Balotelli penalties

[nomorethaksintimes]

Still don't get how he has the reaction times to spot where the keeper is shifting his weight and then place it the other way. If this is what he is doing then there really isn't much luck involved and it's very impressive.

 

[nobody can eat fifty eggs]

I think the only way he'll miss is if he hits the post or puts it wide. Amazing how he looks at the goalie and not the ball when striking.

 

[blink922]

Yeah, I'm sure none of the keepers he's ever taken a penalty against have done a hint of research. Cmon now...

Mario is special, on and off the pitch. Plain and simple.

 

[Project]

If you watched it in HD yesterday, the angle from behind Mario was amazing. Everything about him shaped up to hit it to the left. His body, head, everything. Yet the ball went to the right.

 

[adrianr]

For those worrying about him getting found out, there was a training report posted a while back which included penalty taking against Hart from Mario, Dzeko and co. IIRC Mario sent Joe the wrong way every single time, much to Joe's frustration. If a keeper can't find him out in consecutive penalties I'll be amazed if someone can once or twice a season.

 

[Joga Bonito]

I like to think as Elano as the best, but after the Copa America (garbage Argentinian pitch to be fair though) I'd say it's close.

Didn't realize that Balotelli always does a stutter during his kicks?

 

[BlueJill]

I'm very curious to see what he'll do when a keeper decides not to move early. I think he was lucky last night in that Diego Lopez probably didn't know too much about Balotelli's penalty style, so he fell for the dummy. His next one in the Premier League will be interesting.

I am pretty sure he will blast it past a keeper who is standing still. That's the beauty of his style--its unstoppable unless Mario makes a mistake. If the keeper goes one way or the other he calmly slides it in. If the keeper intentionally keeps his place, Mario will blast it one way or the other; if he is on target there is no time for the keeper to get to it.

 

[conormcfc]

Elano is still the master for me. His penalty taking record is something like 87/89 (The 2 misses both came in the last 3 months as well).

 

[Balti]

from a purely footballing perspective... everything little thing he does is magic

 

[Essembe]

The other aspect to his penalty taking is how he can get so much power on the shot from such little back swing of his leg. Even though he has missed a couple of shots from outside the box lately (I am thinking about the Aguero backheel to set him up), he blasts them with almost no backswing which further limits the ability of the goalie to read where he is going to put it.

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