Game Theory of Penalty Kicks

Good read:

gelfmagazine.com/mt/archives … kicks.html

Game Theory is cool, and it hardly makes my brain hurt anymore.

Pretty interesting - but basically it is still a crap shoot.  One part that wasn’t addressed was team performance in penalty kicks at the end of a game (eg the Germany/Argentina game).  Germany has an impressive (almost perfect) record so you wonder if it is just the sum of individual performances, or if there is some sort of collective game theory at work … if the theory changes when a team has at least five chances and only needs to be one goal better than their opponents.

Heh, the Portuguese keeper talking about his record three saves:

[quote]Portugal goalkeeper Ricardo, who saved a record three penalties in a shootout win against England in their FIFA World Cupâ„¢ quarter-final on Saturday, said his exploits were down to more than luck.

“Penalty shootouts are a lottery, but I train well too, but I’m not going to tell you my secrets, then you will know everything,” he said.

The normally jovial keeper became visibly irate at a reporter who suggested he was just lucky and insisted: “It wasn’t luck – watch the television.”[/quote]