Charlton women news - PROMOTED TO THE WSL ON PENALTIES! (p194)

The percentage of missed penalties in the women's game, especially in shootouts, has gone up massively in recent years. All the articles about it focus on improved goalkeepers and increased pressure, all of which I think are a big part of it, but I haven't seen any analysis on the power of the penalties. The available data isn't great but the average speed of the penalties at the Euro 25 shootout between England and Sweden was apparently 43mph, and that was skewed by Lucy Bronze banging one at 63mph, which was one of the only convincing penalties that got hit that night. The average speed of a penalty in men's football is between 70-80mph and in the women's game it's reported as 55-65mph. Chloe Kelly hit the fastest recorded one at 69mph, which is still slightly less than the lower recorded averages in men's shootouts. Ibrahimovic has been recorded hitting penalties at 93mph. 

All that to say that it means there's a lot more pressure on the women to hit their penalties either exactly in the corner or send the keeper the wrong way. Amalie Thestrup's penalty was superb. I don't know how fast it traveled but it looked by far the best struck and its placement was perfect so even though the keeper went the right way she couldn't get to it. Leicester's one successful penalty was sent into the roof of the net with some power which a 5ft8 keeper is never getting to. Heather Payne put a bit more mustard on hers which is why Whitehouse could only turn it onto the post but it still wasn't enough. Mason hit hers with a bit of venom but the placement wasn't great; it didn't need to be because the Leicester keeper was telegraphing her dive every time and Mason kept her head up and watched where she went. This takes nothing away from Whitehouse, all of her saves were excellent and required that she be a top class goalkeeper, but there was only one penalty that Leicester hit where you thought a keeper wouldn't have had a chance. In men's shootouts there are usually plenty of penalties where a top class keeper guesses the right way but just gets done by the power of the strike. We're now working with a generation of goalkeepers who are great with their reflexes and shot stopping going up against a generation of outfield players who are adapting to increased scrutiny and increased physical demands stepping up to take penalties after 120 minutes of toil and seeing that this is an area where the keepers now have such a huge advantage over the takers.

Like with many things in the women's game it's an area where I think just copying the men's game directly isn't going to work. The keepers are doing the same thing as the men; the preparation, the notes on the water bottles, the psychological tricks like meeting the taker halfway to the spot and handing them the ball, delaying the penalty being taken etc and that will work for them but more thought needs to be put into compensating for the fact that elite keepers are going to keep your penalty out if you can't put it in the top corner or send them the wrong way. Smashing a penalty to the extent of your power and aiming for a postage stamp spot is a great way to send your spotkick wide so I think there will end up being a lot more focus on teaching players those Ivan Toney type penalties where the player doesn't hit the ball until the keeper moves. Until those sort of changes start coming in though I think we're going to continue to see low scoring shootouts at the top end of the game in pressure matches