How do penalties work in soccer?
A penalty is a shot from twelve yards, one player against the goalkeeper, awarded for a foul inside the penalty area or to settle ties.
An unobstructed shot from twelve yards. How could anyone miss?
Fairly easily, as it turns out. Roughly 78% of penalties are scored, which means better than one in five is missed by professionals who do this for a living.
Any half-decent player could score ten in a row in training without breaking a sweat. Put them in a stadium in front of sixty thousand people with a season on the line and it becomes a different exercise entirely.
When you'll see one
During a game, when a foul is committed inside the penalty area. Nobody calls it the penalty area, by the way. Call it the box and you'll sound like you've been watching for years.
After a tied knockout game, in a shootout. Teams alternate kicks until one of them misses and the other doesn't.
The rules
The ball goes on the spot, twelve yards from goal.
One player against the goalkeeper, with everyone else outside the box and the arc.
The kick can only be taken after the referee's whistle.
The goalkeeper must have at least one foot on or above the goal line when the ball is struck.
That last one matters. If the keeper comes off the line early and saves it, the penalty is retaken.
The one difference in a shootout
During a game, the ball stays live after the kick. If the keeper saves it or it comes back off the post, anyone can follow up and score the rebound. Chasing the rebound is a genuine part of the job.
In a shootout, it's dead the moment the first attempt is over. One kick, one outcome, no second chances. That distinction catches out a lot of new viewers.
The Panenka
Most penalties are hit hard into a corner. Occasionally somebody does something else entirely.
The Panenka is a soft chip straight down the middle, timed so the goalkeeper has already committed to a dive and can only watch it float over him. It's named after Antonín Panenka, who scored one to win the 1976 European Championship final for Czechoslovakia.
When it works you look like a genius. When the keeper stands still, you look like a man who has rolled the ball gently into his hands in front of a stadium. There is no middle ground.
The pass
In 2016, Lionel Messi rolled a penalty sideways for Luis Suárez to run onto and score, turning a penalty into an assist. It's legal, as long as the ball moves forward and a teammate touches it second.
Arsenal's Robert Pires and Thierry Henry tried the same thing in 2005 and made a complete mess of it. It took eleven years before anyone was brave enough to attempt it again.
Related Terms
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