World Cup: Why do the world's best footballers take such poor penalties?

DOHA - Once again, penalty shoot-outs are in the spotlight at the World Cup, with already four games going beyond extra time in the knockout stages. There has been at least one in the quarter-finals of the last nine tournaments, peaking in 1986 when three of the four matches went to penalties.

Few of those, however, could have featured a set of spot kicks as poor as those in the last-16 games in Qatar. Japan went out with a whimper as Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic saved tame efforts by Takumi Minamino, Kaoru Mitoma and Maya Yoshida. Disaster also struck for Brazil and the Netherlands in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Spain coach Luis Enrique was firmly in the “it’s-not-a-lottery” camp, saying before his team’s last-16 clash with Morocco that he had told the players to practise 1,000 penalties when with their clubs.

Either they were not listening or it did not work as the first three players to attempt one all failed to convert. Pablo Sarabia, who was brought on at the end of the match for just that job, hit the post, while Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets had their tame efforts comfortably saved to send Morocco through.

Having also gone out at the same stage on penalties to Russia four years ago, it was an inexplicable performance by a team containing some of the most technically talented players in the sport.

The most notable aspect of these shoot-outs was the shockingly poor quality of the kicks. The six penalties missed by the losing teams were all struck without much power and most not right in the corner, a strategy that left fans and experts scratching their heads and gave the shot-stoppers easy wins.

Data company Nielsen Gracenote has analysed all penalties taken at the last five World Cups, including Qatar, and found that shooting low to the right (50 per cent) or left (68 per cent) has the lowest success rate – and even those figures do not factor in how far to the right or left.

Unsurprisingly, shots into the top area, whether wide or central, have a 100 per cent conversion rate based on 20 attempts in this study. Although there might appear more risk in going high, only five penalties have hit or gone over the bar in that time, while seven have hit a post or gone wide.

Former England striker Alan Shearer had a brilliant penalty record, achieved by usually smashing the ball high into a corner so that even if a goalkeeper dived towards it, he had no chance of saving it.

Body language

So why do so many players seem unable to back their technique to aim at a small but productive top corner and instead go low?

“The margin for error is just that bit less aiming for that part of the goal,” Dr Matt Miller-Dicks, senior lecturer in skill acquisition at the University of Portsmouth, told Reuters.

“You can’t hit a penalty too low because the ground’s there but, obviously, you can hit it too high. So it’s a sort of safety net. In less pressurised situations, players might be more confident to go for the top corner.”

Body language and confidence also play a part – with the Japanese players all looking almost terrified as they lined up their efforts. The increasing use of stuttered run-ups and attempts to bamboozle the goalkeeper also seem often to do more harm than good.

“I did get a sense of that from some of the poorer penalties in those two shoot-outs. It was maybe a case of players approaching quite slowly in their run-up, maybe hoping that the goalkeeper will commit to one side, but then not doing that, and the taker not getting it close to the corner and the keeper making what looks like quite a comfortable save,” Dr Miller-Dicks said.

Obviously, the psychological pressure of the situation weighs more heavily on some than others, but Dr Miller-Dicks said the damage can be done long before the player actually places the ball on the spot.

“Research shows some of the things that they have difficulty with is not so much the kick in itself, but standing on the halfway line waiting and the walk up to take the kick,” he said.

“If you’re not prepared for that moment, then it’s when they might have doubts about what they’re going to do and maybe change where they’re going to place a kick.

“So a key thing is that the penalty taker’s preparation is not necessarily just practising taking the penalty, it’s about the walk up. National teams or clubs have a sports psychologist and they have to help the players prepare psychologically for that moment.” REUTERS