to drop the ball, to let someone down
Esqueci nosso aniversário de casamento, sei que pisei na bola.
I forgot our wedding anniversary, I know I dropped the ball.
The expression pisar na bola (literally "to step on the ball") comes from the language of football. A player who carelessly steps on the ball loses control of the play, stumbles, or gives possession away, committing exactly the kind of clumsy slip that lets the team down.
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