Now that it’s knock-out football at the World Cup, penalty shoot-outs are back in the spotlight.
What a mess Spain made of their spot-kicks to go out to Morocco on Tuesday.
If they had been taking as many in training as Luis Enrique said they were, it’s not a great advert for practice makes perfect.
The fact that as great a ball player as Sergio Busquets produced a really poor effort when it mattered most tells you that penalties are about far more than technique.
What made it even worse for Spain is that the taker has so much going for him these days.
A goalie can’t come off his line and the stuttering run-up, which we’re seeing more and more often, can be an insurance policy designed to get the keeper to go too soon.
It should be banned in my opinion.
I had a pretty good record down the years.
Luis Figo was probably my biggest scalp in a Portugal v Scotland friendly. I’ve got a photo of that one.
Douglas saves a point. pic.twitter.com/yYgteJn6ct
— Forfar Athletic (@ForfarAthletic) November 25, 2022
Forfar posted a video of a save I made at Dunfermline back in the day and it shows you a trick I learned from the great Valancia keeper, Santiago Canizares.
That was to stand off the line in the build-up to the kick being taken to make the goal seem smaller for the taker for as long as possible.
It’s one of the few things left us goalies have got in our favour!
On the subject of goalies, good luck to Paul Mathers in his new job with the SFA and to Elliott Parish, who is taking up his coaching position with St Johnstone.
Elliott has been involved in full-time football for over a decade and I’m sure his knowledge of the latest techniques will be at a high level.
I get my Arbroath goalies for two nights a week and the big thing I focus on is working hard and enjoyment.
At St Johnstone, Elliott gets more time on the training ground but the principles are the same.
It’s a unique team within a team but there’s no reason a goalie coach can’t progress to become a manager.
Tommy Wright didn’t do too badly at Saints, did he.
I’m lucky enough to say that every goalie coach I worked with down the years improved me as a player.
That’s pretty much the fundamental aim for Elliott with Remi Matthews and the promising youngsters at McDiarmid Park.
Even before this tournament, I always put Messi above Ronaldo on the basis that one was a team man and the other wasn’t to the same extent.
The World Cup has shone a bright light on that.
Ronaldo’s numbers have secured his place in the ‘greatest player’ debate and nothing will take away from that.
But there’s no doubt that his departure from Manchester United and now his reaction to being subbed for Portugal is spoiling the ending.
WHAT A PHOTO! đŸ˜®
Cristiano Ronaldo might not be playing, but he is still the centre of everything đŸ‡µđŸ‡¹ pic.twitter.com/QkVLDjv5TG
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) December 6, 2022
He’ll make fortunes in Saudi Arabia after the World Cup is finished but as far as his legacy is concerned, this tournament is his big farewell.
The Goncalo Ramos hat-trick has meant he won’t be starting Portugal’s quarter-final so he needs to show he can be a good squad man and impact player, which is a role he’s far from used to and wasn’t willing to accept at Old Trafford.
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