Penalty kick (association football)
[1] The goalkeeper is allowed to move before the ball is kicked, but must remain on the goal-line between the goal-posts, facing the kicker, without touching the goalposts, crossbar, or goal net.
If properly executed, it is a legal play since the kicker is not required to shoot for goal and need only kick the ball forward.
This strategy relies heavily on the element of surprise, as it first requires the goalkeeper to believe the kicker will actually shoot, then dive or move to one side in response.
[2] Another was taken by Rik Coppens and André Piters in the World Cup qualifying match Belgium versus Iceland on 5 June 1957.
[3] Arsenal players Thierry Henry and Robert Pires failed in an attempt at a similar penalty in 2005, during a Premier League match against Manchester City at Highbury.
Helmut Duckadam, Steaua București's goalkeeper, saved a record four consecutive penalties in the 1986 European Cup Final against Barcelona.
An example of this would be by former Netherlands national team goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen, who always had a box with cards with all the information about the opponent's penalty specialist.
Ecuadorian goalkeeper Marcelo Elizaga saving a penalty from Carlos Tevez in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier between Ecuador and Argentina, revealed that he had studied some penalty kicks from Tevez and suspected he was going to shoot to the goalkeeper's left side.
Two other examples occurred during the 2006 FIFA World Cup: This approach may not always be successful; the player may intentionally switch from their favoured spot after witnessing the goalkeeper obtaining knowledge of their kicks.
Game theoretic research shows that both the penalty taker and also the goalkeeper must randomize their strategies in precise ways to avoid having the opponent take advantage of their predictability.
Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar used a method of distracting the players called the "spaghetti legs" trick to help his club defeat Roma to win the 1984 European Cup.
Netherlands national team goalkeeper Tim Krul used this technique during the penalty shootout in the quarter-final match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup against Costa Rica.
As the Costa Rican players were preparing to take the kick, Krul told them that he "knew where they were going to put their penalty" in order to "get in their heads".
Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez is known for using mind games in shootouts, most notably when he talked to the Colombian players as they went to take their penalties in the 2021 Copa América semifinal, and throwing the ball away when Aurélien Tchouaméni was about to kick in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final.
[12] A German professor who has been studying penalty statistics in the German Bundesliga for 16 years found 76% of all the penalties during those 16 years went in, and 99% of the shots in the higher half of the goal went in[citation needed], although the higher half of the goal is a more difficult target to aim at.
The invention of the penalty kick is credited to the goalkeeper and businessman William McCrum in 1890 in Milford, County Armagh.
On 20 December 1890, in the Scottish Cup quarter-final between East Stirlingshire and Heart of Midlothian Jimmy Adams[31] fisted the ball out from under the bar,[32][33] and on 14 February 1891, there was a blatant goal-line handball by a Notts County player in the FA Cup quarter-final against Stoke City.
[36]Some notable differences between this original 1891 law and today's penalty-kick are listed below: The world's first penalty kick was awarded just 5 days after the change had been approved and introduced to the rules of the game by the Scottish Football Association.
The first penalty kick in the Football League was awarded to Wolverhampton Wanderers in their match against Accrington at Molineux Stadium on 14 September 1891.
[43] This change was made in order to stop defenders from lining up on the edge of the penalty area to impede the player taking the kick.
The Scottish Football Association claimed that this new provision would "eliminate various problems which have arisen regarding the position of players who stand in front of the penalty-mark at the taking of a penalty-kick as is presently permitted".
[51] The question of "feinting" during the run-up to a penalty was popularized by Pelé in the 1970s and it was called paradinha, which in Portuguese means "little stop".
[52] It has occupied the International FA Board since 1982, when it was decided that "if a player stops in his run-up it is an offence for which he shall be cautioned (for ungentlemanly conduct) by the referee".
[55] In 2007, this guidance emphasized that "if in the opinion of the referee the feinting is considered an act of unsporting behaviour, the player shall be cautioned".
These consisted of handball (excluding technical handling offences by the goalkeeper), and foul play, with the following exceptions (which were punished instead by an indirect free kick in the penalty area):[64]
