Tapsoba on breaking Leverkusen penalty curse: "Of course, I was a bit scared."
Thanks to Burkinabé defender Edmond Tapsoba, Leverkusen's long (and comically bad) streak of failing to convert from the penalty spot is finally over.
Tapsoba, along with Werkself midfielder Robert Andrich and squad captain Lukas Hradecky, spoke on what it felt like to finally get an especially annoying monkey off the team's back.
Head-coach Xabi Alonso praised his new hero.
Since December of 2021 (!!), snakebite Bayer 04 Leverkusen have found themselves unable to convert from the penalty spot. Four attempts in the league (and six overall) have proven unsuccessful. At long last, an embarrassing negative streak has come to an end. Burkina Faso's Edmond Tapsoba was able to help Germany's red company team shake off the curse in last night's 2-0 win over VfL Bochum.
Tapsoba, along with Werkself midfielder Robert Andrich and squad captain Lukas Hradecky, spoke on what it felt like to finally get an especially annoying monkey off the team's back.
Head-coach Xabi Alonso praised his new hero.
Highly-touted new Bochum defender Keven Schlotterbeck committed what he himself described as a "stupid mistake" by taking out B04 attacker Moussa Diaby in the box in the 6th. Match official Timo Gerach pointed directly towards the spot. Under pressure in front of their hometown fans, the question for the men in red then became, "who will try their luck this time?"
Diaby, Patrik Schick, and Kerem Demirbay had all contributed to the negative streak. Diaby - the only one of those actors on the pitch - signaled that he did not wish to take another. Veteran midfielder Robert Andrich, as revealed to the Sky mics last night, considered taking on the burden himself.
"I had all the previous penalties in my head," Andrich conceded last night, "but Jona [Jonathan Tah] was standing next to me and said: He'll [Tapsoba] put it in. So I said, 'Okay, that's the way it's going to be.' And then he hit it in."
"Of course I was a bit scared," Tapsoba himself conceded, "but if you're going to convert a penalty, you have to trust yourself. It's a 50-50 chance. You have to choose a side beforehand and focus solely on that."
"After our last missed penalty, the coach said I'd take the next one," Tapsoba continued, "Today was my day."
"I knew that this would change one day. We had confidence in Eddy," head-coach Xabi Alonso added, "He has this quality and nerves to handle it. It's very important that we put this behind us."
B04 keeper and captain Lukas Hradecky fully endorsed Tapsoba to remain the team's go-to-shooter from the spot. The squad's keeper commented that Tapsoba "is more than welcome to continue" after "that unstoppable effort".