WATCH ABOVE: You might think a penalty kick in soccer is an automatic goal. FC Edmonton would beg to differ. Quinn Phillips has more on the art of the penalty kick.
EDMONTON – For FC Edmonton, wins are more important than anything.
Those have come, most recently beating Ottawa Fury in Amway Canadian Championship play on Wednesday in the nation’s capital.
This enables them to laugh a little when looking at their penalty kick record. So far this season, shooters have been stopped three times – a statistic that has to be against the odds.
“I don’t know,” laughs Eddies Goalkeeper Matt VanOekel. “I haven’t seen it happen for a team before.”
The high pressure penalty kick really isn’t as easy as it looks.
“You look at say, a goalkeeper of Matt VanOekel’s size, 6’4″, standing in a goal and you’re shooting from 12 yards away the goal actually shrinks quite a bit,” said Head Coach Colin Miller.
“The keepers are definitely getting better these days,” adds FCE Forward Tomi Ameobi who has two goals in his last two games. “They’re able to read players body language a bit better.
“I think it’s a case, if you pick the corners there’s no chance the keepers are getting to it.”
VanOekel said he thinks that all the pressure nowadays is on the shooter.
Eddies veteran Daryl Fordyce reminds us that players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have missed when they stepped up to the penalty mark.
“They’re the greatest players in the world and they miss ’em.”
It’s all about going up to the mark with conviction.
“You just pick your side and you go with it,” says Fordyce. “Hopefully you hit it well and the goalie goes the other way.”
“When you start to doubt yourself or which side you’re gonna go, that’s when the mistakes happen,” adds Ameobi. “Once you pick your corner you just gotta stick with it.”
For the Eddies, no one is feeling the penalty kick crunch, and it’s important to them to keep it that way.
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