FIFA WORLD CUP™ > WORLD CUP PENALTY TIPS

Penalty-takers in South Africa will have to think twice about where they place their spot-kicks in any penalty shoot-outs thanks to the Castrol EDGE Penalty Analysis tool.

Engineered by Castrol to demonstrate the winning formula of its Castrol EDGE range of high performance oils, Castrol has analysed every single penalty from the last four seasons in the top five leagues in Europe and the UEFA Champions League plus a number of international matches too to enable football fans to research their rival’s best penalty takers and goalkeepers.

Click here to see your team’s top penalty takers and where they place their penalties.

Speaking at the launch of the Castrol EDGE Penalty Analysis in an exclusive podcast available to download here, former Denmark international and Castrol Ambassador Peter Schmeichel said: “Penalty shoot-outs are the most high pressure situation that a goalkeeper will face and in a World Cup it’s even worse because the stakes are so high. Goalkeepers can try to prepare by researching their opposition, we all know that Jens Lehman did his homework in 2006 against Argentina (watch the film above) and it paid off for the Germans. He made two crucial saves. It’s far, far better to be prepared, the more you know about the other team the better”.

Castrol’s team of performance analysts have also studied every penalty taken in the last 5 FIFA World Cups, both in matches and penalty shoot-outs by teams who made it to South Africa to understand the impact the pressure can have on players and can now exclusively reveal:

• Just 58% of midfielders manage to convert spot-kicks in shoot-outs
• The older a player is, the less likely he will score - with only a 71% success rate in the over 28s
• Left footed players only convert 50% compared to 69% for right footed players
• Goalkeepers wearing red jerseys have never saved a penalty at a World Cup whereas those wearing green save the most!

And when analysing every shoot-out spot kick in FIFA World Cup™ history, Castrol discovered that pressure does have a huge part to play. In FIFA World Cup™ penalty shoot-outs, only 40% of takers score if their team’s Finals survival depends on it. Whereas when a player’s spot-kick can win the game for his team he has a 92% chance of scoring.

Find out more in the film below from the television show, Castrol Presents: How to Win the FIFA World Cup™.

Dr Geir Jordet, a member of the Castrol Performance Analysts team and sport psychologist from Norwegian School of Sport Sciences explains how players can coach themselves to stay calm under pressure. “Players can learn to desensitize themselves to tension and stress, by rehearsing under stressful conditions and by getting used to experiencing stress.”

“In addition, they can use knowledge about the particular competitive situation to optimize their self-regulation under pressure. And finally, they could work to address their fear of failure so that they are less vulnerable to the threat of missing a crucial penalty. Together all these things can help to normalize a player's feelings of tension and stress, thus making it easier to perform under extreme pressure.”