Save the quill pen mate. No need for an apology. The most important thing is that you post to get your views read. You're not afraid to get your opinion out there and that's what this forum is all about.
Unless there has been a change in regulations that I am unaware of, Balotelli is one of many who get away with taking penalties that should be ruled out and taken again. You cannot stutter or pause in your run up and he does it all the time.
I would agree with that. MLT's explanation of that is very good. Whereas other players don't like taking penalties, MLT used to love it. He was aware of the pressure upon him to score and actually thrived on it. Now that's a person who can take penalties. I believe Rickie is in a similar state of mind when he takes penalties.
Well indeed there has been a change which you are apparently unaware of You have to take the actual kick in one motion (so you can't dummy the actual kick), but you can stutter and pause in your run up as much as you like. From the rulebook: You can see in this video that Balotelli's style is to lengthen or break the last step before the kick, but the kick itself is taken in one motion: [video=youtube;QQn9HglOCBw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQn9HglOCBw[/video]
Well that's very much a matter of opinion! Personally I've never heard of anyone being convinced to abandon a legal technique because "it's twatty" but there we are.
I see how Balotelli does it. The stutter in the run up induces the goalkeeper to commit his weight to one side and Balotelli puts the ball in the other corner. It also means that a keeper will sometimes accidentally dive before the ball is kicked, and if he saves it, the penalty could end up being retaken. I know the law allows it, but I'm not sure that the spirit of the law isn't being flouted here. Lambert, on the other hand, doesn't second guess the keeper. With his best penalties, he puts the ball in the precise spot where it is most difficult to save, plus the ball is travelling at such speed, it is past the keeper before he can get a hand to it, whether he dives slightly before the kick is taken or not. To me, that is a penalty, taken within the law and within the spirit of the law.
I thought Tom was being a bit unkind to suggest that so many of Balotelli's penalties are saveable but watching that video, his placement and power really is very average, it's just his technique completely bamboozles the keeper (Some of them really get themselves in a twist haha). If keepers catch up to his technique he's going to have to stary really tucking them into the corner or putting some welly behind them to keep them out of reach.
Balotelli can do the stutter. Most players have their penalty saved if they try to second guess the keeper...they are simple folk and need to keep it simple. How often have we looked at a player in a shoot out and just know they are going to miss. MLT and Rickie have confidence in themselves. Mauricio also has confidence in Rickie....as he said, look at me during the penalty, i'm just leaning back relaxed.
Agree with this. Balotelli's penalties are very average he just fools the keeper into diving early which I don't agree with and why Lambert is a much better penalty taker.
Do you mean 1993 when whitehouse.gov and un.org were launched, September 1993 (a.k.a "eternal September") when usenet massivly opened up or 1995 when ebay, Amazon, Geocities and the Vatican went online? Either way around 20 years ago now.
Well why take a risk in putting more power on the ball if you don't have to? But the technique is such that if the keeper doesn't fall for the initial feint, he can still adapt to put the ball closer to the post or higher into the goal. Some of the penalties in that video show this, the keepers for Udinese and Palermo don't fall for it and get a good, well-timed, full-length dive in, and he still scores.
When Rickie is taking his 49th penalty for Southampton, the one that will put him one ahead of MLT with a perfect record, it would be nice if he blasted it straight at the keeper who would be carried into the back of the net along with the ball by the sheer power. Songs will be written that day, mark my words.
Counts as a miss of course Not really a reliable technique either as Pires and Henry's cock-up showed!
Of course, a lot of the time he is free to just roll the ball tamely into the net as he has completely buggered the keeper, but once keepers catch up with him it will basically bring him back to square one and he'll have to start putting the ball away like a properly, which ups his margin of error considerably. He's an extremely good penalty taker but his secret is there for the world to see, up til now he's barely been troubled as his gimmick has left keepers helpless, if they do their homework it's a level-playing field and it will be whole different test for him.
He's been doing it for years though, 24 penalties, any keeper with any initiative whatsoever would know what he's going to do (and even keepers without any initiative would surely be informed by a coach). The thing is though even if you know what he's going to do it's still very difficult to counteract. If you wait until the moment the ball is struck, you won't be off the ground before the ball is in the net, and if you watch the run to time your dive, you will be thrown by the broken final step. He's so supremely calm and confident that he will just adjust his kick to whatever the keeper does. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that he could miss, or the keeper could get lucky with the timing and make a save, but it's clearly a very effective technique.
I just can't accept the tag "world class". Instead of brilliance in specific field, all it reminds me of now after years in the corporate world is some jumped up no-mark middle manager wanting their employees to show "world class" attributes... usually in stellar activities like answering a phone.
