Take a walk, take your time, breathe and score. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But as Euro 2020 prepares to enter the knockout stage, and with it comes the threat of a penalty shootout, you can be sure that at least one player with a free shot from 12 yards follows the basic principles of scoring. Will forget and send his team crashing. out of competition.
This is probably a cruel way of looking at it. When you add in the pressure of running from the central circle to the penalty spot, perhaps towards hostile opposition supporters and an impressive goalkeeper, and then think about the effects of failure and triggering the despair of millions, apparently simple. The task becomes an entirely different challenge. And then you miss.
England manager Gareth Southgate, on recalling a penalty shootout miss against Germany in the Euro '96 semi-final that ended a country's hopes of reaching the final, said, "It took me a few decades to think it through." It's taken time."
Roberto Baggio experienced the ultimate agony when his penalty for Italy against Brazil in the 1994 World Cup final flew over the crossbar at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, giving the Brazilian victory.
"It's the same feeling of bitterness as in 1994," Baggio said in 2017. "It hasn't diminished, and I don't think it will ever go away."
No matter how the shootout goes or how many penalties are scored, a crestfallen player always needs to be consoled by his teammates at the end of it. And it's never a goalkeeper - with the exception of Manchester United's David de Gea, who failed to save a single spot kick in the Europa League final and then lost himself in an 11-10 penalty loss at the hands of Villarreal.
The goalkeeper cannot actually lose in a shootout unless he has to take one of the penalties.
Performance psychologist Tom Young told ESPN, "From a keeper's perspective, punishment brings less of a threat situation and more of a challenge and opportunity to be a hero."
Eric Steele, formerly United's goalscorer coach, agrees with Young and says that changes in the law, such as requiring keepers to have one foot on the line with the VAR, have tipped the penalty odds strongly in favor of the taker. has given.
"It used to be a 50-50 duel," Steele told ESPN. "But I think it's now 70-30."
There have been 14 penalties taken so far at Euro 2020 and 12 of them on target, with eight runs scored and four saved - Gareth Bale fired his spot kick for Wales over the bar against Turkey , and Gerard Moreno hits the post. Spain against Poland. Four savers from 12 on-target penalties point to the dominance. In Russia 2018, 29 penalties were awarded and 22 runs were scored, so the keepers are clearly on the losing side of the argument.
"Now you have players like [Bruno] Fernandes and [Marcus] Rashford, who look at the keeper before hitting the ball and see how confident they are," Steele said. "But attackers now know if they do, as long as you hit it with speed and power, you'll score,"
But every major tournament has a southgate or baggio, so scoring a penalty isn't as straightforward as the statistics suggest, even though so much time is spent on the training ground and preparing for success with penalties in the data suite.
Penalty shootouts are no longer left to chance, players are not expected to "pick a corner and not change their mind", as the spell often goes before deep analysis and psychology of play. Both penalty takers and goalkeepers are given all possible information to help them win a duel with their opponent, but football players are not computers, so human error will always play its part.
"In 2008, Manchester United used the same German company as Chelsea [for penalty data]," Steele said. "They had over 16,000 penalties on their database and we went to them for all Champions League games and would pay for a package of information.
"So, in the 2008 Champions League final shootout every Chelsea penalty went to Edwin van der Sar's left side until it reached [Nicholas] Anelka. Chelsea decided Edwin had a left arm weakness and everyone went to him until Anelka took him and went the other way. Edwin saved him and became a hero. Anelka was told by Chelsea to go completely against the information they had."
Sometimes, both the goalkeeper and the taker know where the penalty will go before the ball is kicked. A taker will have his own routine and keepers will know all about him, so it becomes a battle of wills.
England captain Harry Kane, who has scored 44 off his 51 career penalties, hasn't missed a spot kick since saving Kosovo's Arizenate Muric in a Euro 2020 qualifier in September 2019. The Tottenham Hotspur forward is almost certain to be the first man on Southgate's list. If England goes into a shootout in the coming weeks and in an interview with The Times, he admitted that his penalty routine has become anything but a mystery.
Kane said, 'My run-up is always the same. "Now with technology, keepers know that some players may run differently if they're moving it on their right side than if they're carrying it on their left. So I try to take that out of the equation. If They guess right, so I'm backing myself up with strength and hopefully accuracy that they're not going to save it.
"I feel like I'm always in control. I can go left, I can go right, I can go down the middle. I have the same routine every time I take a penalty. Whether I go left or Going right, it's always the same. It stops the goalkeepers from studying me because there's nothing to study."
As Kane's point of view shows, the psychology of punishment is as important as the technique. Having the strength of mind to stick to a tried-and-tested routine is key when the pressure is most intense. And psychologist Young, author of "The Making of a Leader," says that all players — penalty experts or otherwise — can be successful by following a few basic principles.
"I remember a coach saying there's no point practicing penalties because you can't replicate the pressure," Young told ESPN. "They were right, of course you can't, but you can try.
"I would ask players to practice the walk and see it as another element of their routine. The best players use the 'walk' to their advantage, taking ownership of the crucial moment and incorporating it into their routine." Let's do it. Next time there's a shootout, focus on the walk and you should look a few different ways."
