FIFA World Cup 2018: How England broke its penalty shot against the penalty shootout against Colombia | Soccer

When the referee gave his whistle at the end of the extension of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Colombia in Moscow on Tuesday to send the match in the dreaded lottery of the session shots on goal, a feeling of fatalism heavy in the minds of English fans. The moans of "we're going back" would have flowed as freely as beer in many taverns across Fulham Road in West London.

And for good reasons too. England had not won shots on goal in its World Cup history, failing in all of its previous three attempts.

The blame for this abyssal disc is often placed squarely at the door of the snipers. Think about the misery of shootings in England and the glorious failures of Stuart "psycho" Pearce at Italia & # 90; and those of the flag-bearers of the Golden Generation Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard at & Germany & # 39; 39, 06, among others, come immediately to mind. [19659002ThismayhavebeenbarelyescapedfromthepubliccollectiveeconsciouslyitisthehistoryoftheEnglishpregnantwhoisresponsibleforpostponingpolalityfootballstothegoalkeeper

READ | 2018 FIFA World Cup: England makes history, by Jordan Pickford

There were 259 shots on goal in the history of the World Cup penalty shoot-outs before Tuesday night's game, of which 238 were in play and 56 were saved by the goalies. Thus, the chances of a goalkeeper making a stop were 23.5%.

The English guards only had 1 sure shot from 12 hits – – David Seaman to France's 98, the only loner – – compared savings of 8.3% . Only Romania, coming from nations with 10 or more shots on goal in the World Cup qualifiers, had a worse performance.

While the English were not covered in glory, their conversion rate of 50% The number of English goalkeepers married to the contrarian perception of the misery of the shots at goal of the World Cup s & Harmonizes perfectly with the football truism that the goalkeepers do not have. lose in shots on goal. Remove one or two jumps and they are raised to the status of heroes, emerging as the only reason for the success of the shots on goal of their team. If they fail, no one will sting an eyelid in the direction of the goalkeeper, choosing only to focus on the chess of the goal-takers.

So it is not surprising that British goaltender Jordan Pickford is the main author of a great first in the history of English football, managing to save 1 of his four goals, which represents 25% of Colombia's goals in their first World Cup shootout victory.

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In truth, all that Pickford did was align his performance on the tournament average. That was the brave group of English penalty shooters, who held their nerves and converted 80% of their 5 kicks, comfortably above the tournament average of 70.2%, who may deserve to be a lion's share of the appreciation. Still, their role may be relegated to the footnotes of a tale of pbadage to adulthood for this young team of the Three Lions

Fortunately for this English side, the Herculean nature of A single converted penalty successfully is not lost. on their manager Gareth Southgate, who recently said that about his missed penalty shot at the 1996 Euro "It will never be on my back, unfortunately." It's something that will live with me for

I've learned a million things since that day and the years that followed, he said this week.When something goes wrong in your life, it does not end you and you should become braver, knowing that you have to go in life and not regret because you have not tried to be as good as you could be. "

The keen sense of The poetry with which the manager of England reflects his failure as an elite sniper 22 years ago, draws a troubling and disturbing picture of the damage on the psyche of a player who lacks in these pressures.

Yet, how observant public equates things to a penalty shot will remain a weird oddity of our game. The minimal benefit of converting a penalty kick is not commensurate with the game. Plethoric disadvantage of the absence of a kick. Not at least in the minds of those who have never been themselves in the situation.