Stopping PKs

Pro (Hart) Versus "joe"

Three PKs, One Stop: 

Simple Geometry The Difference

Joe Hart (forgive the lousy pun in the title...) made a PK stop the other day for Man City.  Sam Miller, a Haverford College recruit (HS class of 2013) saved one of five in a shootout he shared with the college staff.  Sam, to his credit, guessed right on 4 of 5, but dove over the first two shots...the last shot, which he saved, was identical to the first two in all ways (speed of the shot, him guessing correctly, overall evolution of the play, etc.) except that the shooter left the ball maybe 18 or 20 inches higher than the first two shooters...and it hit Sam in the chest.


No kidding, a GK has less time to react (and a lot bigger "strike zone" to cover) than a MLB hitter.  UVA helps prove it here; and the Huffington Post gives us some info here.

So here's a little helpful advice...with the caveat that every player who stands between the sticks and faces a PK must be firm in their own mind, and be fully committed to whatever course of action chosen.  Much like 1v1 moves (they don't all work equally well for all players), attempting to stop a PK is a highly personal moment.


Look at the two freeze-frames, and notice the dramatic difference in launch angles by the GKs:

The ball is at the red dot's location.  Sam, here, shows a line from his toes, through his knee, hip, shoulder that transects the crossbar, about a yard inside the post.  Steep.  Ball snuck under his ribs.

Hart, here with his hand just touching the ball (and the shot coming much faster at him than the shot at Sam) shows a line from his toes, through his knee, hip and shoulder that transects the post, about a yard below the crossbar.  Flat.

At 6' 3" or 4", we can see that Hart's left arm could cover a ball in this instance that is more than halfway up the post...so he's covered more than 25% of the goal.  Shooters know that GKs have a hard time getting low, and that the lower they shoot, the less likely they are to miss the target outright (better to be saved than miss completely).  It's doubtful the founding fathers of football had any idea when they selected the dimensions of the goal back in ye olde dayes, but the physics of the game dictate that max power on a shot requires some lift of the ball; any shot on or near the ground tends to be just a bit slower.  The trade of is the difference in time it takes a GK to get to a ball low in the corner versus a strike three feet high and just inside the post.

One more pro, this fella from Oldham failing to stop a PK (during which he's clearly anticipated correctly):

The shooter's foot can just be seen here, just striking the ball.  The GK's body is moving the correct direction
but far too tall; the ball slipped under his hip.

Here's the front view of the moment where he gets his hand on the ball, but it sneaks underneath him.

The dotted line is the toe/knee/hip/shoulder line, the solid line is his arms.  It's tough to stop a spot-kick with just the hand and arm; the body must be behind the catch or parry.

Young GKs...learn to dive explosively and low.