ABSTRACT
The penalty shoot out in soccer has become very important in recent years as more and more games are being decided in this way. Indeed the final of the 1994 World Cup ended in a penalty shoot out. When facing a penalty kick the goalkeeper has several problems. First of all the laws of the game dictate that he must stand on the goal line and cannot move until the penalty taker strikes the ball. Furthermore he does not know in advance where the player will kick the ball nor how hard the ball will be kicked. Kuhn (1988) showed that if the ball was kicked at a speed of 20.83 m/s, as many penalties are, then the keeper would have to initiate his movement at the moment of contact if he was to stand any chance of saving the penalty. This would require the keeper to make a decision about where to move before the player kicks the ball. Indeed, observation of games shows that many goalkeepers actually move before the ball is kicked.
