Don't look at the goalie: Scientists come up with simple solution to England's World Cup penalty problem



It's as much a part of the World Cup experience as St George flags on taxis and the hoards of beer-swigging fans.

But now scientists have finally have come up with a solution to England's penalty shoot-out woes.

A new study has shown that players are more likely to hit the back of the net during a tense shoot-out if they avoid looking at the goalkeeper.

Those who glance at the keeper before striking the ball tend to shoot in the centre of the goal - making the ball easier to save.

Not again: England player Chris Waddle is comforted by Lothar Matthaus after missing a penalty in the England v Germany 1990 World Cup semi-final match in Turin

The research, from Exeter University, comes too late for Stuart Pearce, Gareth Southgate and Chris Waddle, whose fluffed penalties helped eliminate England from major competitions in recent years.

But it could be invaluable for Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the next few weeks.

England has a notoriously poor record at penalties.

The team went out of the 2006 World Cup after losing a shoot-out in the quarter finals to Portugal - the fifth time in 16 years that the national team was eliminated from a major tournament on penalties.

According to Greg Wood, of the University of Exeter’s School of Sport and Health Sciences, England has one of the worst records in shoot-outs of any major international team.

His study found that stress makes penalty takers concentrate on the goalie - and unwittingly kick the ball towards him.

'When they are anxious they are more likely to worry about the goalkeeper and focus on him,' said Mr Wood. 'Because they are looking centrally, they are more likely to hit it centrally and make it easier to save.'

Just as penalty takers should do everything they can to ignore the keeper, goalies should make themselves as noticeable as possible by moving their arms and legs on the goal line, he added.

Gareth Southgate misses his penalty in the 1996 Euro Championships against Germany

'If you make yourself more threatening, it will capture the attention of the kicker,' he added. 'The advice to goal keepers is to stand centrally and try to distract the kicker by waving their arms.'

The study, due to be published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, focused on 14 members of the University of Exeter football team.

The players were asked to kick two series of penalties under normal and stressful conditions.

For the first set of penalties, the players were simply told to kick the ball into the net past the goalie. But for second 'stressful' series they were told the results would be recorded and shared with the other players - and that the winner would get a £50 prize.

The players also wore glasses that allowed the researchers to record their precise eye movements and see how long they spent looking at different locations in the goal.

The study found that when the players were anxious, they looked at the goalie much earlier and for longer

When kickers were stressed, 45 per cent of shots that failed to score were saved by the goalkeeper. This compared with a save-rate of 20 per cent in stress-free conditions.

Mr Wood said the research had not so far been shown to the England squad.

He added that England's terrible track record of failed penalties made its players more nervous - and increased the chances that they would look at the keeper instead of concentrating on the part of the goal they wanted to strike.

Teams with a good track record - such as Germany - were less vulnerable to nerves.

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar was the master of goal-line distraction, using his famous 'spaghetti legs' to win the 1984 European Cup final against AS Roma, research suggests.

Two decades later, Jerzy Dudek used the same technique during the 2005 European Champions League final - helping Liverpool beat Milan on penalties