World Cup commentary - Friday, July 3rd

The Game Room
1

Just wanted to comment on the Uruguay - Ghana game.

I am not the world’s biggest football fan, but this game was exciting. Ghana had a chance to win it with a free kick on the last play of the game, and the guy hit the crossbar. I honestly don’t know how professional football players can miss a penalty shot, but they do.

The game went into a shoot out, and Uruguay won, 4-2. Ghana missed two of their kicks, Uruguay one.

A free kick seems pretty simple. Kick it about 6 feet high, either straight where the goaltender is standing to start the kick (he always guesses which way the kick is going **BEFORE **contact is made with the ball), or toward one side or the other. Speed isn’t as important as placement. Once the goaltender commits, he’s laying out, and gravity takes over. He goes down, so if you are reasonably talented (which these guys are), a free kick should be buried.

In the space of a few minutes, Ghana missed one to win the game (off the crossbar) and two in the shootout (both stopped by the goaltender falling to his left.) Both of the shots were worm-burners, so if the goalie guesses right, he has a shot.

One shot by Uruguay went into the stands… the guy missed everything.

A great ending if you are a football fan… the drama was incredible.

One question for you World Cup followers. WTF is that sound humming throughout the game? It sounds like a stadium full of cicadas. I don’t know how anyone can stand sitting in the stands, listening to that annoying hum.

2

That wasn’t a free kick, that was a penalty. And Ghana was robbed.

3

you are correct. I used the wrong term. He was given a penalty kick after a hand ball in the goal.

why was Ghana robbed?

4

And not as easy as it looks:

Jordet, G., Hartman, E., Visscher, C. and Lemmink, K. A. P. M. (2006) Kicks from the penalty mark in soccer: The roles of stress, skill, and fatigue for kick outcomes.* Journal of Sports Sciences, 1-9,* Preview article.

This paper is an essential starting place for an analysis for the impact of penalty shoot-outs in competitive international football as it reports some empirical findings on events in penalty shoot-outs in the World Cup (WC), European Championships (EC) and the Copa America (CA). The results are fascinating; here is a glimpse. The percentage success rate in the World Cup is 71.2% compared to 82.7% (CA) and 84.6% (EC), possibly reflecting the greater importance and consequent pressure of the world stage. The success rate of each penalty kick changes throughout the competition:

First kick 86.6%
Second kick 81.7%
Third kick 79.3%
Fourth kick 72.5%
Fifth kick 80%
‘Sudden death’ kicks 64.3%
These results highlight the increasing pressure as the competition progresses and may also highlight the ‘best player should go first’ fallacy. The idea of ‘getting off to a good start’ by putting the best penalty taker first appears wrong as there is least pressure on this kick.

The researchers looked at the percentage success rate of players of different positions. Attackers successfully convert 83.1% of their penalties, midfield players convert 79.6% and defenders convert 73.6%.

The length of time the players have been on the pitch is also important. If they have played 30 minutes of less, their success rate is 86.7%, although, of course, this might include the occasional substitution to put a good penalty taker on the pitch. Players who have played between 31 and 90 minutes successfully convert 81.9% of penalties, and players who play longer than 91 minutes, convert 80% of their chances.

Age also seems important with younger players doing better. Players aged 22 or younger successfully convert 85.2% of attempts. Those aged between 23 and 28 convert 77.6%, and those aged over 29 years convert 78.1%.

The researchers conclude their paper by stating that their results demonstrate that the results of the penalty shoot-outs are not a lottery. Their results demonstrate that there are marked and logical patterns that repeat themselves time and again. The authors adopt a psychological stance on their results and they suggest that stress and anxiety may be important explanatory factors.

From: Penalty Shootouts

5

The noise is vuvuzelas.

6

The uruguay keeper is a penalty specialist. You may notice he “guessed” the right direction for every Ghanaian kick, because he didn’t dive until he saw where it was going. This means the kick has to be both powerful and well placed, a difficult thing to do.

7

The last Uruguayan penalty could have been a Kermogant moment…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iad3gV-9C1U

8

I honestly don’t think I could tolerate listening to that for an entire game. Those things are annoying as hell.

don’t ask, thanks for the great post. Very interesting.