Identifying Vulnerable Zones of Goal during Penalty Kicks in Soccer Goalkeeping
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v67.111398Keywords:
Association football, Penalty shootouts, Goalkeeping, Goal distribution, Zone-specific analysis.Abstract
Background: In association football (Soccer), a penalty kick holds immense importance as one decisive kick can determine the outcome of years of hard work. Objective: The study aims to examine the frequency and success rate of penalty shootouts executed by Bangladeshi male footballers in various zones of the goal to categorize zone-specific vulnerability, strength, and frequency. Materials and Methods: Male sixty-two (n=62) field players and thirty-two (n=32) goalkeepers aged 15-30 were selected for the study. The goal was divided into 12 zones for study. A camera (GoPro 11) was placed outside the penalty area. Visual and video analysis with Kinovia motion analysis software was conducted simultaneously. Percentage and Chi-square tests were employed for statistical analysis. Results: The results show the highest goal-scoring percentages by zone in the following sequence: 1 (100%), 4 (94%), 3 (82%), 2 (64%), 12 (54%), 9 (52%), 5 (51%), 8 (50%), 6 (29%), 10 (18%), 11 (15%), and 7 (13%). In terms of targeted kick percentages, the order by zone from highest to lowest is as follows: 12 (20%), 9 (19%), 5 (13%), 8 (12%), 10 (12%), 4 (6%), 6 (5%), 7 (5%), 3 (4%), 2 (4%), 11 (4%), and 1 (3%). Pearson's Chi-square value is 59.234 with df = 11, and p = .000, indicating a statistically significant association between the zones in goal and the outcomes (goal or save). Conclusions: Most kicks target the lower side of the goalposts, with scoring chances increasing when kicked farther and higher, revealing different vulnerabilities across different areas in the goal.
References
Barbero, J. R., Lapresa, D., Arana, J., & Anguera, M. T. (2023). An observational analysis of kicker–goalkeeper interaction in penalties between national football teams in international competitions. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 23(3), 196–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2023.2214969
Bar‐Eli, M., & Azar, O. H. (2009). Penalty kicks in soccer: An empirical analysis of shooting strategies and goalkeepers’ preferences. Soccer & Society, 10(2), 183–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970802601654
Bestelmeyer, P. E. G., & Carey, D. P. (2004). Processing biases towards the preferred hand: Valid and invalid cueing of left- versus right-hand movements. Neuropsychologia, 42(9), 1162–1167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.02.008
Campbell, I. (2007). Chi-squared and Fisher–Irwin tests of two-by-two tables with small sample recommendations. Statistics in Medicine, 26(19), 3661–3675. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.2832
Chiappori, P.-A., S, L., & T, G. (2002). Testing mixed-strategy equilibria when players are heterogeneous: The case of penalty kicks in soccer. American Economic Review, 92(4), 1138–1151. https://doi.org/10.1257/00028280260344678
Claassen, J., Bardins, S., Spiegel, R., Strupp, M., & Kalla, R. (2016). Gravity matters: Motion perceptions modified by direction and body position. Brain and Cognition, 106, 72–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2016.05.003
Cochet, H., & Vauclair, J. (2012). Hand preferences in human adults: Non-communicative actions versus communicative gestures. Cortex, 48(8), 1017–1026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2011.03.016
Cohen, B. (2022, December 8). A psychologist spent five years studying world cup penalty shootouts. MINT. https://www.livemint.com/https://www.wsj.com/articles/world-cup-penalty-kick-shootout-geir-jordet-11670449695
D’Isanto, T., Domenico, F. D., Sannicandro, I., & D’Elia, F. (2022). Improvement of qualitative and quantitative aspects of the sports performance of young players through high intensity interval training. Physical Education Theory and Methodology, 22(1), 70–76. https://doi.org/10.17309/tmfv.2022.1.10
Dohmen, T. J. (2008). Do professionals choke under pressure? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 65(3), 636–653. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2005.12.004
Evans, N. (2022). Who is the main penalty taker for each country at the 2022 world cup? Sporting News. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/fifa-world-cup/news/penalty-taker-world-cup-2022-each-country-qatar/tdhbldctkkqhu876rbqy4mbp
Flores-Moreno, P. J., Del Río Valdivia, J. E., Unda, A. F., Mora, B., Quiroga, R. E., & Stamatis, A. (2023). Analysis of jumping performance and in relation to anthropometric characteristics in soccer goalkeepers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 55(9S), 830–831. https://doi.org/10.1249/01.mss.0000987644.36305.40
