The Penalty Conundrum

Penalties in the solo game are something that happen from time to time, especially if you use some kind of blocking rule and count all misdemeanours by the blocking team as fouls, instead of backs. However you play though if a penalty is awarded how do you ensure that the kick gives the goalkeeper a chance of stopping a shot from 12.5cm without discriminating the obvious advantage to the penalty taker. What about if a cup tie goes to penalties how does one deal with that.

I played a solo game recently that needed to be decided on penalties, so I used the shots method from points along the shooting line. Worked out OK, Buxted Park beat Staplecross Athletic 3 – 2 by this method, so could this be the answer during a game when a penalty is awarded. If you think it can then good for you problem solved. I on the other hand didn’t like the idea. I wanted to see if I could take a penalty from the spot and give the goalkeeper a chance of saving it. Now all this depends on how you play your solo goalkeeper, If you play normally with a rodded goalie, you could just hold the keeper with one hand and shoot with the other, if you don't, and have some form of barrier type goalkeeper, (examples of which can be found in a previous post), where do you position the goalkeeper, and what are the chances of the keeper having a chance. I’m going to try and address this below.

 

 

A Few Statistics 

 

On average for every penalty kick awarded in open play in football, 75% to 80% result in goals, some miss, and some are saved, and it’s the save percentage I’m interested in here its about 15% if you don’t believe me look it up. So to put that into terms that relate to a solo game, one would expect 4 out of 5 penalties to be scored and a miss or a save to be around 1 in 5 penalties. So I started a quest to give myself this kind of outcome.

First Attempts

This was simply put the ball on the spot and take the penalty, I’ll add here that I was using a diving goalkeeper mounted in a diving position on a coin for ballast. The Keeper was on the line and positioned in the middle covering an equal distance between the posts. I was finding that I couldn’t miss, taking care with ones aim and a goal was more or less assured.

Next I tried moving the penalty taker back to the edge of the penalty area, a little better, I missed 2 in 30 penalties. One saved and one hit the post. I thought that's getting better so I tried it again later in the day this time 1 was missed. I was finding that it was still too easy to score if care was taken.

I then placed the penalty taker on the “D” and tried a few penalties from there, that seemed to get me in the ball park, consistently missing on average 1 or 2 penalties for every 10 taken.

 

My desired method of taking penalties, although the penalty taker does get placed further away these days.

 

 

Taking Things A Little Further 

I have lying around, a few spare heavyweights, flat based, and lightweight players. I hasten to add here lying around means they are not literally lying around, because my Wife would bin them if they were. If you think I’m joking ask her about my electric toothbrush charger which mysteriously ended up in the bin, because it was on her dressing table when I was in a rush and never put it away. Or a lens cap that was on the kitchen counter when I went out for a walk with my camera, when I came back it was missing, I questioned her, and rescued it from the kitchen bin. If I left £10 lying around I wonder if that would go the same way. But I digress so lets get back on topic.

I tried taking penalties with the spare figure types I have, and I found that the heavyweights were giving me acceptable results, The flat based seemed to score more consistently, and the lightweights a little worse. All the penalties were from the spot with the taker on the “D”. So this method seemed to work with the heavy weights. I tried using the flat based from the shooting line to take the penalty and that sort of gave me acceptable results, So that said to me, at my skill level, player types were affecting the results I attained.

 

 

The Method I’ve Decided On 

So using the results of the experiments (and I say that tongue in cheek), on solo penalty taking I’ve indulged in, I can conclude that I will use a heavyweight placed anywhere on the “D” to take the penalty. Now you could still use the same method no matter what player types you use if you have spare player types lying around (just don’t leave them lying around in my house, or my Wife will dispose of them for you), or maybe adjust the distance of the player type to the ball to suit your skill level.

 

 

Another Method I’ve Seen 

One method that I’ve heard of is the dice method. Which is if a penalty is awarded is roll a die, if it comes up 1 its a miss any other number is a goal, OK so what happens if the spot kick is missed? Where does the ball end up, can the penalty taker follow up after a save and if so how. Although the percentage may be in the right place, the ball may not be. As much as I've contemplated this method, as an easy way to decide a penalty decision, I cannot see how I could integrate it successfully without a ball being kicked. But this is solo land where anything goes. I maintain from my point of view no matter how I play it has to feel right and be definitive to me. There are probably many more ways to play out a penalty decision, and more than likely, ways I’ve never even thought of. If I do I’ll share them with you. Do you have a specific method? If you do let me know. 

 

Keep On Flicking.

 

Ian