United won the toss, and John Terry tried his best to influence Rio Ferdinand into letting Michael Ballack take the first penalty. Thanks to Sir Alex Ferguson, Ferdinand flatly refused. Carlos Tevez stepped up, calmly placed the ball and scored. Petr Cech really wasn’t given much advice and spent most of the training watching videos of the club’s penalty kicks.
Michael Ballack places the ball, looks at Van der Sar in the eyes and hits it hard and high into the net to Van der Sar’s left. The goalkeeper goes the right way, but due to it not being mid-height, Ballack scores.
Juliano Belletti again places the ball on the left, this time keeping it close to the ground. Another penalty taken on the ‘unnatural’ side. Ignacio, who was nervously watching the game at home with his wife, wasn’t fully convinced Chelsea were following his statistical advice.
Next up was golden boy Cristiano Ronaldo. Petr Cech didn’t move at all. His cold-blooded eyes stared right into Ronaldo’s soul without blinking. Ronaldo paused in his run-up. Right when he made the sudden movement to shoot the ball hard and fast, Cech instinctively jumped to his right and hoped for the best. Penalty saved, and Chelsea were in the driving seat. Igancio’s sceptical wife was left shell-shocked.
Lampard stepped up, and in customary fashion, scored. It will be interesting to note that Lampard has always favoured a really hard and fast shot to his left throughout his career. However, this time he placed it to the right and scored.
Next to make the walk was Ashley Cole who was loudly booed as he placed the ball on the spot. He, however, seemed to disregard Ignacio’s advice. Being a left-footed player, he decided to take a shot towards his ‘natural’ side. Van der Sar did exactly what Ignacio expected and pounced on it. However, Cole’s technique was perfect and the ball just squirmed out of the Dutchman’s grasp as the ball was hit low, just as the economist had recommended.
Next stepped up John Terry. History was indeed going to be made at the end of the night, but the Chelsea captain made it a little too early. He went to his ‘unnatural’ side but slipped and missed as Van der Sar dove the wrong away. Pressure back on because Chelsea had lost the toss.
Kalou steps up, does what the note asked him to do. High, hard and precisely on the side your mind tells you not to shoot at. Chelsea were still in it. But not for long.
Next up was Anelka, but by this time Van der Sar realised something was up. A coach on the United bench figured out that there was some kind of strategy Chelsea were using. Every kick was almost on the same side – five out of six till then.
For the first time, Van der Sar extended his arms to either side. With his left hand, he pointed towards the left corner. “You’re going to put it there, aren’t you? I’m on to you guys and your little plan. Not this time son, not this time,” his gaze said as the two men locked their eyes for a few brief seconds. Anelka now had a problem. As Stefan Szymanski puts it, this was game theory at its finest.
The Frenchman panicked. He had earlier planned to place the ball high on to his right corner and the goalkeeper’s left. However, he shot towards his left and Van der Sar’s right instead. At the end of the day, statistics failed against crude and sheer psychology.
Anelka knew that Van der Sar knew that he knew that Van der Sar tended to dive towards the natural side. As a rain-drenched Ferguson said after holding the European cup, “That wasn’t an accident, his penalty save. We knew exactly where certain players were putting the ball.” A hurt Ignacio spent a sleepless night, as the ignorance of his advice caused Chelsea a European title.
It’s funny how despite being a boy of just 11 back then, I remember watching the game quite vividly. Nobody in the room, including me, noticed Van der Sar pointing towards his left. However, replays clearly show exactly that. While I was busy crying harder than I ever had and my parents were celebrating the happiest moment of their life, I did not realise that all the players except Cole and Anelka had shot towards their unnatural side.
Psychology and statistics. Exploited by few, under-rated by many.
Here are the highlights of perhaps the most riveting penalty shoot-out ever.
