PENALTY EXCUSES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40425806

You can practice and practice all you like but if, on the day, a professional footballer can't hit the ball hard enough and high enough to get it OVER the keeper then he is the wrong job.

It drives me mad watching all these players casually stroking the ball to the left or right and, more often than not, finding the keeper making an easy save. I know that some are hit hard and low but if you do that you are always giving him a chance.

Solution is simple. Hit it hard and at least five or six feet above the ground. Anywhere between the posts will do. The keeper NEVER stands up to anticipate a high shot so a goal is guaranteed. Is that too simple for them?

 

Gordon Owen.......

 

I think same for other sports too. Why does it take more than 10 balls to get a cricket team out, surely they should be able to get a ball at 90mph plus variations past the batsman easily.

 

Why? Bowlers rarely put it through the batsman's legs. Bowler vs Batsman. Designed to be an even battle of skills and one will come out on top. Goalie vs Striker Same designed to be the same.

 

I see what ur getting at but a football goal is 24 feet from post to post and 8 feet from ground to crossbar. Any decent footballer should be able to hit a space THAT big, avoiding the little bit covered by the lad with the gloves. Getting a batsman out is a bit harder- even a 10 or 11.

 

It's psychological. The player would not be visualising the ball travelling at a safe height close to the keeper; it's the disjunct between what they are visualising and what they manage to physically carry out because of the stress of the situation.

 

... which is why I think the Germans were favourites before a penalty was struck because they don't have the historical baggage of our past encounters which is woven into our national footballing narrative. Not an excuse, but with such fine margins I think it's a factor

 

On the one hand, its simple. Put the ball in the areas a goalkeeper can't physically reach with such a short distance and short reaction times. Ward Prowse showed how to take a penalty.

Elevating the ball adds risk of clearing the crossbar with very light footballs, and with pressure, a weak minded bottler will lift it.

Tammy Abraham never looked like scoring, for someone who scored so many goals last year, I find it staggering he cant seem to hit the ball cleanly and I wonder if he's had one good season, as he doesn't seem to have much going for his all round game. Maybe it's his natural talent to scuff the ball that puts goalkeepers off sufficiently to register so many goals.

And a couple of the german penalties were poor too.

In all, Germany were far better tactically and technically and played as a team. I did think Mawson has done himself lots of favours, both in terms of his potential to lead and showing quality at times. Well done Alfie.

 

Alfie should have taken that last penalty. He would have rammed it into the roof of the net. Course, Redmond would then have come on and missed the next one but at least he would have seen how to do it.

I don't buy any of the excuses players, managers, and fans, have for this problem. If you are a professional footballer, especially those being paid obscene amounts of money, you should be able to place a ball EXACTLY where you want it.

Imagine a basketball net, flipped 90 degrees, hanging from the crossbar. One of these so-called star players should be able to steer the ball right through it 99 times out of a 100. Like I said at the top of this, if they can't hit a whacking great area of goal from only twelve yards out they need to take up another profession.

I know why players tamely side foot penalties just to the side of goalkeepers, resulting in an easy save. It's because they are cowards and don't have the courage or gumption to hit the ball hard and high enough to give him no chance. Sorry - if you want the money do your job right! Is it too much to ask? A penalty award should be as good as a goal, every time - not a 50/50 chance of it being one.

 

Is this satirical?

 

No, I'm being serious! Sick and tired of seeing penalties fluffed by weak-minded individuals. It's as if they can't trust themselves not to put it in Row Z.

The best penalties are those that crash in off the underside of the bar (Hammill in the JPT) or in off either post. The keeper has no chance with those.

 

Wow, ok. I have nothing.

 

So one question. If the Football penalty system is so easy why is it still the recognized decider of games?

 

How many of the penalties Barnsley have scored on Cup /play off match shoot outs have been the sort of penalty you describe ? Not very many, I am sure. In fact they ones at Cardiff were the total opposite of what you suggest, all calmly stroked into the corner

 

They look great when they come off, especially when the keeper goes one way and the ball the other. I agree that we have done that often enough, and I am not saying there is no skill involved in doing that.

Trouble is that this method is a big risk. If the keeper goes the right way he will more than likely save it, as we so often see. If the ball is lashed in (down the middle, left, right - doesn't matter) it's usually a goal.

Just my preference, that's all. I always have my fingers crossed when we get a penalty because you never know what's going to happen.

 

The German keeper dived to his right every time and I've noticed a lot of keepers prefer to dive that way - maybe it's pushing off from their favoured foot.? The two missed penalties played into his hands being very weak efforts at the ideal height, not in the corner with no power and to his favoured right side. I thought Abraham and Redmond both looked terrified and it showed in the poor efforts which I reckon I could have saved.

 

If they are too scared to take one then give someone else the responsibility, like Mr Rhodes did. As I said earlier in the thread Alfie would have buried one. I dare say Mason Holgate would have as well.

 

What makes you think Holgate would've buried a penalty? This thread seems to be getting dafter...