Penalty kicks the Spotlight in goalkeeping:

Saving a penalty kick is one of the goalkeeper’s greatest feats. The shooter gets a crack from only 12 yards away, stacking the odds greatly against the keeper. Various studies indicate that about 80 percent of penalty kicks at all levels result in goals.

But when the keeper saves a penalty kick, it provides a huge motivational boost for his team while delivering a big dose of disappointment for the opponent.

In a penalty kick situation, the spotlight is on the goalkeeper to make a save. The goalkeeper must remain on the goal line, between the goalposts, facing the kicker until the ball is kicked, the goalkeeper is allowed to move before the kick, but cannot touch the goalposts, crossbar, or goal net. The key is for the keeper to stay focused, assess the kicker’s approach, and make a well-timed dive or stand their ground to potentially block or save the shot.

Then, of course, there are the penalty-kick tiebreakers used in knockout competitions. Two of the last five men’s World Cup finals have been settled by penalty kicks.

So great is the advantage that the shooter has when taking a penalty kick that goalkeepers usually have to guess to what side the shooter will aim at, then throw their body in that direction. If the goalkeeper waits until the kick is taken—and it’s a well-hit, well-aimed strike—the keeper won’t be able to reach it. Thus, the penalty kick launches the psychological battle so well described in Peter Handke’s novel The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick.

The goalkeeper is trying to work out which corner the man taking the kick will aim for. If he knows the player, he knows which corner he usually goes for. But probably the man taking the penalty is also reckoning that the goalie has worked this out himself. So the goalie has to go on working out that just today the ball might go into the other corner. But what if the man taking the kick follows the goalkeeper’s thinking and plans to shoot in the usual corner after all? And so on, and so on.