Penalty kicks are way too easy

| | Comments (12)

Hey, Fabien Barthez, you can’t stop me.

An exciting World Cup tournament has been spoiled, slightly, by the utter ease of converting on penalty kicks from a mere 12 yards out.

They’re practically gimmes.

In this World Cup thus far, 12 of 16 penalty kicks (75 percent) have been converted into goals. That percentage is roughly in line with the percentage of penalty kicks successfully converted in all international competition.

It's way too high. It's way too easy to score on a penalty kick, especially given the low-scoring nature of top-flight international competition. It's simply too much of an advantage to give one team and throws the balance of the game too much out of whack.

How easy are penalty kicks?

I’m never one to make bold pronouncements, but here goes: Gather the top 10 goalkeepers in the world, give me one penalty kick against each of them, and I will score at least two goals. Guaranteed.

(And, trust me, I'm no Pele or Ronaldo or Kaka. Actually, "caca" is a pretty good description of my athletic skills.)

Still, I guarantee I could make 2 of 10 penalty kicks against the world's best goalies.

Against lesser competition — for example, NCAA Division I goalies — I bet I could make four or five out of 10.

No sweat.

And, for the game of soccer, that's a problem.

12 Comments

You have obviously never played football at ANY level before... when you look at the goal from the pen spot it looks tiny and the goalie looks HUGE and im wagering you would be LUCKY to hit 1/10 against the worlds best... plus Yankee boy you have to hit it UNDER the bar... this is not rugby with pads

Wow, Chris, you're an idiot. As Maradona said, you've obviously never played -- or watched -- soccer. If they were easy, every penatly shootout score would be 8-7.

Who cares what armatures could do? I agree with Chris. PKs are WAY too easy. Hence, the anticlimactic ending to the Italy v. France final. The only missed PK would have gone if the guy kicked to at 5mph just rolling on the grass. This should change.

I think Chris is right on, but not about being easy. In the Cup final, 8 of 9 kicks were converted. That's just under 90%. This is the top-tier talent in the soccer world, so I think that yes, 9 out of 10 penalty kicks should be scored. Remember, it's a PENALTY for the offending team that such an easy scoring opportunity be given, so the conversion percentage SHOULD be high.
In comparison, a mid-80s free-throw percentage in basketball is none too shabby. And again, free throws are given as a PUNATIVE action for a foul, so the scoring attempt should be pretty easy (unless you are Shaq).
Except for the fact that a human factor is between the penalty kick, foul shots and penalty kicks have appropriate effects on the game. Though, you would never decide a world championship with a free-throw shooting contest. If they did, you better put your 99-of-100 free-throw shooter out there on the floor.

This is the stupidest thing i have ever heard. can you be any more incompetent when it come to soccer as a sport.

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This page contains a single entry by Chris Otto published on July 6, 2006 9:03 PM.

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