It may be the most obvious statement made about an A-League club all week, but the Central Coast Mariners have a problem with penalties.
It was hard not to sympathise when midfielder Michael McGlinchey stepped up to the penalty spot looking like a jumble of nerves at Hitachi Stadium on Wednesday night.
Knowing that his team had missed four important penalties in a row, McGlinchey drilled his effort straight down the middle and watched in horror as Kashiwa Reysol goalkeeper Takanori Sugeno blocked the spot-kick with his legs.
Sugeno is one of the better goalkeepers in Japan but the fact is McGlinchey fluffed his lines and the Mariners find themselves in desperate need of a reliable penalty taker with the A-League finals just around the corner.
It may not have been in a high-stakes clash like an AFC Champions League encounter, but I have some idea of how McGlinchey feels.
Like millions of Australians, I played club soccer as a kid and though there were better players in the side than me, I was captain of my team for several years.
I was particularly close to one of my coaches – an expat Geordie who emphasised passing football and whose son was a skillful winger in our side.
Annoyed at the lack of opportunities for his son at the biggest club in the district, he invited five of us to join six other newcomers at one of the smallest clubs in our division in an attempt to form a championship-winning team.
We won it at the first attempt as 13-year-olds and the following season we did the double, coming back from 3-1 down at half-time to win the grand-final 4-3 in extra-time before winning the Thistle Cup the next day.
Lifting the trophy to celebrate our Thistle Cup victory at Granville’s historic Garside Park is one of my most cherished childhood memories.
But equally, the memory of a missed penalty is one that plagued me for many years and gave me a sense of what it’s like to walk in McGlinchey’s well-worn football boots.
It was in a semi-final against our arch-rivals and if my memory serves me correctly, we were leading 1-0 at the time.
It had been raining in the build-up to the match and the heavens started to spit once again by the time we were awarded a contentious spot-kick.
I had already converted a penalty against the same goalkeeper earlier in the season, and I remember being vaguely troubled as I placed the ball by the notion that he might recall my simple side-footed style and make an easy save.
What I should have been paying more attention to was the fact that the penalty spot was muddy and as I came in to strike the ball, my foot slid just enough from underneath me to ensure I only connected with my heel.
I still remember the sickening feeling as I watched the ball trickle dismally into his astonished arms.
To make matters worse, we went on to lose the game.
We lost the sudden-death preliminary final a week later too and though I wasn’t entirely responsible, I felt for years like I’d let my team-mates down.
It wasn’t until many years later that I had the chance to exorcise my demons from 11 metres playing as a ring-in for a Japanese school teachers’ team down at the famous Shimizu Commercial High School.
I smashed home an unstoppable spot-kick as my humble team of P.E. Teachers, school administrators and the resident gaijin spouse of the Assistant Language Teacher triumphed in a tense season-opening penalty shoot-out.
Much as I was satisfied to help my team to victory, I’m not sure that it made up for my costly miss so many years before.
It’s just something I’ll have to live with – as will McGlinchey – but we all know it could be worse.
We could be Roberto Baggio.
Matt F
Roar Guru
We had a penalty shoot out after our first pre-season match a few weeks ago. We decided every player would get to take one and there were 15 on each team. It finished 5 all...... I'm pretty sure our team missed our first 10! Needless to say there was plenty of laughter from both sides at our staggering ineptitude from the spot :)
Griffo
Roar Guru
It takes a lot of confidence to take a penalty like this. The Mariners just need to smash one in the back of the net to get the monkey off of their collective backs.
Michael Wilson
Guest
We used to have better luck with our defenders taking penaltys vs our strikers. I will always remember this keeper we played against that would stand a little off center to invite the kick taker to go that way but also mess with his head
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Give me a name of a world class player who has never missed a penalty? Messi, Ronaldo, Beckham, Ronaldinho, Pirlo ,etc. The list goes on. NO matter how hard you practice, its not easy to kick the ball from 6 yards due to obvious reasons. Messi's penalty miss against Chelsea last season in Champions LEague semis or Ronaldo and KAKA's against Munich was nothing but simply fainting out during pressure. Nobody has and nobody will ever convert all the spot kicks.
Kellett_1992
Guest
Maybe Mariners could learn something from this?
Alex
Guest
What is the name of Endo's longtime NT Gk teammate who saved his penalties?
Punter
Guest
One of the worst acts ever seen on a football field, absolutely terrible.
Bondy
Guest
Matsu, He's very cunning is Endo and has a good brain, I remember him predominantely from the national team, good player.
