Soccer goalkeepers in penalty shootouts behave in a predictable way, a new study shows.
The authors analysed all 361 kicks from the 37 penalty shootouts that occurred in World Cup and Euro Cup matches over a 36-year period (1976-2012). They found out that following repeated kicks in the same direction, goalkeepers became increasingly likely to dive in the opposite direction on the next kick, a behaviour known as the ‘gambler’s fallacy’.
The authors note that kickers failed to exploit these goalkeeper biases.
Original research paper published in the Current Biology on July 31, 2014.
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