Question for the soccer buffs on penalty kicks.

[RebelBruiser]

I've made it clear that I'm not a soccer fan, nor a soccer buff. I watch soccer once every 4 years, and I've kept up with this Women's World Cup via the SportsCenter highlights.

Anyway, I saw a Sports Science piece on penalty kicks, and after the game yesterday I feel this is as good a time as any to ask.

Question is, why doesn't anyone kick the ball right at the keeper's head? Maybe I'm off on this, but the procedure on PKs is basically that the player picks a side of the goal and kicks it hard to a corner of the net. The keeper's only shot is to essentially guess a direction and dive to make the stop.

After watching the Sports Science piece, it came to me that with the way PKs go, if you are kicking, there is one place you know that the keeper won't be, and that's the dead center of the net. Would it be easy for a keeper to stop his/her momentum and come back to the center of the net?

 

[Hair of the Dawg]

I don't think you are giving the keepers enough credit. While it is somewhat of a guess it's not always, they do read the PK taker.

 

[MadDawg.sixpack]

It is true that a lot of the time the goalie "sells out" and dives one direction or another based on where they think the shooter is going. But not always. Sometimes they don't make their move until they see where the ball is going. In that case kicking it right at them would be a save.

The reality is that PK's are supposed to be scored. The goalie is not supposed to be able to get to the shot if they shoot at the corners.

 

[af102]

One thing keepers study before games is past PK's taken by the opposing team. They study runups, tendencies, andhow players open their hips when they shoot to either side. Good PK keepers are pretty good at reading the shooter and guessing correctly- of the 12 taken in the game, keeper went the right way on 7 of them (2 didn't count, but were saves). Also, if you notice that when a keeper goes the wrong direction, they dont lay out. Even if you got them to pick a side, and then hit it down the middle, they could recover in time to save it.

I think everyone should chip it like zidane though- http://www.youtube.com/wa..._U18&feature=related

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

Here's an interesting article.

Basically, it says this:
Kickers: Kick it high.
Keepers: Stay where you are.

In the study, kickers who kicked it in the upper third scored 100% of the time. It didn't consider kicks that missed the goal, though. I don't agree with that because if the kicker attempts to kick it to an upper corner, he probably increases his chance of missing the goal. But this study didn't consider that. But the thing is, if you can put it in the upper corner, the keeper pretty much has zero chance of saving it, even if he "guesses" correctly. The goal is 24 ft wide, after all.

If a keeper starts to show a tendency to stay in the middle, kickers are going to know that and they'll kick to a side. The same goes for a kicker showing tendencies. How often would a keeper have to stay in the middle before everyone knew it and it starts working against him? Of course, the same question applies for a kicker showing a tendency to kick it right at the keeper.

 

[RebelBruiser]

That's essentially what I'm talking about. In some cases, you could get a keeper to sell out one direction or another and then kick it right down the pipe. With Zidane's kick there, that keeper had his momentum going one direction and couldn't stop to come back to the ball even though it was chipped down the middle. I think it could be interesting to see it tried more often, though I guess if it didn't work you would stand to look like a pretty big idiot.

 

[fishwater99]

Might work one time if the Keeper guesses, but a good keeper would make the stop even is going the other way with a hand or leg. I played keeper and I hated to guess one way or the other, you try to read the kicker and make a play on the ball.

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

if you kick it down the middle, you are 100% hedging your bets on the keeper not reading you are not reacting in time to still get a leg back to block the shot.<div>
</div><div>however, if you pick a side, you are partially relying on the keeper misreading your shot and not being able to react, but even if the keeper goes the rightdirection, a well placed PK is still nearly impossible to stop, i.e. the top 1/3 of the net statistic. </div><div>
</div><div>so sure, it'd be something to pull out of the hat once every blue moon, but to do it regularly or even semi-regularly wouldn't give you an advantage imo because you are taking away the effect a well-place PK gives you. just do it enough to linger in the back of the keeper's mind. and it's not unheard of to kick it in the middle either, happens from time to time.</div>

 

[msubullie4life]

named after the guy, Antonin Panenka who did it for the first time in a big stage. The 17er had the balls to do it to win the European Championship final game vs Germany in 1976. Czechoslovakia was leading 4-3 in the shoot-out. If he converts the PK, they win it all. Of course, he coolly slots it home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%C3%ADn_Panenka

Of course, Zidane did it in a slightly bigger stage - 2006 World Cup finals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp2HZNheCZ8