The knockout stage of the World Cup began Sunday, and from here on out, every game will produce a winner and a loser.
If a match is tied after 90 minutes, teams play 30 minutes of extra time. If they’re still tied, the match is decided by penalty kicks. Those can be tense and exciting, but if you’re the one taking the kicks, it should be super easy, right?
Think about it: The soccer goal measures 24 feet wide across and 8 feet high. The ball is shot from 36 feet away, which looks stoppable when you’re standing on the goal line and don’t know better. But Maryland Terrapins midfielder Albi Ndrenika, who made the All-Big Ten Second Team last fall, provided a reality check.
“It’s really you versus you in that moment,” he said while standing in front of a goal at the University of Maryland’s Ludwig Field. “Ten times out of 10, you should be scoring from that distance, you know? If you hit a good shot, the goalie can’t really do anything about it.”
A well-placed shot gives goalkeepers less than a second to react, often forcing them to guess where the ball is headed. Ndrenika agreed the odds are “very much” in the shooter’s favor.
“It’s a kick you’ve done thousands of times since you were a kid, as you grow up,” he said. “So nothing inherently changes but the pressure around you in the situation, so as long as you don’t let that get to you.”
When a penalty kick misses or a goalkeeper makes a save, Ndrenika said pressure is often the deciding factor.
“You start imagining, like, ‘Oh, what if I miss? I’m gonna get clowned, my team’s gonna lose,’ this and that,” he said. “Keeping that thought out of your head, and just saying, ‘You know, I’ve done this kick many times, this is no different.’ … The goalie can dance, the crowd behind can holler and do all that stuff, but you pick your spot out, and you trust in your ability that you hit that spot every time you kick the ball.”
So what does he look for when a player steps up to take a penalty kick?
Body language is key, Ndrenika said. Sometimes, he can tell a player lacks confidence before the shot is even taken.
“Are their shoulders up? Do they look confident? Do they look sure of themselves?” he asked. “If their head is down, they’re looking away, they’re kind of not stepping up to the moment. That’s a big tell that they might not have the confidence.”
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