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Ciaran Conneely
Mrs. Cramer
College Comp I Pd. 6b
20 September 2019
CAN Essay (Prompt 4)
In life, everyone experiences failure: some major, and some minor. A couple of years

ago, I did indeed experience failure. This was one of the biggest failures in my life so far. It was

my eighth-grade year on the middle school soccer game. The failure was that I missed two

penalty kicks in one game against Elk County.

To begin the story, we must go back a couple of weeks prior to the game against Elk

County. We were practicing. Our coach, Mr. Butler, wanted all of us to shoot penalties, to see

who would take them during a game. Right as we were about to start, I didn’t really believe that

I’d be the designated penalty taker, as I had been a defender. Not to mention, I had never really

taken penalty kicks before. I’d soon find out that I was a better penalty taker than I thought.

As mentioned before, everyone would take a couple of penalty kicks to decide the

designated penalty taker. When it was my turn, I stepped up and scored the penalty. We kept on

going, and before I knew it, only one other teammate and I were left. The teammate that I was

against was an attacking midfielder/winger. No to mention, he was one of the best players on the

team. I figured that the odds weren’t in my favor. After each of us took more penalty kicks,

coach Butler determined that I would be the penalty kicker, to my surprise.

So, now the story moves forward to the game against Elk County. Apart from my two

missed penalty kicks, the game wasn’t too eventful. Several minutes passed by, and we were

already one goal ahead. A little bit later, as our offense pressed up against the opponent, one of
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Elk County’s defenders had a handball in the penalty box, which results in an automatic penalty

kick. The referee blew his whistle and called a penalty kick. Once the whistle blew, I ran up to

the penalty box and placed the ball on the penalty spot. As the referee was advising the Elk

County goalkeeper of the rules for a penalty kick, I began deciding where’d I’d place my

penalty. In all the penalty kicks in training, I’d always go top corner, and usually make the

penalty kicks. So, after a little bit, the referee blew his whistle, indicating I could take my penalty

kick. My heart was pounding, and I was nervous, to say the least. I ran up, kicked the ball, and

watched it sail over the net. I couldn’t believe myself, as I was very confident that I could’ve

scored.

Time passed by, and we scored a second goal. Then Elk County scored their first goal,

making it a close game. Then, they had another handball in the penalty box. Just like before, the

referee blew his whistle, indicating it was a penalty. I found myself about to attempt my second

penalty of the game. There was even more pressure now that I had already missed one earlier in

the game. The referee blew his whistle, signaling that I could take the penalty. As foolish as it

seems, I attempted to place the penalty in the same spot as before. I had no doubt in my mind

that I would make this penalty. Unfortunately for me, I hit the crossbar of the goal, and missed

my second penalty of the game.

That was one of my experiences of failure. It devastated me that I missed those two

penalties. The way I overcame this failure was by letting the mistakes go and focusing on the

team. If I kept thinking about the penalties, it’d put me down, and hinder my performances. I

learned that if you make a mistake once, try something different the second time.