Penalty

A player standing behind their penalty-taking teammate, mirroring their moves as they run-up to strike the ball. If the penalty taker side steps or does a stutter penalty, the player outside of the box does too in synchronisation. Is it superstition, a ploy to put off the keeper or just a tactic to be ready and in the right place for a rebound?

A type of run-up that some players make when striking a penalty kick. Ronaldo perfected the stutter penalty. It offers greater control over the ball but loses out on the power of a long run-up, also playing mind games with the keeper, waiting until the last moment to strike the ball, hoping that the keeper dives first.

If a knock-out tournament match is level after 90 minutes it will then move on to extra time and penalties if still no winner can be found. Each team has 5 chances to score from a penalty kick, taking it in turns, the team that scores the most goals wins. The pressure builds as you reach the end of the 5 kicks. If it is level after 5 kicks each, sudden death begins. A penalty shootout could go on forever in theory, with every player taking a kick, including goalkeepers, until one team scores and the other misses. In big games like the World Cup, there is nothing quite like the intensity of a penalty shootout!

A penalty where the ball is calmly and softly chipped down the middle, gambling that the keeper will dive to one side or the other. The 'Panenka' is named after Antonín Panenka, who famously won the 1976 European Championship final with exactly this trick, playing for Czechoslovakia against West Germany. You need nerves of steel to try a Panenka. Get it right, and you look like an ice cold genius, get it wrong and you can look like an egotistical idiot who cost your team the game.