The World Cup’s most chaotic penalty shootout: An own goal, a ‘stand-up’ save and five misses
It was chaos on repeat.
Five out of 10 penalties were missed, two of which hit the same post. There was a goalkeeper own goal, another shot smashed against the crossbar and several intimate portraits of unadulterated anguish.
An extraordinary shootout settled Monday’s last-32 tie between Morocco and the Netherlands. Morocco triumphed 3-2 on penalties after the match finished in a 1-1 draw. In total, four of the spot kicks failed to hit the target — the most in World Cup history.
It all made for a truly gripping watch. Here, The Athletic breaks it down.
Things actually started well. The first Dutch attempt, taken by Teun Koopmeiners, was hit hard and low past Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou (who did dive the right way), showing an important level of precision several other takers would fail to match.
But there were already signs of the drama to come.
“The story in this penalty shootout is about Bounou,” says Geir Jordet, an industry-leading expert on penalties and author of the book Pressure: Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout.
“Bounou starts quietly. A traditional dive to a corner, with no pre-fakes or sudden movements. This lack of extra activity is interesting because the remaining Dutch penalty takers are observing, and there is no specific information to take from Bounou here — he behaves like a conventional goalkeeper.
“But I have been a fan of his for a long time, and this shootout shows exactly why I had him as my No 2 best penalty stopper at the World Cup. He is the type of goalkeeper who will not only save or force a miss by the penalty taker, he will make them doubt their entire technique.”
It was Morocco midfielder Neil El Aynaoui up next, wanting to set the tone for his nation. His right-footed kick was wild, with far too much height and power. It rattled the crossbar. El Aynaoui slumped with his hands on his knees, his head facing the floor. He had instigated the chaos.
Justin Kluivert now had the chance to put the Netherlands in charge. Kluivert, an expert penalty taker at Bournemouth, had come on in the 113th minute, essentially to deliver a successful spot kick.
Yet his miss maintained a damning statistic: nine of the past 11 players to be substituted on after the 110th minute in the World Cup or the European Championship have now missed their penalty in a shootout.
Kluivert’s short and brief stutter in his run-up seemed to do the trick as, at the point of contact, Bounou had moved the other way, yet the attacker hit the post. He lifted his shirt over his head, the despair evident.
“With Kluivert, Bounou gets to work,” says Jordet. “Kluivert has a goalkeeper-dependent, stutter approach, which is Bounou’s favourite penalty taker to meet. In Kluivert’s run-up, Bounou does his speciality double-fake movement — a step to his left, then right, then actually ends up moving to his left.
“For a penalty taker whose technique is to observe the goalkeeper, there is a lot of information to take in, and usually Bounou is able to mislead the penalty taker to shoot in the direction he prefers, but this time Kluivert either is too confused from all the movements, or he doesn’t fully pick up on all the fakes.”
The shootout now started to spiral. A third successive penalty appeared to have been missed, with the Netherlands’ Bart Verbruggen reading Soufiane Rahimi’s strike and moving sharply to his right. Regretfully for the Dutch, the ball squirmed under the Brighton goalkeeper.
After producing an outstanding close-range save from Rahimi in extra time, fortune did not favour Verbruggen in the same match-up here.
“Watching Verbruggen and Bounou in the same shootout was a reminder that there is no universal formula for penalty goalkeeping,” says The Athletic’s Matt Pyzdrowski, a coach and former goalkeeper who played in the United States and Sweden.
“Their methods were almost polar opposites, yet each reflected a clear tactical and psychological philosophy.
“Verbruggen guessed correctly on just two of the five penalties, but his approach remained rooted in patience. He trusted his reactions, stayed balanced for as long as possible and relied on his explosiveness to attack the ball once the taker committed. That same philosophy was evident in the own goal against Rahimi. He delayed well, read the shot correctly and committed at exactly the right moment.
“It is clear that his dive took him slightly higher than the shot, leaving him trying to adjust his hands back towards his body as the ball travelled underneath him. The initial contact came low on his right hand before the rebound ricocheted off his lower body, clipped his right foot and spun into the net. It was an exceptionally cruel sequence that owed far more to misfortune than faulty technique.”
