By: Qinwei Wu

For people with little to no experience with soccer penalty kicks, it seems like a simple kick into the goal. However, it is much more than that.

During a penalty kick, the goalkeeper needs to defend a goal that is 24 feet wide and 8 feet tall, just to block a kick only 12 yards away. Considering the statistics that almost half of the outcomes of World Cup games are determined by the penalty kick, it couldn’t have been couldn’t be more stressful. Once the ball is kicked, it only takes about 400 milliseconds to reach the goal, and the goalie needs to react in nearly the amount of time it takes to blink.

Rafael Monteiro, a graduate student of rehabilitation and functional performance at the University of São Paulo, said, “It looks like a simple duel between the goalkeeper and the kicker. But actually, it’s a really complex environment.”

During the 400 milliseconds, the goalie needs time to register the visual information, then their brains need to process that information, finally telling their muscles to move. This whole process takes about 200 milliseconds, and if the goalies were to cover the posts by diving, it could take up to 500 milliseconds.

Goalkeepers do have, on average, faster reaction times than other players on their team, but if the kicker is at a professional level, it could still make it very hard for the goalies. As a result, about 80 percent of penalty kicks make it into the goal.

In a study of 330 penalty kicks, eye-tracking experiments were used on professional goalkeepers and it was found that the goalies studied the kicker’s torso and legs to find where the kicker was going to shoot. Another study from 2018 found that the more information goalkeepers saw before the kick, the more accurately they could predict where the ball is going to go. The longer they wait to block the ball, the more information they can register. That being said, this also means they have less time to make a save.

The kicker receives similar pressure and stress as the goalie. While the goalie needs to determine where the kicker is going to kick and where they should dive, the kicker needs to consider where they will aim the ball and how hard they should kick it. Kicking faster would result in the goalie with less time to react, but it could cause the ball to go off-track. However, kicking more accurately gives up the speed.

The kicker could also try to trick the goalie into thinking that they will kick the ball into the other side of the goal, but quickly shooting into the opposite direction. However, this tactic is still a risky move that could flaw the speed and accuracy of the ball.

Greg Wood, a sport and exercise psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport, and his colleagues, conducted an experiment with professional soccer players. They found that when the kicker is under low-pressure, and there is no reward, the kickers looked more to where they were going to shoot.

But under high circumstances with more pressure and money on the line, the kicker glanced at the goalkeeper more often, seeing them as a threat. Sometimes, goalkeepers could influence where the kickers would kick. In another study, Wood and other researchers found that goalies who look to one side could create a bias, making the kicker more likely to kick to the other side, seeing it as an open space. If the goalkeepers waved their hand up, it could make the kickers unconsciously kick into the middle.

One way kickers deal with this anxiety and pressure is to do a “sigh breath”. Wood said, “They basically just keep your mind focused on the things that you should be focusing on rather than being distracted by things in your head.”