England had never won penalty shoot-outs. Will it come to it in todays England - Germany match?
Found an interesting article in Dialy Telegraph. Some excerpts:
James's German counterpart, Manuel Neuer, talks of playing the "memory game" if Sunday's World Cup round of 16 game climaxes in a shoot-out. This involves Neuer remembering all the advice from the German technical staff on which way to dive for which player. At the last World Cup, Jens Lehmann frustrated Argentina by checking on their players' preference from a slip of paper shoved down his sock. (...)
James would not reveal his intentions, saying: "I'll probably look over to the physio!" Most of the information will be absorbed on Saturday, leaving him far better prepared than in Euro 2004. "We played Portugal [in the quarter-final shoot-out] and didn't have the access to as much information as we could have done." (...)
England bowed out of Euro 2004 because Portugal's keeper, Ricardo, swept in a majestic penalty. "Of course I am up for taking one. In the preparation, all 23 can practice. There's only 11 and three subs who can end up on the pitch and take one. Whoever the goalkeeper is needs to be prepared," James said.
Read full story here.
It's one of the top stories also on Polish page of Gazeta Wyborcza.
Ricardo is on the photo! But of course his name was even not worth mentioning in the article. Why they always write this or that player wasted a penalty? Beckham in 2004 did waste it shooting over the goal. Ricardo did save Darius Vassell penalty in 2004, and Gerrard's, Lampard's and Carragher's at World Cup 2006.
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