Thaindian News

Sydney, April 7 (ANI): Footie fans may love to watch the goalie make spectacular dives to win the game for his team but goalkeepers would actually save more goals if they stood still, a new research has found.

According to the research, published in the journal Progress in Brain Research about a year ago, goalkeepers are likely to save one out of every three penalties if they remain still, while goalies diving to their left or right have a chance of below 15 percent of making a successful stop.

Researchers watched hundreds of penalty shoot-outs only to conclude that the goalkeepers dive only to make their coach, fans and teammates believe they’ve done their best in the game. However, the study conducted by Michael Bar-Eli, Ofer H Azar and Yotam Lurie, from Ben-Gurion University, demonstrated that the goalie remained relatively motionless in only 6 percent of all penalty kicks he faced, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Interviews with goalkeepers revealed that many felt pressured to ‘look’ like they were doing ’something’.

Goalies also felt it looked as if they had not tried at all to deflect the ball when they stayed still in the centre and the ball beat them to the goal.

The study group discovered that the best thing for a penalty taker was to aim for the highest third of the net, since no goalkeepers in the sample footage were able to stop the ball after such a shot.

Low shots had a 57 percent chance of being stopped, while goalies had a 30 percent chance to deflect mid-height shots.

The research appeared in the journal Progress in Brain Research about a year ago. (ANI)