The Spanish squad and the Japanese team both fell in penalty shootouts in the first round of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, against Morocco and Croatia, respectively. In the quarterfinals, favorites Brazil and the Netherlands both lost in a shootout. In the end, we lost.
The penalty shootout is a test of the team's and the player's mental toughness.
In general, the slightly stronger team will attempt to resolve the issue as soon as possible during the game. Being forced into a penalty shootout may mean that the strong and weak situations are smoothed out; however, if the strong team is forced into overtime and then the penalty shootout, this represents a significant morale blow.
In the World Cup (as well as the Copa America, European Cup, etc.), certain teams, like the German team, have good penalty shootout winning records; in contrast, the Spanish team and the England squad are unquestionably at a disadvantage. Croatia vs Morocco Live: Croatia lead 2-1 at half-time The fact that the Spanish squad was able to miss three free throws in the shootout against Morocco in this World Cup just serves to highlight how poor their psychological makeup is. On the other side, the Spanish team's play throughout the game, which saw them spend a lot of time passing and controlling ineffectively, may have revealed that their true goal was to discreetly release internal strain.
More uncertainty makes World Cup more interesting
Chris Evans, a well-known British football pundit, examined the devastating defeats the England squad experienced in past World Cup penalty shootouts in his book "How to Win the World Cup." For instance, the World Cup match between England and Portugal in 2006 ended in a shootout. Famous athletes like Lampard, Gerrard, and Carragher all missed penalties back-to-back.
Ironically, the England squad has a history of losing penalty shootouts. As a result, it places a high value on penalty kick training and even came up with the notion of extending the penalty shooter's range (from 12 to 14 yards) to lessen the goalkeeper's penalty kick defense. approaching the free-throw line (from 12 yards to 10 yards)
It's interesting that the author of How to Win the World Cup still believes that England's ritualistic strategy under current manager Southgate is necessary: "Jordan Pickford, the goalkeeper, was tasked with overseeing the procedure. He was instructed to give the balls to the first penalty taker one by one, and by doing so, those who received the balls had a specific task to do.
It just serves to demonstrate to the players how these techniques might enhance their skill and self-assurance." Unfortunately, England's squad just missed a penalty and missed during the game against France. so they had no chance to drag the game into a penalty shootout.
In the past, many teams collected intelligence at any cost to enhance their understanding of their opponents, and even used "spying" methods such as "spying". Many football legends have mentioned examples of the relevant teams trying their best to find information about the opponent team in various ways before major football matches in the 1950s and 1990s, and at the same time, they would try to cover up the real situation of their team.
The Chinese men's national football team once asked players to wear jerseys that did not match their actual names and numbers during training matches and warm-up matches. Of course, this was easily spotted by the head coach of the South Korean team.
The book "How to Win the World Cup" pointed out that nowadays, there is no need to be so sneaky and careful to spy on the opponent's intelligence. The data and image information are very rich, and it is even possible to outsource all the information, intelligence, Croatia vs Morocco Live: Croatia lead 2-1 at half-time, Guardiol-Orcich scored and technical analysis work.
Therefore, there are no secrets about the teams that can participate in the World Cup and the Continental Cup competitions of all continents, as well as the teams in the mainstream club leagues. This is why in recent World Cups, there will always be cases of games where the weak overcome the strong-weak teams only in a relative sense. Compared with weak teams, strong teams have the most transparent information. For outstanding players such as Messi, Ronaldo, and Mbappe, the various games and training videos they participate in can be completely seen by weak teams and youths around the world.
The training camp is used as a reference teaching material. Offensive players will use it to study, and defensive players will use it to study. How Messi excels, passes, and cooperates, how Ronaldo quickly starts, free kicks, and shooting inertia, etc., have already been used. It cannot be called a secret, it can even be said to be the basic common sense that professional players must master.
Over the years, the development of international football has shown a trend of narrowing gaps, such as the gap between the top European teams and the second and third teams, and the gap between the first and second and third teams in Europe and the first and second and third teams in other continents. It is not as big as it used to be. It is no longer so easy for strong teams to easily restrain their opponents and score high scores casually.
In the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the "dark horse" Morocco team defeated the Spanish team and the Portuguese team, and South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and other teams also counterattacked and defeated European and American teams in this tournament.
Therefore, the World Cup is now beginning to show greater uncertainty. As stated in the book "How to Win the World Cup", The new appearance design of iPhone 15 is exposed the role of the head coach and the coaching team has become more significant, "(They, they) provide tactical wisdom and allow Finding the perfect balance between players being free to be creative is an extraordinary coaching ability in itself." Obviously, in the 2022 World Cup, the Spanish team, the German team, the England team, and the Portuguese team, all of which are traditionally strong teams, have experienced poor coaching, which has prevented these teams from laughing in key games. to the end.