by Dominic Wells

Created on: September 04, 2008

There is a little ambiguity present in this title that lies within the word "penalties". I find myself wondering whether it refers to the soccer term "penatly-kick" which is pluralised into "penalties" or whether it refers to the more general sporting term "penalty" which refers to an infraction of the rules or foul play by the offender, which incidentally is referred to in soccer terminology as "a foul".

To ease this ambiguity I have decided to talk about both uses of the word, since an infraction or foul must be committed in order for a penalty-kick to be awarded anyway.
I'll start with the penalty-kick. For those of you who have looked at a soccer pitch and wondered "what's with all the boxes and circles?" look no further. In each half of the pitch there is a box marked around the goal. This is formally known as the 18-yard box, referring to it's distance from the goal, and is informally known as the penalty-box, referring to it's purpose (there is another smaller box, the 6 yard box, inside the 18 yard box which is used for another purpose). The function of the 18 yard box is simple. Firstly, a goal-keeper (the acrobatic guy with the gloves who uses his hands) is not allowed to handle the ball outside of the box, although he is allowed to kick the ball while outside the box. Secondly, and most importantly, any foul committed within the 18 yard box by the defending team (the team NOT trying to score in that particular goal) results in a penalty-kick to the attacking team. Simple enough, so what is this penalty-kick? Well, the penalty-kick is a showdown between the goal-keeper and the nominated penalty-taker. The taker is allowed a free shot at goal, which the keeper must obviously try to block. The kick is taken from the penalty-spot (the white dot in the middle of the box, 12 yards out from the goal) and until the kicker has struck the ball no one other than the keeper and the kicker are allowed inside the box. If the kicker is successful and the ball crosses the goal line, a goal is awarded and the kicker buys the drinks at the bar that night. Probably. However if the kick is not successful, what happens next depends upon what happens to the ball. If it goes wide or over, in other words crosses the perimeter line but is not between the posts for a goal, then a goal-kick is awarded to the defending team. If the keeper saves and manages to hold onto the ball, play resumes as normal with the keeper in possession just like any other save. If the keeper can

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>