Why is Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez so good at saving penalties and is he cheating?

[ASHOOR]

With the Copa America upon us, I came across this article about Argentina’s goalie and why he is so good at saving penalties. While physical abilities have a lot to do with it, he relies a lot on psychology. To put it mildly, while our goalie (Alisson) is a class act and respects the penalty taker, Emiliano is far from classy when it comes to the penalty taker. This is what he told the Colombian players as they took their PKs in the last Copa America SF:———————————————
“I am sorry, but I will stop you, bro,” Martinez yelled before he saved Sanchez’s effort.

“You’re laughing, but you’re nervous,” Martinez then told Mina.

Mina could only stand there smirking as Martinez continued his onslaught.

“Yeah, yeah, turn a blind eye. I already know you.”

“Hey, look, I know where you’ll shoot, and I’ll save it. I’m eating you up, brother. I’m eating you up, brother,” he yelled as Mina started his run-up.

read full article here : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3990844/2022/12/12/martinez-argentina-world-cup-final/

All three ended up missing their shot!

I don’t recall if he did any trash talking against Holland and France at the World Cup, and the language and cultural barrier may have played a role. But I do know he did his annoying dance moves which could also get under the opposing players’ skin.

This got me thinking: should this be allowed? Should referee not separate the goalie from player, so there is no trash talking , which ends up affecting the player ? I mean we see referees being very strict over silly things when there are penalty kicks, why not enforce this too?

He is probably as important to the NT as Messi is, and as he goes, so does Argentina. So you can bet if Argentina has to resort to PKs in the Copa America QF, SF or final, he will resort to his dirty tactics. And if he does this, I hope referees will be watching and warn him. And if they don’t act, then it Is fair for all teams to do it and turn it into trash talking match.


ASHOOR

 

[Crocodile Bani]

This has been an old ploy since football began. Bruce Grobelaar (Liverpool goalkeeper) famously put his opponents off especially the 1984 European Cup final, Jose Luis Chilavert was famous for it throughout his career (famously in the Copa Libertatores final against Sao Paulo in 1995, and even Australia's qualification to Qatar2022 happened as a result of our goalkeeper dancing on the goal line to put off his opponents (plus finding the notes the Peruvian goalkeeper had on Australian penalty takers and throwing them away). Hans Van Breukelen from Holland used to do it for PSV and Holland in his day. It is gamesmanship. Not the most sporting way to win but not against the rules and won't be any time soon.

 

[ASHOOR]

This has been an old ploy since football began. Bruce Grobelaar (Liverpool goalkeeper) famously put his opponents off especially the 1984 European Cup final, Jose Luis Chilavert was famous for it throughout his career (famously in the Copa Libertatores final against Sao Paulo in 1995, and even Australia's qualification to Qatar2022 happened as a result of our goalkeeper dancing on the goal line to put off his opponents (plus finding the notes the Peruvian goalkeeper had on Australian penalty takers and throwing them away). Hans Van Breukelen from Holland used to do it for PSV and Holland in his day. It is gamesmanship. Not the most sporting way to win but not against the rules and won't be any time soon.

Interstitial examples Bani.

As someone who has watched a lot of soccer , what do you think should a player do when facing such a pasty GK? I was think one thing to do would be to stay as close as you can to the referee to prevent the GK from trash talking you and trying to put doubts in your head. This way, the GK will think twice. As the article suggested, Martinez would pull his cheap shots when referee wasn’t looking.