Sheridan
17/09/2003, 11:52 AM
Having finally seen the controversial penalty on Monday night’s eircom League Weekly (speaking of which, I wonder what the odds are on a TV3 pundit “analysing” the First Division in terms other than “[Manager] has done a great job at [whichever clubs happens to be top], surprised to see Galway and Dundalk down there” at some point in the foreseeable future?), I’ve come to the conclusion that Andy Myler has been done a disservice by his manager and the media in general. Doolin’s comment about “penalties taken for television” was profoundly ill-judged, in my opinion.
One need only think back to Suwon for the double standards at play here to become apparent. Neither Kevin Kilbane nor David Connolly suffered the kind of opprobrium directed at Andy Myler this week for their appalling, tamely-struck penalties which cost Ireland a place in the World Cup quarter-finals. Is half-heartedly placing one’s spot-kick within easy reach of the ‘keeper less deserving of criticism than outfoxing the goalie and striking the underside of the crossbar, simply because it’s not as “flashy?”
The art of the penalty kick is a relatively simple one to master (ignore the idiots who bleat on about the impossibility of replicating a shoot-out atmosphere in training – it’s a free shot against a stationary ‘keeper from twelve yards, for goodness’ sake); the secret lies in taking the goalkeeper out of the equation. There are three principal methods of achieving this aim. One (the most obvious and most reliable) is simply to direct one’s kick towards any of the (surprisingly numerous) spots within the goal which no ‘keeper on earth could possibly reach from a standing start. Another, increasingly popular option is to wait for the goalkeeper to commit himself before sending the ball in the opposite direction. The third involves outwitting the goalkeeper with an unexpected, oddly-struck, unreadable penalty, and it’s into this category that Myler’s kick falls.
Myler has become a victim of the small-minded philistinism that pervades British and Irish football, and merely because he failed to judge the trajectory of his shot with superhuman precision. Anyway, that’s my rant. How was it for you?
One need only think back to Suwon for the double standards at play here to become apparent. Neither Kevin Kilbane nor David Connolly suffered the kind of opprobrium directed at Andy Myler this week for their appalling, tamely-struck penalties which cost Ireland a place in the World Cup quarter-finals. Is half-heartedly placing one’s spot-kick within easy reach of the ‘keeper less deserving of criticism than outfoxing the goalie and striking the underside of the crossbar, simply because it’s not as “flashy?”
The art of the penalty kick is a relatively simple one to master (ignore the idiots who bleat on about the impossibility of replicating a shoot-out atmosphere in training – it’s a free shot against a stationary ‘keeper from twelve yards, for goodness’ sake); the secret lies in taking the goalkeeper out of the equation. There are three principal methods of achieving this aim. One (the most obvious and most reliable) is simply to direct one’s kick towards any of the (surprisingly numerous) spots within the goal which no ‘keeper on earth could possibly reach from a standing start. Another, increasingly popular option is to wait for the goalkeeper to commit himself before sending the ball in the opposite direction. The third involves outwitting the goalkeeper with an unexpected, oddly-struck, unreadable penalty, and it’s into this category that Myler’s kick falls.
Myler has become a victim of the small-minded philistinism that pervades British and Irish football, and merely because he failed to judge the trajectory of his shot with superhuman precision. Anyway, that’s my rant. How was it for you?