The thing about the penno

As soon as Ramires burst clear I was waiting for the penno, not because I'm prescient but because every time a player makes such a run it ends in a penalty. How many hundreds of these have we seen? How many times does the keeper get away with it? In a small fraction of cases he'll get a fingertip to it, or the striker will cock up his timing on his tumble, or the keeper will be playing for Manyoo.

Jim Montgomery, he of THAT save, once said something like "If I were still playing, I'd never dive at a striker's feet nowadays. Refs have a simple rule: hit the keeper in the air, it's a free kick to the keeper. Hit him on the ground and you've got a penalty", and it's true.

We need to find a new way of dealing with the situation. It may prove difficult to train keepers from doing what comes naturally though.

Posted By: Sugbad The Bad, Aug 28, 08:24:17