According to a report from Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Germany had trouble figuring out who would take the next penalties when the count was at 3-3 after Manuel Neuer’s big save.
Many of the players hesitated to step up until Jonathan Tah said he would take the shot. Of course, Tah missed badly:
At 3-3 in the penalty shootout after Manuel Neuer’s save, there were difficulties to find a sixth taker. Leon Goretzka, Waldemar Anton, Nathaniel Brown and Malick Thiaw hesitated and dodged the challenge
due to the immense pressure. Jonathan Tah, who had never taken a penalty in his career before, stepped up and missed.
The report did go deeper as Joshua Kimmich was rumored to approach Goretzka twice to take it, but the midfielder declined:
Joshua Kimmich asked Goretzka twice whether he wanted to take the sixth penalty, the latter refused. Jonathan Tah stepped up after that.
BFW Analysis
There will be a lot of bravado being thrown around, but the issue is simple — if a player is not comfortable taking a PK, then he would be the LAST player you want taking a PK, whether that is Goretzka or anyone else. It is almost a guaranteed miss.
Taking penalties is more about confidence and mentality than skill. This is not a defense of Goretzka, but reality for any of the players mentioned above.
Should he have taken it? Absolutely.
Should he have taken it if he wasn’t confident? Absolutely not.
The masses will go after Goretzka, but from his perspective it was lose / lose. If he made it, then he did what he was supposed to do. If he missed, then he would be ridiculed and hated even more (as hard as that might be to believe). Like it or not, anyone would be insane to think the social media outrage toward him did not influence his decision in that moment.
Nagelsmann’s group of players was not likely the ideal set up for this. If he was left with a quartet of players who absolutely did not want to take the PK, than the coach should have known before the shootout.
Some players just are not wired for that situation — and the list of them is long and not just limited to those four Germans. They are scattered through many teams across many sports. For those moments, you have to have an elite mentality and be eager for the challenge. If you don’t have that, it is best to have someone else step up.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- New, improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
