FIFA Confederations Cup 2013

[SLAMMED]

These penalties are unbelievable.

Hope the England squad are taking notes

[just some bloke]

Best penalty shoot-out in the history of the game

[MouldyRoyal]

Dunno, the penalty shootout with which Zambia won the African Cup of Nations was similar. Other teams just practice them.

[stealthpapes]

Why bother? They're just a lottery.

[paultheroyal]

Why bother? They're just a lottery.

Myth

[stealthpapes]

:mcbain:

[Royal Rother]

Best penalty shoot-out in the history of the game

That's what I said to my son last night. Shame they didn't show the other angles so you could see how many hit the side or roof of the net but it looked like most.

All it is is staying calm and kicking a ball firmly and rather where you want it to go. It's easy to accept that they are miles better than us at ball control, vision, guile, passing etc. etc. but don't you think it's actually pretty funny that they're also miles better at the very basic, very simple process of taking a frigging penalty.

[SLAMMED]

Shame they didn't show the other angles

I thought it was strange that they used the gantry view for the penalties. I thought they always used a camera behind the goal.

[stealthpapes]

Best penalty shoot-out in the history of the game

That's what I said to my son last night. Shame they didn't show the other angles so you could see how many hit the side or roof of the net but it looked like most.

All it is is staying calm and kicking a ball firmly and rather where you want it to go. It's easy to accept that they are miles better than us at ball control, vision, guile, passing etc. etc. but don't you think it's actually pretty funny that they're also miles better at the very basic, very simple process of taking a frigging penalty.

Penalties are a great way to end any football match as long as your team isn't involved and especially if your team isn't England.

The Confederations Cup semi-final between Spain and Italy was perhaps the finest shoot-out that we've seen internationally in recent years. The quality of each of the first 12 - yes 12 - penalties was sublime. Player after player struck the ball into the corner of the net, into the roof of the net, into the side netting with power or chipped into the centre of the goal, all with accuracy and with unerring confidence. There was not a chance of any being saved. It was an awesome demonstration of the art form perhaps exemplified by the marvellous Andrea Pirlo.

The TV camera focused on his face as he addressed the ball. He was expressionless, sweat dripping like diamonds from loose strands of wet hair, his dark beard glistening like the humid Brazilian night sky, the lines on his face carved by years of experience and wisdom. No mere boy, this, no child in adult clothing, this was a strong man; a man ready to do his job.

With one look at the goalkeeper he ran up and struck the ball at pace along the ground into the left corner of the net, sending the 'keeper the wrong way. Job now done, he turned away, still expressionless and returned to the centre circle. It was the personification of cool. It was a man in complete control of his own emotions and of his talent. Pirlo was The Man With No Name in a spaghetti western; a narrow-eyed, calm, cold, calculating killer who took pride in not showing emotion, in not glorying in his own magnificence. This was how a grown-up professional takes a penalty. There was no shouting and no screaming because that would suggest weakness, self doubt or pressure.

And so it fell to Italian defender Leonardo Bonucci to play the Englishman and blaze the ball over the bar to hand victory to Spain via Jesus Navas' winning strike. Seven penalties, seven goals for Spain. All of them superb.

You knew Bonucci would miss though. How? Because he did what so many do who miss penalties, he did a little shuffle of the feet before running up to the ball. In that movement he revealed nervousness and weakness. Whereas Pirlo placed the ball, ran forward and struck it all in one cool, smooth move, Bonucci was bricking it, leaned back and blazed over in such a display of poor technique it might have been born on these shores.

This demonstration of the art form should, once and for all, put the lie to the English idea that you don't need to practise penalties because you can't rehearse the pressure cooker of tournament conditions. Here were 13 men who knew how to take penalties, they went into penalty-taking mode and the results were perfect. To suggest this is not the result of practise is ridiculous. Quite why we have surrendered this skill so readily is mystifying; after all, other skills on the pitch are practised. If you have routine to mentally drop yourself into in these circumstances it is surely much more of a help than having no default at all. You need to shape your body and feet properly and that needs to be innate to your skill set, not busked last minute. Given the pressure of the situation, surely you want to leave as little of the technical stuff to chance as possible.

Being confident that you are well-practised will surely help inculcate self-belief so that you don't walk up to the spot with your bowels shuddering and blaze it wide. The variables are always going to be there but you've got to negate them as much as possible. You can learn technique and learn to believe in yourself deeply and profoundly. The great thing about penalties is that there is no place to hide. Your lack of technique and bottle will get exposed. It sorts the proper men from the silly boys. It filters those who can handle pressure from those who can't. It divides those who know they're bloody good from those who worry they have been over-vaunted. That's why they are so utterly fantastic.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Great stuff.

[Ouroboros]

*practice

[Royal Rother]

Yeah, excellent article that, if a bit ott in its description of Pirlo! Thanks for posting it.

[No Fixed Abode]

Good to see plenty of Chelsea players in the final tonight.

[Royal Ginger]

Wow David Luiz!

[SLAMMED]

That was awesome.

[sandman]

Neymar's playing well... game must be being streamed on Youtube.

[just some bloke]

I'm watching it on ESPN. Ian Darke is commentating.

That Naymar lad... pretty handy.

[SLAMMED]

Neymar's playing well... game must be being streamed on Youtube.

[Royal Rother]

Playing with 10 men against a rampant Brazil isn't really a great idea.

[Royal Ginger]

Playing with 10 men against a rampant Brazil isn't really a great idea.

10 men? what have i missed?