In the 2018 World Cup, after losing six of the previous seven penalty shootouts, England left nothing to chance to prepare for the knockout rounds in Russia, and in the second round, they defeated Colombia 5–4 on penalties in Moscow. defeated.
"In 2018, England had a psychologist as part of the backroom staff and I think you can tell they worked on penalties," Young said. "Each player seemed to have a consistent routine that was specific to them.
"Pay attention to the player's breathing or the pace at which they go through their routine. Non-punishers [those who don't usually take it to a game or to their club] subconsciously try to eliminate it. Can speed up. Together.'
"Psychologist Geir Jordett actually examined all the penalties that were done at Euros, the World Cup and the Champions League. One of the findings was that players who turned their backs on the keeper [defense] while preparing to take the kick were more likely to miss it." Furthermore, the sooner a player reacts to the referee's whistle, the more likely they are to fail to score.
"All of these things feed into a player's preparation, especially if they are not used to taking penalties. So, face the keeper and remember that the whistle is not the starter's gun!"
Jamie Carragher was a classic non-penalty taker when he volunteered to take a spot kick for England against Portugal in the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals. The Liverpool defender had scored twice in the last two shootouts for his club, but his experience was limited to those two spot kicks. Nonetheless, after impressing in training, he was selected for a take against Portugal - and missed.
"I was placed in the 118th minute to take a full penalty," Carragher told ESPN. "I don't think I even touched the ball before I took the kick.
"I actually scored my penalty, but I didn't wait for the referee to whistle, so I had to take it again and he was like, 'Whoa, now what?' It blew my mind and I started worrying about the keeper where I would put the ball. So I went the other way with my second penalty and he saved it."
During his time at United, Steele recalled showing goalkeeper Ben Foster footage of a previous Spurs penalty on an iPod for the 2009 EFL Cup final shootout against Tottenham. Foster's saving from a penalty from Jamie O'Hara was enough for United to win the Cup.
"People tried to claim that we cheated," Steele said. "It's all about the detail, but it ultimately comes down to personal preference. You can have all the information in the world, but you still get the goalkeeper's gut feeling on the night."
Penalty shootouts are football's equivalent of Russian roulette; eventually, it's going to go horribly wrong. Somebody has to miss.
Knowing that the odds are stacked against them, goalkeepers know that their own moves can influence a player to miss a goal or hit it high enough to save the ball. Bruce Groebbeler made famous his "spaghetti legs" act during a shootout for Liverpool against AS Roma in the 1984 European Cup final, pretending to be weak at the knees before taking shots. Liverpool won after omissions from Bruno Conti and Francesco Graziani.
But such a strategy does not always work. England's Joe Hart tried to distract Italian players by drawing faces and making loud noises during the Euro 2012 quarter-final shootout. Andrea Pirlo was so unimpressed by Hart's antics that he scored with a "panenca" chip to help Italy take the win.
"When I used to work with Peter [Schmeichel], he used to say it's a long walk for the penalty taker," Steele said. "So he would never get involved until they got into the penalty area, and then he would focus and show his size.
"How much is going on in their mind? When do you say or do something? When I work with keepers, I say you have to make an impact when the player gets within 25 yards. But I'm into it. I am a big believer to be as big as I can.
"[Former Liverpool goalkeeper] Pepe Reina and Schmeichel had that great power. Schmeichel doesn't dive early - he intentionally stays as big as he can."
Young also looks at key areas where goalkeepers are attempting to distract a successful taker in the moments before the ball is kicked.
"In Jordett's research, they found that the longer the keeper waits the kicker, the more likely they are to miss," Young said. "So watch out for keepers dropping a towel or drinking away from Target."
England's shootout win against Colombia in 2018 proved that even teams with the worst record can surpass their history. A year later, England won another shootout, defeating Switzerland in the third-place playoff of the UEFA Nations League.
However, some teams are better than others. Germany have won their last six shootouts and haven't lost one since 1976, when Antonin Panenka's great penalty, now named after him, sealed a 7–5 shootout victory for Czechoslovakia in the European Championship final. .
And Carragher, who won shootouts twice with Liverpool, admits he felt a sense of invincibility in the club shirt that he never experienced with England on penalties.
"I have never lost a game with Liverpool and always believed we would win them," Caragher said. "With England it was different. You thought you would lose even before you started.
"Maybe it was purely psychological, because with Liverpool we knew we had a winning history in shootouts. It was never like that with England."
But as players from the remaining 16 teams at Euro 2020 begin to intensify their penalty drills, Young has a message to help them: "Don't let fear go unpunished."
"I think there's still a misconception of psychology that it's all about positive thinking," he said. "You have to accept the unhelpful thoughts and feelings you're going through, as opposed to trying to push them away.
“Nerves are a way of recognizing that we are getting ready to perform. I would ask a player to focus on maintaining a rational mindset that they can control [on the routine, pace and plan] Use breathing or grounding techniques to focus and potentially stay in the present moment.
"The key here is that they'll have practiced all of these elements over time—not just hoping they'll turn and feather it that day.
"If they've prepared thoroughly, and followed their routine, they've done all they can. You can't guarantee perfect results, but you've given yourself a better chance."