The ball is more likely to burst than Harry Kane to miss a penalty. The winning goal from the spot against Borussia Mönchengladbach last Saturday (1-0) also seemed like routine for the FC Bayern goalscorer. He faked the shot, waited until Gladbach’s goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas oriented himself to the left – and confidently pushed the ball into the other corner of the goal. Nicolas looked resignedly after the celebrating Kane, although the goalkeeper obviously had nothing to blame himself for. He looked as if he thought it was more realistic to win at roulette than to save an Englishman’s penalty. His goalkeeper colleagues are likely to have a similar situation.
Kane has recently scored 26 penalties in a row in competitive games, eleven of them in the Bundesliga for FC Bayern. Kane’s record is currently unmatched by any other player in Europe’s top football, and it might be worth an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The record in this country is held by goalkeeper Hans Jörg Butt and attacker Robert Lewandowski, who both scored 17 times in a row in the league.
Kane’s series of penalties is “alright,” teammate Joshua Kimmich just said. From his point of view, the statistics are even “underestimated because you think: getting the ball into the goal from eleven meters is something you should be able to do as a professional soccer player. But that’s not without it.” Manuel Neuer, who as a goalkeeper should know, also praises Kane’s penalties as a “weapon”. He himself once lost a penalty against Kane in the Champions League when he was still playing for Tottenham Hotspur.
Seven steps backwards, standing, taking two breaths – and off you go
Kane’s accuracy is fundamentally based on the same preparation process and exceptional shooting technique. The preparation serves to concentrate, it helps him to ignore disturbing circumstances such as the score, the importance of the match and the maneuvers of the opposing players and the goalkeeper. Kane automates the process after laying the ball out: He takes seven steps back, stands forward in a kind of stance with his left foot, takes two breaths, shifts his body’s center of gravity downwards, runs in tripping steps and then becomes the ball faster. This is how Kane himself described his routine before the 2022 World Cup. And this is clearly how he practices it to this day.
In view of this fearsome penalty-taking consistency, it might be advisable for TSG Hoffenheim, as Bayern’s upcoming opponents, to let their opponents in the penalty area do their thing rather than foul them. On the other hand: Hoffenheim has Oliver Baumann in goal, a keeper who has the flattering nickname “penalty killer”. Baumann has fended off 17 of 79 attempts in his professional career. There hasn’t been a save against Kane so far – if there were a penalty whistle on Wednesday evening, it would still be like a duel at dawn. In an open clearing, the penalty specialist Kane would be facing the penalty specialist Baumann. Kane would certainly be favored in this duel; but less favored than in duels against almost all other goalkeepers.
The last time Kane missed a penalty was in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals against France, when he could have taken his team into extra time – which was ultimately missed. This miss, along with the missed penalty against Denmark in extra time of the 2021 European Championship semi-final, is the number 9’s most prominent mishap. At the time, Tottenham coach José Mourinho said of Kane that he decided a few days before the game how he would make a possible one want to take a penalty.
At this point, Kane was actually still a penalty taker who didn’t pay much attention to the goalkeeper’s movements. He refrained from deception during his run-up; his step sequence was fluid and purposeful. He relied on the hardness and precision of the shot. When placing the penalty kicks, he usually preferred the left side as seen from him. As a right-footer, he can target this particularly powerfully, with the inside of the instep instead of the inside; One of his penalties had a speed of 116 km/h and landed in the goal after 0.36 seconds.
Failed attempts against Denmark and France led to a change in his style
In the 2021 European Championship duel with Denmark’s goalie Kasper Schmeichel, who knew Kane’s preferences from the Premier League, the striker deviated from his usual approach: he shot down to the right – and failed. He was only able to get the ball into the goal after a follow-up shot. The situation was similar for Kane against France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris at the following World Cup; he had played with him for years at Tottenham. Kane converted the first of two penalties for England into his favorite corner, and on the second attempt he decided to give the ball more power and height than usual, probably because he was expecting Lloris’ reaction. He promptly thundered the ball over the crossbar. Within three and a half months he missed three out of eight penalties: it seemed as if the goalkeepers had decoded him.
In response to these failed attempts, Kane decided to vary his penalties – he suddenly delayed the start. The penalty in the Champions League quarter-finals against Arsenal FC 2024 is representative of this: Arsenal keeper David Raya oriented himself towards Kane’s favorite corner during the run-up. But this time Kane abruptly stopped his movement, looked up at Raya – and took advantage of his early speculation by casually pushing the ball into the other corner. “Is this guy even a goalkeeper?” Football England mocked Raya afterwards. That’s how badly he had been duped by Kane.
With this surprise effect, Kane has now taken a number of goalies by surprise. In the next round of the Champions League last season, the semi-final against Real Madrid, he used the same trick to beat goalkeeper Andrij Lunin. Because Kane now has two options – with and without an interruption in the run-up – he makes it twice as difficult for the goalkeepers. You now have to anticipate correctly twice: when analyzing the run-up and when choosing the corner.
This double lottery game guarantees Kane an even higher probability of hitting. If the goalkeepers orient themselves towards a corner prematurely, there is a risk that Kane will slow down his approach – and choose the other corner. If they stay in the middle of the goal until the end, the attacker can rely on his old ability to shoot the ball into a corner. Kane recently confirmed these new options in the run-up: He said this was something he had been practicing because goalkeepers like to move into a corner early with him. This gives him more opportunities.
According to the statistics portal Transfer market Harry Kane scored a total of 85 penalties in professional football – with only eleven missed penalties. His rate is an outstanding 88.5 percent. The sports magazine The Athletic recently ennobled him with a comparison: Kane was as close to a “safe bet” as one could get. However, the shooter himself admitted that he also misses a lot of penalties – in training.
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