Call it the Madness in Monterrey. Monday night served up two penalty shootouts at the World Cup, and they won’t be the last before the tournament is over.
Five out of 10 penalties were missed in the Netherlands versus Morocco game, two of which hit the post. Bart Verbruggen, the Netherlands goalkeeper — whose brilliance had kept them Dutch in the game — scored a desperately unlucky own goal.
Morocco triumphed 3-2 on penalties following 1-1 after extra time. In total, four of the spot kicks failed to hit the target, the most in World Cup history. It all made for a gripping spectacle.
Neil El Aynaoui and Justin Kluivert had already missed penalties for Morocco and the Netherlands, respectively, by then but there would be more mishaps to follow. Quinten Timber, the twin brother of Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber, dragged his penalty horribly wide and then Achraf Hakimi stepped up with the chance to put Morocco 3-2 in front but contrived to hit a post.
More drama was to follow. Crysencio Summerville became the third and final Dutch player to fumble after Yassine Bounou saved his shot. His miss set the stage for Ismael Saibari to win it for Morocco. Unlike others before him, he kept his cool to finish low into the corner.
“We know this type of game, we know against who we play,” Hakimi said. “We have to be focused and be strong physically and mentally.”
Monday night was all about intense drama and penalty shootouts. For the first time in their history, Germany came out on the losing end of a penalty shootout in the World Cup.
Paraguay held Germany to a 1-1 draw after extra time and then eliminated the four-time world champions in Boston. Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill saved the efforts of Kai Havertz and Nick Woltemade before Jonathan Tah fired over the bar, paving the way for Jose Canale to blast home the decisive spot kick.
“It’s difficult to describe in words,” Gill said when he left the pitch as some of his teammates sobbed with joy. “It was a very challenging game. We were under attack from all sides but we resisted.”
Asked about his two saves in the shootout, he said: “We had to analyse every player, every detail.”
For sure, the contributions of Gill and Yassine were massive in terms of keeping the Paraguayan and Moroccan flags still flying high in the ongoing Cup. Equally crucial were the roles of coaches Gustavo Alfaro and Mohamed Ouahbi. For, they had prioritised penalty shootouts, which are a key element in modern football.
Brushing shootouts aside and treating them as mere lotteries is a gross error on the part of the teams.
In 2022, Argentina had looked composed and sorted before the shootouts against the Netherlands and France in the quarter- final and final, respectively. Just as confused and rattled were the Dutchmen and the French, which also got reflected when they took the penalties against the confident and seemingly assured Argentines.
In both those shootouts, a sense of clarity was pretty much evident in Lionel Messi and his teammates. It had also proved the practising and undergoing necessary training for a shootout was also an integral part of Lionel Scaloni and his wards’ system.
Like the Germans, the Dutch too appeared rather unprepared for penalties. A few of their players had their heads down while going for the shot, when they should have had that split-second look at the goalkeeper. That hints lack of enough practice and overlooking the details during training sessions.
In modern-day football, prioritising the shootout is also a vital part of a team’s planning and strategy, while it also reeks of arrogance to treat it as just a lottery.
