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Tim Melia is not revealing much. Fresh off his heroic penalty shootout against the San Jose Earthquakes, one in which the Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper saved San Jose’s three attempts to put the best team in the West into the conference semifinals, Melia is sticking with her trade secrets.
As for his preparation, he spoke generally of “trying to grasp whatever I can get,” but did not divulge much in terms of details. When asked if there are things shooters do to warn of their intentions, he told ESPN: “Sometimes.”
He added: “I think it’s an interesting skill set, but I don’t think you can be ‘good’ on penalties. I think it’s something where you come off on the right side. I think I’ve had a bit of luck.”
Melia may have a point about fortune, but the No. 1 KC has also shown an uncanny ability to make his own luck. Twelve of the 26 penalties he has faced in his MLS career have been unsuccessful. That translates to a conversion rate against him of 53.6%, the lowest rate in league history among goalkeepers who have faced at least 10 penalties. Melia is now a perfect 6-0 in games decided on penalties during her professional career. And against San Jose, his ability to anticipate was on the edge of telepathy, positioning himself exactly where the Quakes’ shooters went.
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However, their reluctance is understandable. With Kansas City set to face Minnesota United FC in Wednesday’s Western Conference semifinal, Melia has every reason to keep her poker face and keep whatever lead she has close.
Considering the stakes, it is one way for Melia to try to maximize its chances of success. He insists that he does nothing different from other goalkeepers. There is a video to study, and there are clues that can be captured in terms of the direction a shooter will go.
Former United States international Brad Friedel was one of those goalkeepers who are skilled at saving penalties. His exploits include a pair of penalty saves in the 2002 World Cup, as well as a penalty shootout victory over Mexico in the 1995 Copa América quarter-finals. Among the signs he remembers from his career was the fact that when Frank Lampard took a penalty, if his left arm was extended, he usually went to the goalkeeper’s right. If Lampard’s arm was in it, that meant he was going to the left.
Of course, Lampard received many penalties in the course of this race. According to the Chelsea website, Lampard took 58 non-shootout penalties for the Blues, converting 49. However, in a shootout, chances are, for some of those taking penalties, there won’t be loads of videos and data to analyze.
So what’s the focus for someone you’ve never met before?
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“I think every goalie has his own little detection triggers,” Friedel told ESPN. “If you’re looking into the shooter’s eyes, that’s something you should never do. Generally speaking, if you can look from the waist down, the way the hips will meet in general is the way the ball will be headed. Now you have really good players who can change in the last fraction of a second, but the other way to detect is by looking where the foot of the plant is going. “
These days, it’s not unusual to see players, like Orlando City’s Nani at times, take an almost painfully slow run to the ball in an attempt to get the goalkeeper to commit early, but Friedel argues that overtime really allows for a doorman for more information.
“You have such a small reaction window,” he said. “The slower they climbed, the more they exaggerated their planting foot and gave me more time to see which way I would go.
“The really difficult ones are those who are the players who only stand about 45 degrees, they don’t look at you, they don’t do anything, they have a lot of confidence. And then they run and hit him with a rhythm halfway there. Goal to both sides, because the natural reaction of goalkeepers is to move early. And gravity does the rest, right? Very rarely do you see a goalkeeper on a penalty shot into the upper corner. “
Tim Melia makes a jump jump during Sporting KC’s penalty shootout victory over San José. Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Narratives can also be situational and have little to do with the shooter. Friedel recalled how when he was playing for Blackburn Rovers against Sunderland in 2008, he was about to face a penalty and noticed that almost the entire Sunderland team was lined up to one side of the shooter.
“I was like, ‘You know what? They must be shooting to my left. Everyone is looking for the rebound on that side.’ So I went to that side early and put it away.”
