Josef Martinez was lucky that his penalty miss against DC United wasn’t the difference between one point and three. With a little under 20 minutes of normal time to play, the Venezuelan stepped up to the spot to put Atlanta United ahead. Bill Hamid, though, called his bluff as Martinez’s famed penalty technique failed to get the better of the 28-year-old, with the striker missing the target completely.
Fortunately for Atlanta United, substitute Gonzalo Martinez put the hosts ahead with two minutes to play before turning provider for his namesake to notch his 16th league goal of the season. It’s not the first time Martinez has had the chance to put Atlanta United ahead from 12 yards, and yet he’s fluffed his lines, either.
In April 2018, the 26-year-old struck the post after 20 minutes at LA Galaxy. He made amends one minute later to put Atlanta ahead on their way to a 2-0 win. However, it was his miss from the spot against DC United that caught the eye of football fans, with many proclaiming this is how not to take a penalty.
By stuttering his run before taking a long jump onto his planted foot, it leaves the goalkeeper wondering which way Martinez will calmly slot home, unless, of course, the shotstopper in question isn’t initially fooled by the stutter and jump, as was the case of Hamid on Sunday night. On the other occasion Martinez missed, David Bingham, like Hamid, stood his ground and didn’t show his cards too early, which put the Venezuela striker off and saw the striker miss the target.
Of course, when the technique doesn’t bare fruit, Martinez is left with egg on his face, but it’s a penalty taking approach that has paid off handsomely in the past. Indeed, since the start of the 2017 MLS season, Martinez has scored more penalties (13) than any other player, while only Diego Valeri (16) has taken more than the Atlanta United forward (15). For context, the Portland Timbers man has scored 12 of those 16, so has a worse penalty conversion rate (75%) than Martinez (86.7%).
Hay veces que hasta los mejores fallan y @JosefMartinez17 se equivoca.#ATLvDC | 0-0 pic.twitter.com/lXpbJX9EiA
— Fútbol MLS (@futbolMLS) July 21, 2019
The only downside to the technique is opposition goalkeepers may become wise to Hamid and Bingham’s technique to disrupt Martinez’s concentration, and to the striker’s credit, his effort against DC United would likely have gone in as Hamid committed to his left before Martinez struck the ball, so a better hit and the striker is likely to have hit the back of the net.
There isn’t a perfect penalty taking technique in football, but Martinez’s high success rate from the spot in MLS suggests he won’t be changing his approach anytime soon. After all, if it isn’t broke, why fix it? It took a penalty miss for Martinez’s technique to be brought to the attention of the wider football world and had he scored, it unlikely would have garnered such exposure and drawn unfair criticism. Either way, it’s worked for him so far and will do so again in the future.
