How To Save A Penalty Kick – New Rules for Goalkeepers

I would like to start off by saying that in creating an article about how to save a penalty kick, I am by no means saying that using these methods will guarantee 100% success. The fact is that goalkeepers are at a major disadvantage when it comes to penalty kicks. I would say though, that’s the first thing that you have to use in your favor. Lose the pressure, if the ball goes in so be it, it’s a situation that is designed for you to fail. In fact, with the new rules in place it’s even worse. Goalkeepers are penalized for stepping off their line and field players are never penalized for stopping during their run. Staying on the line though is the key to the updated technique in how to save a penalty kick. 

There are a lot of different ways to approach a penalty kick as a goalkeeper. I would say that you find what works for you, in the sense that not everyone is going to be Dibu Martinez, and yell stuff out at the taker to catch them off guard. You can use some borderline illegal tactics as well like stepping on the spot before the kick to make it harder for the taker to find their footing. My thing was always to keep complaining to the ref, and buy some time before the kick was taken. This was a bit of a psychological game that you play with the kick taker without necessarily being disrespectful. In any case, here’s a ton of things to account for when trying to save a penalty kick. 

How To Save A Penalty Kick – How You Need To Dive

The new rules stipulate that you need to have at least one foot on the line to be able to make the dive valid if you will. In pro leagues this is something that has been heavily policed, particularly by those leagues that have VAR assistance. We could get into whether or not that’s fair on goalkeepers, spoiler alert, for me it’s certainly not. That’s not the point here, it’s a good idea to adapt your technique to the rules so that you don’t run into that stingy reef that’s going to call re-kick if you make the save. This means though, that now what you’ll want to do is essentially start from inside the goal. So that when you do dive you can put your foot forward while still leaving one foot on the line. 

If you’ve ever been in training and your coach keeps nagging you about diving forward and not backwards this is where this type of training is going to come in handy. Keep one leg back and push off on the leg that’s one the side that you want to dive to. That leg is going to be the one that you’re going to allow yourself to put off the line. The back leg that needs to be touching the line is going to be your support leg. Doing that correctly is going to allow you to perform a more powerful dive to be able to reach almost to that post area that you’re looking to cover.   

Choosing A Side – Should You Do It?

The Jorginho and Raul Jimenez’s of the world have made a living out of waiting for the goalkeeper to pick a side and just kicking the ball softly to one side on their penalty kicks. Does this type of tacker mean that you should then not pick one side that you want to dive to? The way that I see it subconsciously you’re always going to have a side that you’re thinking about diving to. Whether it’s by feeling or because you saw something in the kicker tacker that you think indicates where he’s going to shoot the ball. The key with any tacker is to try and decide as late as possible. It’s unfair that kicker takers can stop mid run and fool the goalkeeper, but you could also play some mind games of your own. 

What you can do is kind of move your body to one side to kind of fake that you’re going there. Just make sure that if you’re going to do this you have enough leg strength to come back to the otherside. If you can’t do that, then that faint isn’t necessarily going to be working out for you. As I mentioned though, I think even if you don’t want to, you’re going to have this feeling in your mind that you want to dive to one side. Sometimes all that you can do is go with that feeling. If you get fooled a couple of times don’t take that too hard. The penalty takers have it too easy.      

How To Save A Penalty Kick – Is There A Way To Tell Where The Shot Is Going?

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Yes, there actually is a way to tell where most penalty kicks are going. Now, I have to be really honest about this, it can be really hard to focus on what you need to look at and tell where the ball is actually going because you have to decipher the code at high speeds. The plant foot though, (the one that the taker is not kicking with) is the one you need to look at. If the kicker takes his foot too close to the ball he or she will only be able to shoot towards the middle of the goal or the side of the foot that they are kicking with. It can get a bit confusing, but here’s an attempt at explaining what I’m talking about. 

To be able to kick the ball to the opposite side of the leg that you’re impacting with you have to open your plant foot more to be able to allow your other foot more space to come through the ball. Especially if you want to put more power behind the shot. So when a person is taking a penalty and you see that their plant foot is too close to the ball your best bet as a goalkeeper is going to be to dive to the side of the foot that they are kicking the ball with. The reason it gets more confusing is because if they kick with the right foot then you dive to your left, and the same thing goes for the other side. Hopefully the explanation made sense and you use the tip moving forward.   

