Crawford pays the penalty as keeper saves point for United
EVER since James McLuggage scored football’s first recorded penalty kick for Larkhall Royal Albert against Airdrie back in 1891, those hard-pressed ‘keepers between the sticks have been trying, with varying degrees of success, to stop them.
Back in times of yonder, for instance, William ‘Fatty’ Foulke, the celebrated English custodian who reportedly tipped the scales at 25 stone in his pomp, pulled off 10 penalty saves in one season with a highly developed spot kick technique which centred around his considerable girth.
In the modern era, meanwhile, a variety of boffins have applied a far more scientific approach than merely sheer body mass to the process of keeping a roon ba’ out of the net after it’s been booted from 12 yards away towards a target that is eight yards wide and eight feet high.
According to thorough and largely pointless studies, goalkeepers can influence the direction and accuracy of a penalty kick by adopting a posture that mimics the classic Muller-Lyer optical illusion of things looking bigger than they actually are. Well, anybody could have told you that. With this in mind, we were all eagerly awaiting Eiji Kawashima enlightening us on the secrets of his penalty-saving proficiency after his late block from Hamilton’s Ali Crawford earned Dundee United a point in their desperate battle against relegation.
“How did you work out where he would put the penalty?” enquired one scribe.
“I didn’t,” Kawashima replied. “I didn’t think that much.”
When you’ve only got a split-second to react, there really isn’t much time to think. Time is something that is running out for a Dundee United team that remains 12 points adrift at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership. Given their current predicament, a point on Saturday was better than nothing and, with a huge game coming up against second-bottom Motherwell tomorrow night, Mixu Paatelainen’s men will continue to live the kind of nervejangling, no-room-for-error existence that’s usually reserved for folk who specialise in high-wire walking over desolate canyons.
“There is always pressure on us but there there are two ways to think about it,” added Kawashima, the 32-year-old from Japan.
“If we lose, then we are screwed up. If we win, then it’s a big chance to stay up. We try to think in a positive way. We could be negative, especially if we were losing games, but we are not now. We have to believe in ourselves.”
The last time United visited New Douglas Park back in August 2015, a 4-0 trouncing began a ghastly run of results which effectively plunged them into this dire position. It was the start of a ninematch winless run in the league – eight of those were defeats – as their general brittleness was exposed on a near weekly basis.
Two wins on the spin, in the league and in the cup, prior to Saturday’s stalemate have demonstrated a new sense of resolve and Paatelainen himself admitted that United would have lost this game a few weeks ago. They made their point again at the weekend but it’s three points that United desperately need as the fixture list dwindles.
“In games before, we were giving away goals from stupid mistakes but now we are getting clean sheets and we are in a better shape defensively,” said Kawashima. “Football is about scoring but if we keep a clean sheet, we will always have a chance.”
Hamilton were left to rue their chance as Crawford, making his 200th appearance for the Accies, saw his blatter from the spot saved by Kawashima’s legs. For large spells of this Valentine’s weekend encounter, even Cupid may have been tempted to turn one of his arrows on himself given the fairly grim fare that was on offer.
“It wasn’t the best game to watch and not the best to play in because it was a battle and a big fight,” conceded Gramoz Kurtaj, the Hamilton midfielder. “We had our chance with the penalty but Ali has won games in the past for Hamilton and he will win some in the future.”
Saturday’s stalemate was Hamilton’s fourth clean sheet in five games. They remain just three points from the top six but, in a congested table, any slip-up could quickly see them dragged back into the relegation mire.
“Scoring would have meant we could be looking up the table and not down, but that’s football,” said Kurtaj of this funny old game.