CHICAGO _ With the Illinois state championship game scoreless after 100 minutes, Barrington High School midfielder Tina Teik stepped up to the penalty spot, 12 yards from the goal, to take her turn in the shootout that would decide the title.
She blocked out the hollering crowd and remembered a teammate's advice to treat the shot as if it were just a pass. She had taken penalty kicks since she was 8 and always aimed in the same direction. If she struck the ball well, it wouldn't matter if the goalkeeper guessed right.
This time, though, Naperville North keeper Amanda Johnson moved before Teik, 17, even swung her leg. Johnson snuffed the shot, one of two saves she made in the shootout to deny Barrington a third straight championship (the Fillies' previous titles had come via shootouts).
"It's amazing when you make it, but it's extremely nerve-wracking," Teik said this week. "Personally, I enjoy the pressure and I trust myself to make the shot. I can handle the emotions that come with it. But a lot of people can't recover when they miss."
Penalties _ as the kicks are called whether they come during a shootout or after an infraction _ are soccer's answer to the 3-foot putt or the chip-shot field goal, an ostensibly easy task that can turn the steeliest psyche to pudding when the stakes are high.
The duel between penalty taker and goalkeeper is so psychologically fraught that researchers have published dozens of papers on the ritual. Definitive answers remain elusive, though, and philosophies differ about how well anyone can prepare for the moment.
"You can't really explain what happens _ it just happens," said Vanessa DiBernardo, a Chicago Red Stars midfielder who has taken her share of penalties. "Some players are under so much pressure that something just goes wrong. Any player who steps up to take a PK is putting themselves out there. It takes so much courage to be in that shootout, especially at the World Cup level."
