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Southampton Keeper Fraser Forster Gifts Benteke Goal Off An Egregious Howler

Benteke, being a human being with legs and an understanding of where the goal is, just tapped the ball in for one of the easiest goals you'll see in a minute.

Swwwwwing and a miss… #PLonNBC https://t.co/FqpEm1FLPF
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 3, 2016

Edward Ruscha was an influential artist in the pop art movement of the mid-20th century, who brought to the world a very simple but loud painting. It simply says "OOF" in big, yellow block letters with a blue background. Art historians might feed you some bullshit, saying that it spoke to the common vernacular of the time, or that it represented the post-war irony of minimal anguish, or that it just made real life feel like a comic book, the painting acting like a floating speech bubble above any gallery passerby.

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But don't be mistaken; the real purpose of the painting is that it would serve—54 years later—the exact image Southampton keeper Fraser Forster had floating in his head as he whiffed on one of the ugliest howlers you'll see in a minute. Good God was it ugly.

During today's matchup between Sunderland and Crystal Palace, Forster found himself on the receiving end of a gentle passback from his defender and went for a swing. He completely missed—his planted foot was the only one that made contact, causing the ball to hop right into the path of Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke, who was applying minimal pressure at best. Benteke, being a human being with legs and an understanding of where the goal is, just tapped the ball in for one of the easiest goals you'll see in a minute.

(If it looked like a gift, it may as well have been—Benteke turned 26 today.)

It was the first goal of three that Palace would have on the day to Southampton's zero.

OOF