If he is approximately to take one in opposition to your team, there may be an 82 percent threat he’s going to rate — not bad. If he is making it for Real Madrid in preference to Spain, that danger rises to ninety-two percent — pinnacle-notch. Nowadays, there may be a 100 percent hazard. His method could be the same: six steps back, one to his left, proper foot both dragged or cocked back just before it stamps down, after which he launches the ball off the penalty spot.
And there, in the element, is the inform. Sorry, Sergio. I hate to reveal your secrets. We’ll return to the tell a bit later; goalkeeping analysts, stay tuned.
Ramos has become a fearsome penalty-taker, way to more than one critical element. Those factors are how the searing humiliation of his shootout against Bayern Munich in the 2012 Champions League semifinal modified his thinking on the way to score from eleven meters — and the alternative, of course, is Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Real Madrid. Brutally tricky for keepers to study and someone whose self-guarantee, style, and celebrations from the spot all add to the leisure thing in elite European soccer.
Nature fills a vacuum, and Ramos is under pressure from the environment. Ronaldo out Ramos in as way as spot-kick responsibility is going.
This season, he’s taken ten for membership and USA and scored every single one. A couple has long passed to the keeper’s left and gone to the keeper’s proper. However, most people have been that remarkable, deft, sphincter-shrinking sand-wedge chip over the keeper, which any capacity Masters winner would be ecstatic to produce from out of a bunker on the Augusta. National 18th hollow, now endlessly referred to as a “Panenka.”
At the weekend, Ramos scored his 14th competitive penalty in opposition to Norway. It won Spain three factors for which they had needed to sweat and that, if forfeited in a 1-1 draw, would have introduced a massive, terrible reaction to the coach and squad. Spain had observed Rune Jarstein as a difficult nut to crack. His diving shop to his left to paw Alvaro Morata’s header around the put-up was global elegance.
When the penalty came, at 1-1, Ramos had to rate. No question. Four times from nine consequences this season, the Madrid captain with iron-cast nerves had chipped keepers. The chances informed their own story. Jarstein had to stay vital and upright. However, he couldn’t.
Postmatch, I spoke to him. He’s a huge lad, 6 feet three inches, and his eyes stare off to a distant region—now not geographical, psychological. When I asked him about the Ramos Panenka revel in, his answer stood out.
“Yes, I concept the maximum of the matchday as approximately what might appear if Spain gains a penalty against us,” Jarstein said. “All afternoon, I had no idea approximately what I’d do; I’ve seen how he takes consequences … I even spoke to a chum for a few recommendations. So I determined I would get up straight and be equipped if he attempted to chip me. Then, proper earlier than he hit the penalty, for a few causes, I changed my thoughts, and I dived right. … It was a horrific decision.”
If you have been watching Real Madrid, beat Celta Vigo four in November. You will understand that Sergio Alvarez and Hugo Mallo, Celta’s keeper and captain, understood precisely what Jarstein felt. They suffered one among Ramos’ other “Panenkas.”
Alvarez tried to stay upright. However, as he half-dived to his left, he realized his error and flapped at the ball, which gently floated over him into the center of the net—about midriff top had he stood nevertheless. Celta’s captain, Mallo, danced a jig of fury as the ball went in, shouting to his keeper: “I advised you … I advised you!”
But there may be a fundamentally human, computerized instinct if you’re a goalkeeper: You dive. You consider the panels of the area for your right and left as your most prone areas. You also educate yourself, loads of hundreds of instances according to every season, to throw yourself there instinctively. It’s something that the Czech inventor of this beautiful, symbolic penalty-taking approach, Antonin Panenka, who won the 1976 European Championship’s very last spot-kick shootout against West Germany, continually emphasized.
“I’d cherished being innovative, and I tried to be modern; I’d spend hours racking my brain about how to invent little moves and hints,” he defined last year. “I observed all keepers usually dive to 1 side or the other, so setting it down the middle is probably a bonus.
“Our club goalie became excellent at saving consequences in training, so I have steadily dropped bets: cash, chocolates, that form of thing. So I commenced using my little trick, and unexpectedly, I started to win the stakes increasingly more regularly.
“I assume Ramos may be my exceptional imitator — the first-class ‘Panenka’ taker because of me! Opposition recognizes all of it but manages to do it repeatedly. It’s exceptional.”
But permit’s trace Ramos’ flood of delicate, smart, cheeky dreams to its supply.
Ramos wasn’t a penalty-taker, at least not in fits.
For Sevilla, Spain, or even in those hyper-successful years at Real Madrid, he will mission teammates in schooling — sprints, free kicks, consequences, anything. Home and His first Liga penalty for Madrid came in November 2010, Cristiano Ronaldo remarkably gifting him the chance, in between scoring a hat trick towards Athletic, but Ramos had to wait eight years earlier than he took some other for Los Blancos Also, even though his technique became honed, there was usually a person else — David Villa, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso, Ronaldo, Raul, Ruud van Nistelrooy, then yet any other Ronaldo.
Then there are Ramos and penalty shootouts.
When he took Madrid’s fourth penalty inside the dramatic spot-kick contest against Bayern in that Champions League semifinal seven years ago, his method became extensively exclusive: numerous backward steps, a longer run-up, no action to the side earlier than placing off, foot planted difficult at the floor, as he does now, on the second step, however, three extra significant steps before he struck the ball. He went for electricity, no “me vs. — You” subtlety with Manuel Neuer, no psychology, no concept of something but dangerous effect. The ball soared high over the bar, Bayern slotted the following one, and Jose Mourinho’s Madrid has been out.
From that moment, he studied, advanced, and concept; he commenced to emulate Panenka in how lots the Czech grasp planned and strategized over his technique. Nobody but Ramos’ brother Rene and his dear friend Jesus Navas knew that on the long, bleak nighttime of that defeat to Bayern Munich, he swore that he’d take his subsequent spot-kick, irrespective of against whom matter the pressure, in a “Panenka” fashion. And he did, against Portugal more than one month later. At the same time, Spain won their penalty contest in opposition to Ronaldo, Pepe & Co. Earlier than triumphing in the Euro 2012 final towards Italy.
From that day on, Ramos’ technique has been first-rate.
The ball was placed immediately. Six backward steps, one to his left. Their eyes trained on the referee to his left. However, a tiny, swift look on the keeper, no prolonged eye contact, no thoughts of games with him, no permitting the keeper to influence him. Then, either 3 or 4 short, midrange strides — depending on his mood — to give up along with his right foot planted hard at the ground close to the ball. The next component that occurs could be that he strikes it.
