Azpilicueta decoy penalty kick: Chelsea were the orchestrators of a piece of mind-game magic in their Club World Cup final victory over Palmeiras on Saturday. Cesar Azpilicueta set the stage perfectly for Kai Havertz, who was tasked with scoring a decisive 117th minute penalty.
A penalty kick is a team performance! For Chelsea’s decisive penalty during the Club World Cup final, Azpilicueta acted as decoy for Palmeira’s mind games, while the real penalty taker, Havertz, quietly prepared his kick in the periphery. Then a last-second switch.
The German was given time to prepare himself calmly away from the crowd of Palmeiras players that had formed to destabilize Chelsea’s ‘supposed’ penalty taker. Learn about their genius tactical coup in this new video from OhMyGoal.
Azpilicueta takes the pressure off of Havertz by acting like he’s the one who’s going to take the penalty kick. Taking the ball and standing on the penalty spot as though he’s preparing to take the kick. A clever strategy by Chelsea that seems like other teams are copying. The referee isn’t keeping opposing players away from the penalty kick taker so teams have developed this decoy strategy.
I think the decoy penalty kick taker strategy is also effective in preventing the goalkeeper to ready himself for a particular player to take the penalty kick. The keeper might have an idea of how one player will take their penalty and then have to adjust one different player steps up. Players can even act like their have an argument about who’s going to take the penalty to throw off the other team.
Watch this Azpilicueta decoy penalty kick explanation video.
Here’s what Azpilicueta said after the Club World Cup final about the penalty kick decoy strategy that he and Chelsea used:
“Kai knew that he was going to shoot so it was to release the pressure from him. It was a decisive moment and Kai is one of the best penalty takers. I waited and listened to everything their players told me, and I think it worked which is the most important thing.” Azpilicueta said, via Chelsea.
