On Friday three of the best goalkeepers: Oliver Kahn, Petr Cech and Sergio Goycochea took a part in Adidas's press conference. One of the topic there was saving penalties. It's merely a luck? A lottery? Not at all!
Fragment of Andrew Warshaw's article:
Of the 198 penalties in World Cup history, 160 of them have been converted - excluding shootouts. The significance of well-prepared goalkeepers is never more important than at this stage of the tournament. "It's in the knockout stages where having a good goalkeeper will be most important," said Cech. "It's early days and we'll see what will happen. But this is where keepers will be most important. You need to keep your nerve. In shootouts, if you move too early or if your if your decision-making is wrong, you will never save a kick. You need to be mentally stronger than the taker."
But surely penalty shootouts are merely a case of Russian roulette? Not so, says Goycochea. "I used to tell people that it was all down to luck but in fact a good goalkeeper in shootsouts needs talent, skill, strength in the legs and a cool head. I don't like it when I hear people say a shootout is just a lottery."
Kahn, whose shootout heroics won the 2001 Champions League for Bayern Munich against Valencia, also talked up the virtues of thorough preparation. "It is a psychological game between the two of you which is often invisible to the fans. You can read a lot from the kicker's body language, about whether he's afraid.
"You can do a lot with eye contact and you can also irritate the taker with your body language. In a shootout the only one who can lose is the kicker, never the goalkeeper. The goalkeepers here so far have not yet been really tested or had too many opportunities to show their talent."
Read full story here.
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