Football_illiterate
Guest
Thanks griffo - good link.. interesting concept in that statistically keepers are better off doing nothing, but have basically decided to dive to give the impression of doing something - anything?! interesting to get a few peoples different ideas with respect to penalties - its all so easy in theory :-)
Football_illiterate
Guest
Thanks Matsu - he makes it look very easy.. except as u say, when he is up against his old teammate.. cheers
Griffo
Roar Guru
tk - that was basically my preferred spot kick...look at the opposite corner, but look like I was not trying to look there too much (but just enough for the keeper to think he had the inside scoop on where the ball was going to go). I am left-footed, so look at the post on my left, then run fast and smash it inside the right post. Keeper either moved to my left, or just looked at the ball flying past him into the back of the net. It's an interesting question on how many times an opponent keeper might see that kick - not many penalties from game to game, and sometimes different keepers from year to year, so that kick was a safe bet for me - it never failed anyway. Not sure at much higher levels as you would expect more research on players you are likely to see year in year out, transfers to other leagues aside (or is that too much an assumption that professional footballers know the ins-and-outs of their opponents penalty kick option A, B, C...?).
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
If you know the keeper is right footed, best to drive it to his left with a low hard daisy-cutter just inside the post...
tk
Guest
I know some keepers definately look at body language. I didn' t take many penalties but used to have a sneaky look at the corner when I was placing the ball on the spot and rin in shaping to kick to that spot and the kick it into the other corner. Always worked in sending the keeper the wrong way. but as i didn't take too many it was a feint I could use without a keeper thinking 'here is that guy that sent me the wrong way last time'.
Reynoldsinski
Guest
Yep, had everything. Schumacher getting away with shirt fronting Battiston was unbelievable.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Agree - what a match. What a magnificent Tournament 1982WC. I think that match FRA v FRG was the last time (only time??) Germany has missed a penalty in any major tournament? Uli Stielike missed in the shoot out.
Punter
Guest
The greatest game I have ever watched, France v Germany in 1982, high drama, controversies, great players & then penalties.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
A true genius of dead-ball techniques.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Horst Hrubesch scored the winning penalty vs France in the 1982 wc semi. Not that long ago he admitted he was 'certain' to score and had no doubts whatsoever. Doubts, french had many, and thats why they lost this one. One of the first football matches I watched, was only a kid then, and still one of the most if not the most beautiful one.
Matsu
Guest
Possibly the most effective PK technique is to wait for the keeper to make the first move, and then send the ball gently yet firmly along the ground, in the opposite direction. You need to have extremely quick reflexes (to read the keeper's flinch and adjust your kick accordingly) and it helps if you can learn to stop at the top of your backswing and hesitate a half-second. Essentially this means that you are "toppling over" when you actually follow through, so it looks a bit awkward. However if done properly it can be deadly. Observe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRC7jE7karo The Endo "korokoro" PK. The only problem comes when you shoot against your longtime NT teammate (at 2:15)
Matsu
Guest
Yes, height control is definitely the big problem. When you hit the ball low and hard, you usually dont miss the net completely. Even if you flub your shot, it still goes relatively straight (just not very hard). However, height is a lot more difficult to control when you are nervous. When you take a relaxed swing at the ball you usually can put it on target, but getting the height correct when you are under pressure, and tempted to hit it very hard, is a dodgy business. No matter how accurate your height control may be under low-pressure situations, even the best players screw up when the pressure is on. This is why so many opt to send the ball low. It is far less embarrassing when the keeper saves (no matter how easy you make if for him), than when you miss the target altogether. I had a very similar experience to Mike's. I had the best technical touch of anyone on my team. In practice I could send the ball into the top right corner 99 times out of 100. I almost never missed. I just swung smooth and easily through the ball, and even if the keeper guessed right, they couldnt keep it out of the net. Then, one day I was finally called upon to do the same thing in a game. The pressure was too much and I sent the ball about a foot over the bar. (it gets worse . . . ) The referee apparently felt so sorry for our team (I cant recall exactly but I think we were trailing 0-4 or 0-5 at the time) that he called an infraction for encroachment and let me retake the kick. This time I sent the ball six feet wide, and so far over the bar that I think it may still be going . . . . (-_-) After that, I always took PKs low and hard. Even if I could do it 100 times in practice I didnt trust myself to hit the spot in a game situation. No matter how good you are at controlling ball height in practice, the pressure of a big game always seems to make people shoot high.