible Treble-winner and the darling of Parkhead.
Dalziel believes Morelos should get the chance to put Sunday’s howler behind him immediately against Kilmarnock at Ibrox on Saturday.
‘Do you take him out of the firing line? Not at all,’ said the former Ayr United and Raith Rovers boss.
‘If I was the Rangers manager — and I have been in management — I would have him playing in the next game.
‘If I had missed that chance, I know I would be desperate for the next game to come. I’d be wanting my team-mates to put the ball in the box for me because I’d be so desperate to score.
‘The sign of a good striker is saying: “I can’t do anything about it now but I can do something about Kilmarnock next weekend”.
‘A good striker puts his setbacks behind him and moves on and I hope Morelos scores against Kilmarnock. It wasn’t all Alfredo Morelos’ fault that Rangers lost to a ten-man Celtic team.
‘Yes, he missed a terrific chance to make it 3-3 but Celtic scored three goals at Ibrox. What about Fabio Cardoso’s defending for the Moussa Dembele goal to make it 2-2 just before half-time? That, for me, was the big game-changer.
‘What about the Rangers midfield for Tom Rogic’s goal? What about Graeme Murty waiting until 3-2 down to put on Jason Cummings and not at 2-2 when Celtic had gone down to ten men?
‘Yes, that miss will be highlighted and it will be remembered but let’s not lay it all at the door of Alfredo Morelos.’