Verbruggen reacts after Morocco’s second penalty is converted via a rebound off his body (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
With the scores now 1-1 from two penalties taken apiece, the next two were more conventional. Wout Weghorst offered an emphatic whipped shot into the top left corner, while Morocco’s Chemsdine Talbi did the same, bringing the scoreline to 2-2.
But Bounou was offering some signs of what would come.
“With Weghorst, Bounou introduces the jerk,” says Jordet. “First, there is a delay, because Rahimi and Bounou share an extended warm embrace, leaving Weghorst to stand, wait and look, for a few seconds. The whistle goes, and as Weghorst starts his run-up, Bounou does this very abrupt and clearly visible jerk movement with his left foot, and then goes to his right, again correctly, but Weghorst’s shot is good and high.”
Next, Netherlands midfielder Quinten Timber stepped forward with a deep exhale of breath. In trying to arch his hips and shoot to Bounou’s right, he wrapped his strike too far, missing the target altogether.
“With Timber, again there are sudden jerk movements early from Bounou,” says Jordet. “This time he does this as the referee blows his whistle. The reason I like these jerk movements is they provide very clear signals that stand out from the noise of this situation, and they give the penalty takers a very visceral reminder that the goalkeeper in front of them is extremely agile and quick.
“When Bounou moves, he moves in the wrong direction, but Timber sends the shot wide of the post in the other direction, which could simply be a result of a bad shot, but it could also be that Bono somehow was able to disrupt him enough.”
Timber’s hands covered his mouth in anguish, while the reaction of his head coach, Ronald Koeman, told the full, sad Netherlands story.
This was quickly becoming a penalty shootout where both sides’ emotions oscillated rapidly between hope and despair.
Morocco had a huge chance to pull themselves clear with their fourth penalty, but captain Achraf Hakimi missed. Similar to Timber, the right-back attempted to shoot back across himself and into the left corner. He was closer than Timber, but yet still so far.
Reflecting the theme of players dragging their shots, Hakimi hit the same post as Kluivert, with the ball nearly cannoning back to him. Cue another player putting his hands over his mouth, staringly achingly into the distance.
The moment just before Hakimi’s effort hits the post (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
After eight penalties, only four had been scored. But there was one final miss to come. Next up was Crysencio Summerville.
Bounou had gone early, but Summerville did not notice. Given all that had gone before, you could forgive the West Ham United winger for just wanting to hit the target. It produced a rather quirky freezeframe where Bounou saved his effort, having already gone past the line of the strike.
“Against Summerville, Bounou moved so early that he had already taken away the space before the ball was hit, allowing him to keep out a well-struck effort towards the top corner with relative ease instead of needing a spectacular diving save,” says Pyzdrowski.
“The same approach appeared to have an effect on Timber’s thinking, when he pulled his penalty wide. It was also impossible not to think of Australia’s Andrew Redmayne against Peru in World Cup 2022 qualifying, or several of Emiliano Martinez’s performances for Argentina; two goalkeepers who have similarly weaponised pre-strike movement and psychological disruption.”
Jordet adds: “Bounou now has a completely different behavioural approach, with high-amplitude horizontal movements on the goal line before the whistle and after the whistle. He does these weird up, down, and frontal vertical arm movements.
Bounou makes his decisive save, standing up to Summerville’s penalty (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
“Summerville then starts his run-up, and again Bounou does his jerk movements, first with his left arm, then with his right foot and right arm, before he moves to his right, correctly, again remaining upright, and brilliantly stops Summerville’s high shot.”
Bounou’s save presented the opportunity for Ismael Saibari to take Morocco into the last 16. Saibari opted to go for the same side as Kluivert, Timber and Hakimi. They each had failed. The forward scored.
The show was over. But what a show it was.
“The contrast between the two goalkeepers was fascinating,” Pyzdrowski says.
“One trusted patience, balance and explosive reactions, the other relied on disruption, deception and psychological warfare. Verbruggen guessed correctly twice, Bounou three times, illustrating that there is no single blueprint for success from 12 yards. Yet this shootout also reinforced something else.
“Bounou has once again etched his name into football history, not simply because he won another penalty shootout, but because he continues to prove that his unconventional approach works. By turning penalties into a psychological contest before the ball is even struck, he has shown that distraction can be just as powerful a weapon as shot-stopping technique itself.”