Comments on: The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Kick May Be More Malcolm Gladwell-ish Than I Had Realized

By: Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:36:58 +0000

I attended Joe Machnik’s goal keeper camp in LA way back in the summer of 1990 and he taught basically the same method reported in the Times article – hold your ground. If you don’t move you save what comes down the middle plus some others that your reflexes, a little luck, and some less than perfect strikes will allow. According to Machnik, this method fairs better than the guessing method.

(Worthless side note: I’ve followed this method ever since. My record in over 60 competitive matches since 1990 – 1 PK saved out of 6 faced).

By: Fredorrarci

Fredorrarci — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:48:53 +0000

Look at the video again, then look at the photos here. It has to be. I love this man!

By: Brian Phillips

Brian Phillips — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:36:01 +0000

He seems a bit too young, but on the other hand OH MY GOD PLEASE LET IT BE THE SAME PERSON.

By: Fredorrarci

Fredorrarci — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:59:48 +0000

The name of the "mad-genius-of-penalties" in Brilliant Orange is Gyuri Vergouw. The name of this man is Gyuri Vergouw. I so hope it's the same person. (How many Gyuri Vergouws could there be, anyway?)

By: A.

A. — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:24:17 +0000

I don’t know how much of it’s down to studying the PKs of various players or intuition in the heat of the moment but Dida seems to delay his move till the ball is struck and with pretty good results. It at least forces the kicker to choose one side of the goal to aim at, if nothing else.

@Peter, yes the same.

By: Marco

Marco — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:54:41 +0000

Another piece missing from the analysis:

If the keeper stands still and the shot comes in straight, it’s an easy save.

If the keeper guesses left or right correctly, there’s no guarantee he’ll actually stop to the shot. (See Del Piero vs. Abiatti, 16/12/08)

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:57:05 +0000

It’s Amelia who plays FIFA (and credited his save of Ronaldinho’s penalty against Palermo to said “practice”).

I’ve always thought of Frey as more of a PES guy.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:53:27 +0000

Or they could just practice on FIFA ’09 as Sebastian Frey does. Same ‘A.’ present on The Offside Milan boards I wonder?

By: A.

A. — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:14:57 +0000

“But those penalty kicks took place within a totality of understanding in which both goalkeepers and penalty kick takers expected the goalkeeper to dive.”

And it depends on who the penalty taker is. A lot of the times I think keepers make a move too early against kickers who are there to place it in the opposite direct of the dive. For example I was hoping Abiatti would delay his move till the last instant against Del Piero. He did and dived the right way but the kick was too good.

Maradona was a ‘placer’ through and through, one who would wait for the keeper to make a move, or bait him towards one side before calming slipping it in the other corner.

By: Brian Phillips

Brian Phillips — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:17:25 +0000

Martha, the abstract says that the study is from 2007, but it’s possible that they were actually analyzing numbers from an older study. I don’t remember the specific penalty studies in Brilliant Orange nearly as well as I remember the mad-genius-of-penalties character who spent all his energy trying to get the team to read them. Anyway, as you say, most penalty kick studies probably differ only in the extent to which they get noticed by the Times.

Fredo, it seemed small to me, too. Then again, if they can predict presidential elections based on a poll of 700 people in Ohio, etc.