Players are always improvising and coming up with new tricks to outsmart the goalkeeper. However, moments of radical improvisation from 12 yards, is largely confined to the training ground such as this outrageous effort from Brazil’s Hulk.
A few decades ago, tricks from the penalty spot were carried out quite often. The legendary Johann Cruyff gave a brilliant example of this practice by tricking the keeper into lunging for the ball, only to lay it up for his teammate to tap in.
The goal brought into spotlight some loopholes in the laws of football that were easy enough for a player of Cruyff’s calibre to exploit.
Then there was Antonin Panenka, who deftly chipped the ball into the net to help Czechoslovakia win the Euro 1976 against West Germany via a penalty shootout.
The manouvre involved the player dramatically applying the brakes on his kicking foot, which is in the air, and scooping the ball into the middle of the net with the keeper expecting the ball to hit the corner of the net.
For the younger generation of football fans, footballers like Francesco Totti and Andrea Pirlo soon showed the way, pulling off tricks with games placed on a knife’s edge.
In this video, the footballer is seen kicking the ball while pretending to adjust the ball in the penalty spot: It happens in the blink of an eye and the keeper is left rooted to his spot.
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