You can’t imitate this run to the penalty spot, but you can set it up perfectly

• Ren went

  editor NOS Sport

A dark shadow casts over the sand dunes and skyscrapers of Qatar. The knockout phase of the World Championship begins and the penalty monster comes out of its hole. Spurred on by the failures of the eleven meters of Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski in the group stage, he aspires to an eighth final, to start this afternoon with Netherlands-United States.

No country wants to be swallowed up by penalties. Yet respect for the penalty has declined in recent years. “It’s a lottery, a coincidence, a chance”, we hear less and less. Because football associations and clubs have understood it well: it is indeed trainable.

Gyuri Vergouw is sometimes surprised by this reversal. Maybe his book from 2000 is still on the shelf. The penalty. Quest for the ultimate punishment. An in-depth data study, designed as a free tool for Dutch football. An attempt to permanently break the trauma of national grief. Pull it off the shelf, dust it off, and marvel at the logic inside.

How different at the time of publication. “At that time, I was simply not lynched by the people,” recalls economist Vergouw. “People thought it all made no sense.” Just before the European Championship in 2000, Vergouw did a talk show Villa B.V.D. – the public followed André Hazes We love Orange just walked to the bar – his story. “They have to change goalkeepers five minutes before the end,” said Vergouw. There was a moment of silence at the table.

“From 2000 to 2010, I sent my book to every national coach, with a personal letter. I didn’t get a single response. Not one…” Vergouw now sees a generation of coaches who are already reacting very differently to their work.

Even Louis van Gaal, who used to shout “it’s a lottery”, is embracing penalty shootout practice. The national coach swears by it ‘Professor Tim’ and, along with former volleyball coach Peter Murphy, played according to his Principles of action types scientific tests in the run-up to the World Cup. Looking for the most suitable takers and the ideal keeper with a vision.

“You have to hand it over to Van Gaal, that he finally does it. That’s how it should be,” Vergouw said. “I had to laugh terribly that the KNVB said that they had now come to the conclusion, based on their own research, that you can practice penalties.”

Vergouw already concluded this twenty years ago in his book based on, among other things, German and Canadian scientific research from the 1970s and 1980s. exists and can be trained.

In a utopian world, the player throws the ball after a run-up of five to six steps at an angle of 20 to 30 degrees to the ball at a minimum of 105 kilometers per hour, half a meter below the bar and half a meter from the post.

The formula seems so simple: let the best players practice this kick and you win. But no matter how perfect your technique is, as soon as stress hits, a lot of things change. Vergouw explains: “With a lot of stress, you block… But with very little stress, you also perform little because you think: well, I’m going to do this for a while. So you actually have to be in the middle. .”

So who should write Van Gaal? Vergouw: “Players who know each other: I’m not the best or the most technical, but I’ve come a long way with very hard work. Think of players like Kuyt.” Or take the advice of Jan Mulder, who once said, “Let them take the bald backs, which are stiff in the hips.”

The penalty taker is only half the penalty. Don’t forget the goalkeeper, always on a parade of heroism. For Vergouw, it goes without saying that Van Gaal also took the 2.03m-long Andries Noppert with him for his penalty kick skills.

“He has a big reach at the corners. The downside is that it’s a little harder to get to the ground. A small goalkeeper goes to bed faster. But certainly such a great keeper, that’s quite impressive. It was also Tim Krul.”

The pressure is on the penalty taker. But can you emulate the pressure and stress of a decisive World Cup penalty?

“You can’t train on the spot,” Rafael van der Vaart said in the Thursday evening program Studio WK22. “These unique circumstances cannot be formed, in that sense he is right,” says Nico van Yperen, professor of sports psychology at the University of Groningen. But optimal preparation is possible.

“A series of penalties feels like a crisis situation, full of stress. With a lot of stress, people usually can’t think straight because of all the adrenaline rushing through their body. Then it’s nice to being able to fall back on a protocol. Aviation and surgery are protocols have also been developed, so that sudden pressure situations can be handled properly.”

A penalty protocol. Imprint a series of actions in your head and perform them until it becomes automatic. “The stronger the connections in your head from practicing the entire protocol, the more likely you are to be able to do this in a stressful situation.”

The mission for the player is simple: practice and practice. Imagine, says Van Gaal, who gave it to his players as homework in June. “Then it becomes a little less of a lottery,” he said.

“A lottery? It’s a lottery if the two teams don’t train for it,” said Vergouw, who was delighted that the penalty was finally taken more seriously. “The goal has always been to help Orange. Maybe it will work out in the end. It was already clear to me that I won’t get a statue in the garden near the main KNVB building… But ‘Professor Tim’ might be.”