A penalty clouded the memory of a ball artist: Roberto Baggio, The Divine. There was no more refined Italian footballer, an exquisite ball player with a brush on his right foot. The quintessential 10. He was a purist of the game, he had the plus of aesthetics and he seasoned it with the goal. He arrived at the ’94 World Cup with the shiny Ballon d’Or banner in force. To endorse it, he led a discreet Italy to the final with Brazil, after having scored five goals in the previous matches.
It was “his” World Cup, the one that would catalyze him to history. Neither Gianni Rivera nor Paolo Rossi nor Andrea Pirlo nor Francesco Totti, they were all far behind the Divine in the judgment of history. However, the road to total glory reserved for him a treacherous turn: he had to take on the execution of a decisive, crucial penalty.
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Italy vs. Brazil
At the end of the world. Brazil and Italy had tied 0-0 in regulation time and defined the World Cup by shots from twelve steps. Brazil won 3-2. For the Azzurra, Massaro and Baresi had already missed (yes, the phenomenal Franco Baresi…). The last bullet remained for Italy: it had to be put in or goodbye world title. Baggio was a specialist in still balls. He was in charge of penalties and free kicks.
They left the last one to insure it for being a guarantee. He got his turn. Sixty million Italians holding their breath, although unable to contain the galloping of their hearts.
Robertino would not fail, he was a genius. He serious, focused, took a run, went in low and the ball took off like Apollo XI, to the sky. Very, very high, too high to be true. All of Brazil exploded with happiness: four-time champions. Roberto was frozen, looking at infinity, trying to find a useless explanation.
That unfortunate penalty destroyed his popularity, almost ended his memory and his legacy. After that, nobody cared if he was the Ballon d’Or, if he was crack, if he enchanted the public in Italy and the world, he simply sent a ball into the stratosphere, the only one he shouldn’t have. And that will remain in his epitaph. Was it bad luck…? No, the ball doesn’t go where it wants but where one sends it. She kicked badly, shod the ball too low and raised it to ridiculous limits.
These days penalties are in vogue (Dávinson and James know it). The 2022 World Cup was also defined by shots from eleven meters. Argentina has a goalkeeper specialized in stopping them and was champion.
In the current Copa Libertadores, since the direct confrontations for elimination began, out of 11 duels there were 4 definitions by penalties, a high percentage of 36.36 percent. It means that the importance of executing well becomes decisive to advance on the road to victory qualification.
Boca Juniors reached the semifinals, winning two phases on penalties. The batches are sensational, emotional, sometimes far superior to the game itself. And sometimes we force them to draw and go to penalties.
Before, when a team was awarded a penalty, it was a party between their players, the coaching staff, the fans. It was a sure goal. Or almost. Today is part of the almost. The failed penalties are industrial quantities. Does he kick worse than before? No, the goalkeepers have progressed extraordinarily, it is the most evolved position in football.
That advance is so remarkable that the penalty has become a science. The goalkeepers are cats, they have studied all the rival auctioneers and as soon as the shot is not strong or well cornered, they stop them. It is increasingly difficult to score a penalty.
“In my time, penalty goals were not celebrated,” he declared. Alfredo Di Stéfano-. It was something too simple, you shot to one side and it was a goal, the archers didn’t even move.” And that they could get ahead, there were no problems. And that there was neither the pressure nor the current success. Now it is infinitely more difficult to score, despite the fact that FIFA insists on minimizing the chances of goalkeepers.
The executors can fake it, take a thousand little steps before kicking, slow down, but the goalkeepers cannot get ahead or move their arms or speak to the shooters. They need to force them to cover their eyes with a blindfold. And even so, it is difficult to convert a penalty against them. The bow continues to measure 2.44 high by 7.32 wide, it happens that current goalkeepers are athletes and are super-prepared.
Until not long ago – and it is still often heard – many journalists said/say: “And the game will be decided by the lottery of penalties”. Nothing to see. If penalties were a matter of chance and not strictly technical and emotional -as they are- the coach would choose the five luckiest individuals he has on the team.
But no, designate the five best kickers. Or those who are mentally stronger to assume such responsibility. Mental strength is essential in this game of executioners and victims. If you have a goalkeeper like Dibu Martínez in front of you, you know that you should ensure the result during the game and not go to penalties. Dibu’s mind will float in the mood of the auctioneers.
The penalty is a psychological fact as well as a technical one. The curious thing is that the same ones who speak of “the lottery of penalties” then raise, as a biblical truth, another axiom: “A well-kicked penalty is a goal.” So, where are we? Is it a matter of luck or kicking them right? The reality goes through the last sentence: if it is executed with efficiency, it becomes, except for a feat by the goalkeeper.
Powerful and cornered shot is difficult to cover, since it has been shown that the speed of the ball exceeds the human reaction. Strong and well directed, it is unstoppable. Sergio Goycochea, expert in the art of covering penalties, he assures: “if the ball goes 50 centimeters from the post, there is no way to get it out”. 99 percent of the shots that are saved are the shots that are defective, announced or in the middle of the arc.
What is omitted to say is that the definition by penalties is usually not similar to the abilities and merits that two teams exhibited during the match. The one who played the worst can be the best on penalties.
Another commonplace that is heard is: “The goalkeeper seems to be defenseless before a firing squad.” On the contrary, the pressure is on the performer (ask Baggio).
The goalkeeper has everything to win and nothing to lose. If he doesn’t save any shot, it’s not his fault; if he covers one, it is the figure; two, the hero, and so on… In the shootout, a good goalkeeper is more important than a good kicker. Because the goalkeeper is in everyone.
Wait until the last. When Liga de Quito won the 2008 Libertadores on penalties against Fluminense, coach Edgardo Bauza could not bear the tension and went to the locker room. “He gave me only one indication: to wait until the last moment to see where the ball was going and to throw myself there”, tells José Francisco Cevallos, goalkeeper hero of that day (he covered three shots).
It was Goycochea’s strategy and the one that all goalkeepers should use: do not guess, wait for the shot and then, yes, throw yourself. If the shot is not good enough, if it is bitten or goes to the middle of the goal, it is the goalie’s ball. And many go to the middle. Goalkeepers who risk a stick before seeing the shot rarely save a penalty.
A lot of people get annoyed by this kind of epilogue for a game, especially an important one, but somehow you have to break the tie. And until today no one proposed a better way.
Jorge Barraza
For the time
@JorgeBarrazaOK
(Video: Teófilo Gutiérrez loses the filter and faces a journalist at a press conference)
#Penalties #glory #drama #tango..