There is also the poker aspect of penalties. With so much exploration done and so many databases available for review, caregivers can pick up on trends. But the shooter also knows what the goalkeeper knows. And the goalkeeper knows that the shooter knows that the goalkeeper knows, and so on. Friedel talked about how former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy almost always boosted his penalties to Friedel’s right. The only time Friedel cheated, Van Nistelrooy saw him and just rolled him to Friedel’s left.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting the shooter out of his comfort zone. When Friedel played, his wingspan was downright intimidating, it looked like he could cover the entire goal. Melia noticed how Seattle Sounders’ Stefan Frei was jumping on his line when he was about to face LAFC’s Carlos Vela in the MLS Cup playoff game last week. Vela ended up going through the middle; Frei stood his ground and ended up catching the attempt.
“Frei makes Vela a little uncomfortable going somewhere he normally goes. And then suddenly Vela changes where he goes and Frei makes a really important save,” Melia said. “So it’s a mind game.”
Of course, there is information overload. Melia’s brief summary of the things that go through her mind, some of it, anyway, seems to induce a headache.
“There are so many different things that you are looking at, be it his position, aligning himself with the ball, what is the score in the penalty shoot-out, what the player has done throughout the game.” he said. “Did my team player miss or score? Is he right-handed or left-handed? If he’s left-handed, did he put the ball on the ground and jog backward fast? As if all of those things were just trying as a compound on his head and helping himself yourself to make the best guess. “
Even the amount of pre-game preparation has its limits. Former Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando, who won two penalty kicks on the way to the 2009 MLS Cup with RSL, recalled how, studying Diego Valeri of the Portland Timbers, he could have seen dozens of videos, but I would. ‘I’ve been exaggerating because Valeri was a player who mixed things up.
Melia’s trio of saves elevates Sporting KC on penalties
Tim Melia lifts Sporting KC by saving all of San José’s penalty attempts.
“Then you start to get confused,” Rimando told ESPN. “At the end of my career, it was more just nailing maybe 10 clips of Valeri. If he goes to his right 70% of the time, I’ll see him going to his right and nailing those in particular.”
However, the goalkeeper still has to stay in the moment. Rimando admitted that even while studying a player’s tendencies, there were times when he opposed conventional wisdom and was successful.
“I have this instinct about it,” Rimando said. While trying to spot the various gifts may seem like a lot to look at, experience helps separate the valuable information from the noise. Melia says that over time that process becomes more automatic.
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“It’s the same thing I learned playing in a game,” Melia said. “Players are going to drag a ball, or a player is going to spread their hips and duck their shoulder and curve a ball. They’re things that become natural over time. It’s like a map, essentially.”
However, shootings are their own animal. Instead of a single moment in time, a shooting can take on a particular rhythm and psychology. The pressure falls mainly on the shooter. Nobody expects a goalkeeper to make a save. But the score can also have an impact.
Melia talked about how against San Jose, Kansas City’s first shooter Johnny Russell buried his shot in the top left corner of JT Marcinkowski. That increased the pressure, which was then exacerbated when Melia saved Oswaldo Alanis’s attempt.
“The next shooter is a little tighter, more, ‘I was going to aim straight for the corner, but now I’m going to be a little shy towards the middle to make sure I hit a [chance]”said Melia.
In terms of technique, there is a school of thought that goalkeepers should launch diagonally forward in an attempt to reduce the angle, even minimally. But Rimando said he values speed in terms of covering the goal rather than rushing forward.
Tim Melia is harassed by his teammates after his three saves in shootouts gave Sporting KC a shootout victory over San Jose. Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
“Seeing Melia the other day, she did exactly what I do,” he said. “Take that really quick stuttering step to your left or right, and don’t just dive in from the center,” he said.
But it all points to the fact that each goalkeeper has his own twist on how to tackle penalties.
“There really isn’t a book on how to save penalties,” Rimando said. “You have to keep everything in mind. You have to be in rhythm. You have to be confident. You have to believe in yourself.”
Right now, no one’s belief is higher than Melia’s.
Source: espn.co.uk
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