Whenever I'm in goal and facing a penalty (or a 1-on-1 and have to gamble dive to one side) I always want to dive the same way every time, as this feels like the natural way my body likes to dive/flop/fall. From speaking to other absolute amateurs like myself it seems they also have favoured side and it isn't necessarily related to whether you are right or left hand/footed.
Now, I've never really considered that pro GKs would also be like this, as I thought they would train themselves to become just as good at diving either way.
But last night Kepa dived the same way on all 6 pens (to his right), so after the first 3 it made me think that this is his favoured side and by the end of the shootout I was screaming for the Villareal players to keep going the other way, and they didn't listen!
The first penalty he saved (2nd one) was actually a pretty decent penalty, and he very nearly saved the next one which was right in the corner, so they were pretty impressive dives to be fair. Villareal went the other way on pens 4 & 5, but no.6 next foolishly went to his right and it was a comfortable save and game over.
So, now I'm thinking maybe even some pro GKs will still have a tendency/preference to dive a certain side when facing pens. And also surely opposition coaches would've spotted this last night and anyone who's taking a pen against Kepa anytime soon should be advised to wait until he dives right to slot it left, or just go for the left corner if you don't have the Bruno stutter in your locker.
We often get a graphic showing you where the penalty taker has hit their last x number of pens, but not which way the keeper has dived for theirs... would be interesting I think.
Now, I've never really considered that pro GKs would also be like this, as I thought they would train themselves to become just as good at diving either way.
But last night Kepa dived the same way on all 6 pens (to his right), so after the first 3 it made me think that this is his favoured side and by the end of the shootout I was screaming for the Villareal players to keep going the other way, and they didn't listen!
The first penalty he saved (2nd one) was actually a pretty decent penalty, and he very nearly saved the next one which was right in the corner, so they were pretty impressive dives to be fair. Villareal went the other way on pens 4 & 5, but no.6 next foolishly went to his right and it was a comfortable save and game over.
So, now I'm thinking maybe even some pro GKs will still have a tendency/preference to dive a certain side when facing pens. And also surely opposition coaches would've spotted this last night and anyone who's taking a pen against Kepa anytime soon should be advised to wait until he dives right to slot it left, or just go for the left corner if you don't have the Bruno stutter in your locker.
We often get a graphic showing you where the penalty taker has hit their last x number of pens, but not which way the keeper has dived for theirs... would be interesting I think.