With the 2026 FIFA World Cup reaching the knockout rounds, fans will soon see 90-minute draws turn into extra time and penalty shootouts. At each of the last three World Cups, there were at least four matches decided by penalty shootouts, but in 2026, with 32 teams advancing to the knockout rounds instead of 16, that number could increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So what is the approach for goalkeepers defending against penalty-takers in these shootouts? And what is the approach for those who take penalty kicks?\u00a0<\/p>\n
We asked former U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper Brad Guzan and former Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel how they approached stopping penalty kicks. And on the flipside, we asked former U.S. men’s national team star forward Clint Dempsey what goes into making a penalty kick in a high-pressure moment.<\/p>\n
Here’s how they break down penalty kicks in a step-by-step process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Goalkeepers like Kasper Schmeichel put countless hours into preparing how to stop penalty kicks. (Photo by Rui Vieira\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Well before any penalty kicks are taken, several hours of preparation are put into stopping or converting them. However, Guzan admitted that he always felt “the pressure was on the penalty-taker.”<\/p>\n Still, Guzan, who was on America’s roster at the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups and spent nine seasons with MLS club Atlanta United after a nine-year career in England, always felt supremely prepared for penalty shootouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before the start of a penalty shootout, he’d meet with the goalkeeper’s coach, study his opponents and put himself in a position to succeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n “You\u2019ve done your research, you\u2019ve done your homework leading up to the game,” Guzan said. “You\u2019ve got a list, a piece of paper with their names and their tendencies. That gives you that little reminder, and\u00a0then, go for it.”<\/p>\n Defending a penalty shootout is similar to being an infielder or outfielder in baseball and reading your positioning card before each batter steps onto the plate. A hitter can beat a shift, similar to how a penalty-taker can stray from their normal strategy, but following the history, the film, the research best prepares a goalkeeper.\u00a0<\/p>\n “At that point, you trust in your gut, you trust in what you\u2019ve seen. And if you go the right way, you hope that you\u2019ve put yourself in a position to make a save,” Guzan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trusting the preparation is key, Guzan explained, emphasizing that once a goalkeeper chooses a side to dive to, they have to commit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Goalkeepers like Brad Guzan try to find an advantage in penalty kicks by chatting up opposing players. (Photo by Shaun Clark\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Now, the ref has blown the whistle and it’s time for the taker to step up to the ball for the kick. When Dempsey would take his first steps toward the ball, there was one move he would make that he thought gave the penalty kick taker an advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n “To me, you stutter step to see if the keeper is going to go early,” Dempsey said. “If the keeper doesn\u2019t go early, then you have to be precise. And you know in your mind where you like to go in those scenarios. There are times when you see the keeper bite, and then you\u2019re able to change it up. I think different strokes for different folks.”<\/p>\n With penalty takers like Dempsey admitting that they tried to get the goalkeeper to move early, Guzan admitted that stopping penalty shots was “all about timing.”<\/p>\n “The timing to explode and the timing to go with whatever side you decide, left or right,” Guzan said. “You want to go with everything you have. When you stutter, that timing becomes really difficult to make sure you don\u2019t go early.”<\/p>\n Brad Guzan said that timing is everything when it comes to keepers having to save penalty kicks.(Photo by Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Hours of preparation and studying are behind every penalty kick. Moments of intense thinking precede each try, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of those little things helped Dempsey make 16 penalty kicks on 21 attempts in his club and international career (excluding penalty kick shootouts). For Guzan, he saved 17 of the 71 penalty kicks he faced in his club and international career (also excluding penalty kick shootouts).<\/p>\n But all of that time and thinking might not matter in the end, at least on the goalkeeper’s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We had faced a penalty against Peru in the World Cup 2018. I kept overemphasizing the word over, ‘Don’t hit this over,’ all these kinds of things, emphasizing the word over,” said Schmeichel, who saved 26 of 99 penalty shots he faced over his career (excluding penalty kick shootouts). “Whether it made a difference, I don’t know.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY With the 2026 FIFA World Cup reaching the knockout rounds, fans will soon see 90-minute draws turn into extra time and penalty shootouts. At each of the last three World Cups, there were at least four matches decided by penalty shootouts, but in 2026, with 32 teams advancing to the knockout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}