Göral, K. (2019). The importance of set-pieces in soccer: Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup analysis. Journal of New Results in Science, 16(3), 885–893. https://doi.org/10.14687/JHS.V16I3.5758
Gruss, S., Treister, R., Werner, P., Traue, H. C., Crawcour, S., Andrade, A., & Walter, S. (2015). Pain intensity recognition rates via biopotential feature patterns with support vector machines. PLOS ONE, 10(10), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140330
IFAB. (2024). Law of the game. The International Football Association Board. https://www.theifab.com/laws-of-the-game-documents/?language=all&year=2024%2F25
Jin, Y. (2024). Biomechanical insights into goalkeeper preparatory movements during defensive dives for football shots. Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, 21(4), 824–824. https://doi.org/10.62617/mcb824
Joksimović, M., Skrypchenko, I., Yarymbash, K., Fulurija, D., Nasrolahi, S., & Pantović, M. (2019). Anthropometric characteristics of professional football players in relation to the playing position and their significance for success in the game. Pedagogics, Psychology, Medical-Biological Problems of Physical Training and Sports, 23(5), 224–230. https://doi.org/10.15561/18189172.2019.0503
Kostiukevych, V., Shchepotina, N., & Vozniuk, T. (2020). Monitoring and analyzing of the attacks of the football team. Physical Education Theory and Methodology, 20(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.17309/tmfv.2020.2.02
Leela, J. K., & Comissiong, D. M. G. (2009). Modeling football penalty kicks. Latin-American Journal of Physics Education, 3(2), 259–269.
Morales, C. A. (2018). Geometric simplification of a new penalty area for football. International Journal of Computer Science in Sport, 17(2), 175–181. https://doi.org/10.2478/ijcss-2018-0010
Murray, B. (1999). FIFA. In The International Politics of Sport in the Twentieth Century (1st ed., pp. 1–20). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203476369-7/fifa-bill-murray
Nag, U. (2022). Penalty shootout: Rules and all you need to know. Olympics. https://olympics.com/en/news/penalty-shootout-football-world-cup-stats
Nalwala, A. A. (2022, December 18). FIFA world cup 2022 total goals: Know the full tally. Olympics.Com. https://olympics.com/en/news/fifa-world-cup-2022-total-goals-team-list
Navia, J. A., van der Kamp, J., Avilés, C., & Aceituno, J. (2019). Self-control in aiming supports coping with psychological pressure in soccer penalty kicks. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01438
Noël, B., Furley, P., van der Kamp, J., Dicks, M., & Memmert, D. (2015). The development of a method for identifying penalty kick strategies in association football. Journal of Sports Sciences, 33(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2014.926383
Okilanda, A., Soniawan, V., Irawan, R., Arifan, I., Batubara, R., Fadlan, A. R., Marta, I. A., Tulyakul, S., Crisari, S., Ahmed, M., & Hasan, B. (2024). Qatar 2022 World Cup Scorer Analysis. Retos, 54, 10–17. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v54.102213
Pepping, G.-J., Heijmerikx, J., & de Poel, H. J. (2011). Affordances shape pass kick behavior in association football: Effects of distance and social context. Revista de Psicología Del Deporte, 20(2), 709–727.
Pertsukhov, A., Beziazychnyi, B., & Khudiakova, V. (2020). Features of goal kicks by football players in games of high-level teams. Slobozhanskyi Herald of Science and Sport, 8(1), 59–62. https://doi.org/10.15391/SNSV.2020-1.011
Qiao, M. J., & Dong, hi E. (2022). Analysis of biomechanical parameters of martial arts routine athletes’ jumping difficulty based on image recognition. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2022, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/6341852
Rinke, S., & Schiller, K. (Eds.). (2014). The FIFA World Cup 1930 – 2010: Politics, Commerce, Spectacle and Identities (1. Auflage). Wallstein VerlagWallstein Verlag. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783835326064
Slimani, M., Paravlic, A., & Granacher, U. (2018). A meta-analysis to determine strength training related dose-response relationships for lower-limb muscle power development in young athletes. Frontiers in Physiology, 9, 1155–1155. https://doi.org/10.3389/FPHYS.2018.01155
Tijms, H. (2024). Penalty shootouts. Tinbergen Institute. https://tinbergen.nl/magazine/58/penalty-shootouts
Ünlü, H., Atıcı, A. R., Filiz, B., Konukman, F., & Sortwell, A. (2024). Soccer coaching strategies for teaching children. Strategies, 37(4), 36–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/08924562.2024.2350912
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Shaybal Chanda, Nur Md. Alam, Nasim Md. Reza, Anup De
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
