Shootout

technique and temperament perfected, Crvena Zvezda scored all five spot-kicks against Olympique de Marseille, who missed two and lost the final.

2. The walk

“Shootouts are as much about psychology as they are about technique,” says Chelsea FC coach Carlo Ancelotti. You can perfect your technique in training by replicating the physical element of the penalty: the dimensions of the goal, the distance from the spot, the presence of a keeper, but you cannot replicate the drama. During that interminable walk from centre

circle to penalty area, fear can overcome the taker. As Cesc Fabregas admitted, discussing his vital spot-kick in the UEFA Euro 2008 quarter-final against Italy: “As you approach the goal, you’re thinking, ‘Please don’t miss, please don’t miss’. You know all these people are watching, and a penalty like that, it changes a career.” Some takers look like dead men walking, others behave as if they mean business. The former Valencia CF captain Gaizka Mendieta used to look at the keeper, never at the ball, and decide at the last minute which way to kick it. Alfonso, who starred up front for Real Madrid FC in the 1990s, liked to decide at the last moment whether to take it with his right or left foot. Sports psychologists insist it’s all about acting decisively, thinking positively, striding up to take that penalty with all the purpose you can muster. If that were so, Fabregas should have missed.

3. The decision

As the name implies, a shootout is as close as you can get to a gunfight in football. Jerzy Dudek v Andriy Shevchenko in 2005 was like two gunslingers trying to con each other into drawing first. The Ukrainian had shot past Gianluigi Buffon to win the 2003 final for AC Milan but in 2005, perhaps distracted by a late double miss in open play and Dudek’s clowning on the line, he missed. In this nerve-shredding drama, deciding

where and when to hit the ball isn’t easy.

International Journal of Sport Psychology

research, in 2005, showed that all keepers begin their final movement an instant before the ball is kicked. If they didn’t, they’d never reach the ball.

English goalkeeper David James says the best takers pick up on these signals, called ‘movement pre-indexes’. “You can’t save from a brilliant penalty taker. Eric Cantona’s technique was so good it was a joke. You’d wait and wait on the goalline – his run-up was so slow. He didn’t need to sprint and blast the ball, he had control. After he retired I discovered his secret – he watched the keeper. As soon as the keeper’s knee went, Cantona took the ball the other way

Darko Pancev wins it for FK Crvena Zvezda (above); Oliver Kahn went the right way in 2001 (right); despair for Nicolas Anelka is joy for Manchester United FC (below) in 2008

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I’m not sure how I did it. Ever since I was five, I’ve just jumped in my favourite corner” Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16