Bounou's penalty technique: more futsal than football?
After watching Morocco's penalty shootout against the Netherlands, everyone noticed something really interesting about Bounou's technique.
It looks much closer to what you often see in futsal than in 11-a-side football.
Instead of waiting on the goal line and then exploding into a dive from the middle, he seems to make his decision early. He chooses a side before the kick is taken and moves laterally in that direction just an instant before the kick. That changes everything.
A goalkeeper who dives from the centre usually has enough reach to cover low shots and maybe mid-height ones, but it becomes much harder to reach penalties struck high into the corner. By already moving towards one side before committing to the dive, Bono arrives much closer to that half of the goal. From there, he can still dive low, but he can also react upwards much more effectively because he isn't trying to cover the entire width of the goal from a standing start.
Of course, the obvious downside is that if the taker sends the ball to the opposite side, there's virtually no chance of making the save. But I wonder if, statistically, increasing your chances of stopping every penalty to one side is actually a better strategy than trying to keep both sides alive until the very last moment.
I'd love to hear what the goalkeeper coaches here think. Is this something that should be explored more in 11-a-side football, or is it only viable for a goalkeeper with Bounou's reading of the game and confidence?
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4 comments
José Carlos Cimorra
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Bounou's penalty technique: more futsal than football?
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