June 25, 2016

SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 07:00 AM - 5 comments

Shaqiri's kicks don't lie.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:52 PM on June 25, 2016

Nice. Switzerland deserved to win that game.

The announcers said stutter steps by the taker on penalty kicks are a yellow card. Since when? Neymar and others have done them often in international competition.

posted by rcade at 02:23 PM on June 25, 2016

Coming to a complete stop during the run up is illegal and warrants a booking, but they're called about as often as foul throw ins. Mostly if the ref is in a bad mood or the "stutter" is especially egregious then he'll order a retake.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 06:43 PM on June 25, 2016

What I heard was that officials have been instructed to pay more attention to that as well as goalies leaving the line early, mostly during shootouts.

posted by billsaysthis at 06:45 PM on June 25, 2016

Recently, I've seen some penalty takers approach the ball with a fun house run up. They mix an exaggerated large slow loping stride in with shorter quicker strides - I guess so the keeper can't lock in to a rhythm and tempo as he prepares to react when the ball is struck.

I don't get to watch much international football, so perhaps this a common technique.

posted by beaverboard at 09:18 PM on June 25, 2016

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