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Penalty kicks are all in the mind

Soccer shootouts are won and lost on psychological responses to pressure.

On a summer evening last year, more than a billion pairs of eyes were fixed on footballer David Trézéguet as he stepped up to take his penalty for France in the shootout against Italy to decide the world championship. A supremely talented goal-scorer, he inexplicably crashed his kick against the crossbar. France lost.

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Posted by on January 19, 2007
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So what of the state of the goalkeeper who is also under immense pressure? In tandem with the increasing failure rate of the kicker is an increasing success rate for the keeper.

Posted by: Marina Dodis | January 20, 2007 06:45 PM

Good point, although it is generally considered that penalty kicks are easier to score than to save, because of the size of the goal and the fact that it is a free kick (ie. unchallenged by a defender).

Therefore it is thought that almost all of the pressure is on the penalty taker, who is expected to score, rather than the goalkeeper, who is not expected to make a save. Goalkeepers in post-match interviews often report that they did not feel under any pressure, because saving a kick is a 'bonus', and makes them the hero, in contrast to the penalty-taker who has 'let his team down' by failing to score.

So the pressure tends to always work against the attacker, precisely because their task is perceived as being easy!

Posted by: Mike Hopkin | January 22, 2007 04:48 PM

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