Should You Move Around On The Line or Stay Still?

This one is actually an important topic that I want to address. The easy thing to say is that you should move on the line and try to play some mind games on the kick taker. Sure, that’s one of the ways that you can go about things. That’s not to say though, that it’s the only way that you’re going to be able to handle the situation. The key to jumping up and down or moving across the line or not is how your length strength is at that point in the game. For example, recently I had a local 7v7 game go to a penalty shootout. I hadn’t played in a while, so by the time the penalties came along my long was long gone.  

In that type of situation you don’t want to beat yourself up more than you need to. I think it’s a better idea to have proper footing underneath you and enough strength to be able to dive to the side that you pick. It all comes down to what you’re feeling at the moment. I do think that just jumping up and down and trying to get cute with the whole process for the heck of it isn’t really valuable. You really have to be doing things with a purpose. Make sure that if you are going to move around when the shot comes you’re in a good position to put in a strong dive. Otherwise don’t move as much on the line to save your energy.  

Psychological WarFare Tactics – Do They Work? 

There’s an argument to be made that this was a bit of a lost art, up until the recent penalty kick shootout between Argentina and Colombia in the Copa America. Argentina goalkeeper Dibu Martinez was very vocal throughout the shootout, and he didn’t just talk the talk he walked the walk. He saved a couple of shots that ultimately gave Argentina the win, and ultimately they won the tournament after that. My issue with that ordeal was the fact that he then went out and apologized for what he did, while he was barking at Colombia players he wasn’t being outright disrespectful. It got turned into this whole moral issue, if it was right to be vocal in these moments. Here are my two cents on this. 

If you are someone who is vocal and you’re going to find the right things to say in those moments, go for it. In fact, I’m not even going to say don’t insult anybody, keep it clean or whatever. At the end of the day this is one of those things that should stay on the field. Of course, with high profile matches like the one between Colombia and Argentina there are a ton of cameras and everything that is said is then magnified by the media. Most of you reading this honestly won’t have that problem. Shouting things out at the kick taker is something that can work as part of the psychological warfare. It’s not for everyone though, so if you don’t feel comfortable saying anything just do your thing. This isn’t necessarily a must.    

Don’t Get Overwhelmed By The Situation 

As goalkeeper you know going in that you’re at a massive disadvantage when it comes to penalty kicks. The penalty is literally designed to create the most advantageous position for the attacking player as possible. With the new rules they are even making it easier on takers, and to be honest I don’t see why this has been the case. The whole play itself is already striker centric, and now they are getting super picky about whether or not your foot’s on the line. It’s one of those rules that make you question who in the world is even making these rules. It would certainly seem that the people making these rules never really had to stand on that line and try and save a penalty shot.       

After giving out my pro goalkeeper stance on the subject matter I just want to point out that this isn’t a play that should overwhelm you. Go into it as loose as you can. Yes, losing a penalty shootout can be a bitter feeling across the board. There’s just not much that you’re going to be able to do about it. If you save it you’ve made a great play. If the ball goes in, know that the play is literally designed so that the ball can do just that. The more calm you are about the situation the better. 

How To Save A Penalty Kick – Conclusion  

Getting into the habit of keeping your foot on the line as you dive to try and save a penalty kick is certainly a good idea. This is a rule that is being over policed in the pros in my opinion. Since 99.9% of the Sunday league games where most people play there is no VAR you probably shouldn’t be too concerned. You never know though when you’re going to run into that one ref who takes their job way too seriously to the point where he feels he should allow the taker to have another go because your foot wasn’t on the line. 

Overall as a goalkeeper you want to make sure that you’re calm throughout this process. Remember that the play is literally designed for you to fail, so if you make the save it’s a massive win. If you are not able to make the save you can’t get too down on yourself for that. Even if it was a key moment or whatever it may be. Those are just part of the game, and a crude reminder that the game is not fair sometimes.