The Specialist: the Penalty kick

NEC’s penalty specialist El-Akchaoui

It appears to be so simple. The penalty kick. You, the ball, eleven meters and that goal. Oh, and somewhere there is the keeper too. But, Diego, Marco, Zinedine, Roberto and Johan have all missed at least on in their careers. Every team therefore, has it’s own specialist. Someone with steel nerves. At NEC, it’s Youssef El-Akchaoui.

The First One

“My first penalty kick ever was a goal. Of course. But, it was in the F-juniors, haha. There’s no real stress at that level. I remember that some of us found it more funny to aim for the goalie. I never thought scoring from a penalty was cool. Until I saw Diego Maradona score one. The slow run towards the ball, Maradona waited for the keeper to choose and than he’d slowly pass the ball into the net. That did look very cool! That game between penalty kicker and keeper is something else. And than I saw the Panenka. Man…the ultimate penalty. Ultimate control and power.

Training

Trainings guru Foppe de Haan tells everyone who wants to listen that you can train to take a good penalty. “You can’t emulate the tension and the vibe in the stadium, but by repeating the action over and over again, you become a consistent penalty taker and your odds will go up. A player who practizes 100 times per week will be more successful than the player who never trains on it and just takes it.” El Akchaoui doesn’t believe the theory. “I don’t know. It’s not a free kick you know? You can’t take the penalty the same time, all the time. You just have to beat the goalie and in principal, every player should be able to. It’s all about your kicking technique. Every penalty is different for me, and so I don’t really train them.”

Six worst penalties ever… No Dutchies involved

The Technique

“Some players take a short sprint, others a long, some don’t even take any step. “That’s up to the individual player. You gotta do what you gotta do. I take a long run, diagonally behind the ball. I used to start straight after the ball, but you do give your angle away in that case. Good goalies could see what I did. I have a lot of variance these days. It depends on the goalie I’m facing as well. When I’m faced with a small goalie, like Groningen’s Luciano, I aim high and hit it hard. He could never stop those. Once he picked the right corner, but he was simply too late.”

Famous penalties

“I don’t mind watching penalty shoot outs. I rather have a winner in the game, mind, but once the thing starts, I’m hooked. I watch it in detail. The look on the faces, the walk. The way the players prepare. It’s very emotional and intense and a totally different game than playing football. I remember many famous penalty kicks. Those are either the misses, the ones that won games or the spectacular ones… Van Basten’s miss against Denmark, Cruyff’s penalty with Olsen… Johan Neeskens’ cannonballs… Or Beckham’s miss, where the ball just rolled away. A lot of players can actually take a good penalty, but JC was right when they once asked him what was wrong with a penalty that Frank de Boer took and missed. JC said: the fact that he missed, hahaha….”

Funny….

The Duel

“I took two penalties on Wapenaar. He picks his corner fairly quickly. So, I waited for him to choose. He came up to me after the game and said: I studied your penalties and I thought I knew what you’d do. But you did it differently. I was surprised by that… I don’t follow a pattern, but I realized keepers study me as well. It’s a duel within a duel, really. I play left back, but I never study the right wingers I’m up against. I don’t want to pre-program myself and play in an unnatural way. With penalties, it’s different. I study goalies. What’s his favorite corner? Does he keep waiting? Is he quick to go to ground? Did he stop penalties before?”

The Game

“I’m pretty cool. Goalies try to get under your skin, you know. I just play the game. Fix his stare, talk back to him, that kinda thing. Whatever happens, the ball will go in. I don’t care what they say. They shouldn’t touch me though. I don’t feel a lot of pressure, but the people around me do, that’s clear. They keep on saying to me…ah, I thought you’d miss this one. I don’t care really. I will miss a penalty some day, the odds are stacking up against me… But the thing is, you gotta get back in the game after you missed one. Be ready to take the next one.”

And then this classic… Rapid player Lazar is awarded a penalty but he refuses, telling the ref it wasn’t a foul. Unique…