Video Analysis of Soccer Penalty Kick

This weekend was full of sporting action, Boston Marathon, NBA playoffs and much more. We also enjoyed watching some major upsets in the FA cup soccer semifinal games played at Wembley stadium in England. For those of you not aware the FA cup is the premier soccer cup competition in England and is watched throughout most of the world.
In this years semifinals, we saw Chelsea defeat Arsenal on an unforgivable goalkeeping error, but in The Video Analysis of Sports this week we want to look at the other game where Everton upset the favorites Manchester United on penalty kicks.

Penalty kicks sound easy. The striker takes a shot at the goal with only the goalkeeper to save it and all the measurements are in the strikers favor. The international goal is 24 feet wide by 8 feet high, the penalty spot is 36 feet from the goal and the goalkeeper cannot move forward off his line before the penalty kick is taken. This means that he cannot close the angle.

Penalty kicks however are not as simple as they sound, especially at the end of a game in order to break a tie. There is a lot of pressure on the striker, he or she is expected to score the penalty and if he misses his team may be eliminated from the competition. In international and pro level soccer we see strikers often trying to fool the goalkeeper into diving in one direction and then try to shoot to the other side of the goal. When they score this way we all admire their skill and deception, but if you want to make sure of scoring then there are some specific techniques to use and we will discuss them here.

Below is some video of the penalty shootout between Manchester United and Everton on April 19, 2009. You can see evidence of much of what we will discuss today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpd2RU2BR2M

Berbatov (the 2nd penalty taker) and Ferdinand (the 4th penalty taker) both of Manchester United try to deceive the goalkeeper but do not use good technique to shoot and see their penalties saved.

We see some examples of good penalty kicks in this game too. Vaughan of Everton takes the best penalty of this particular shootout as you will see in the video. So what makes this a good penalty. Vaughan does everything right here. He wants to place the ball in the top corner of the goal net with as much power as possible. By aiming for the top corner with power he reduces the chances of the goalkeeper making a save even if he does pick to dive in the correct direction (which he does in this case).

What about technique? Well Vaughan does that correctly too. Here are some of the points to look out for as you watch the video above. Pause the video if you can and look closer at some of these points.

1. He picks the direction he is going to kick the ball and does not change his mind. Changing his mind might cause a miss kick and as he is going for the top right corner with power he is not concerned about the goalkeepers decision.
2. He runs up and plants his support leg (left leg) on the side of the ball with the toes of his left foot pointing in the direction he is going to shoot. This gives him the support base he needs so that..
3. He keeps his head down looking at the ball as he strikes it. This will keep the ball from flying to high. If he lifts his head, he is likely to get his foot under the ball and may lift it over the top of the goals.
4. He kicks the ball with the inside toe part of his boot (see time 4:28 in the video). He does this in order to create spin on the ball. He actually aims at the goal post but uses the spin to turn the ball back into the goal net. If he kicks the ball with his laces he may be able to create more power, but he will not be able to create spin and therefore he would need to aim more directly into the goal, giving the goalkeeper a chance to save or running the risk of missing wide.
5. He follows through with his kicking leg, bringing it up to waist height while keeping his head down. This allows him to produce the power he needs to ensure the goalkeeper has no chance of saving this penalty.

So thank James Vaughan of Everton for that real situation clinic in taking a penalty kick in soccer. We are looking forward to a fantastic FA cup Final on May 31, 2009 between Chelsea and Everton. Hopefully there will be no penalty kicks to decide the champions, but if there are you know what to look for.