So how many should you score?

Across large datasets of professional matches, penalties go in about 77–79% of the time. A 2025 modelling study of 7,872 kicks put the conversion rate at 77.9%; an analysis of six European leagues from 2015–2020 found 77%. So the honest answer to “how many out of five?” for an elite taker is closer to four than five.

The gap isn’t bad aim. Takers hit the target about 93.5% of the time — only around one kick in fifteen is dragged wide or skied over. The goals that go missing are mostly saved: keepers stop roughly 17% of the penalties that are on target. That is the tension this game is built around — the shot that feels automatic is, in the data, a 1-in-4 chance of going wrong.

Why a well-placed penalty is almost unsaveable

The penalty spot is 11 metres out, and a struck ball reaches the line in roughly 0.2–0.3 of a second — less than the time a keeper needs to see the shot, decide, and move. Studies estimate a keeper needs about 600 milliseconds to reach a low shot to one side, and closer to a full second to get up to a top corner. The maths is brutal: a keeper physically cannot wait and react. They have to guess, usually committing 100–300ms before the taker even touches the ball, reading the angle of the run-up and the planted non-kicking foot.

That is why sports scientists keep giving the same advice — aim high, into the corners, where even a keeper who guesses right often can’t reach. It’s also why your keeper in this game has a capped dive speed: you can’t cover the whole goal, so reading the striker early and committing is the only way to make a save — exactly the bind a real goalkeeper is in.

The two liberties this game takes

We’ve added two things real penalties don’t have, for the sake of a better game. First, a defender pacing the line. In the actual Laws of the Game a penalty is just taker versus keeper — every other player has to stand outside the box until the kick is taken — so a roaming defender is pure arcade. It exists to make placement matter: thread it, or lift the ball over it.

Second, the power meter, which rolls pace and the risk of ballooning it over the bar into one stoppable bar. The danger there is real even at the top level: at England’s 2006 World Cup warm-up, Peter Crouch tried to chip a tame penalty down the middle and put it over the bar — the cautionary tale for anyone tempted to get cute from twelve yards.

How to play

Best of five. Each round you take one penalty, then you go in goal for one. Most goals after five rounds wins; if it’s level, it goes to sudden death.

Your kick: tap the goal to aim, then stop the power bar in the green. Watch the cyan defender — low shots in its path get blocked, so go around it or over it.

In goal: bring your cursor onto your keeper (or touch it) to take control — the striker only runs up once you’ve grabbed it, so you get time to set yourself. Then move the keeper to save. Win the shootout and you’re offered a tougher level, where shots get faster, the run-up comes in at sneaky angles, and the ball can bend like a Beckham free-kick. There’s sound, too — mute it with the speaker button.

Common questions

Is scoring 5 out of 5 realistic?

It’s above the pro average but far from impossible — at ~78% per kick, a perfect five-from-five lands a bit less than a third of the time. Sudden death is where it usually unravels.

Do real penalties have a defender on the line?

No. Only the goalkeeper defends; outfield players must stay outside the penalty area and behind the ball until it’s kicked. The defender here is a game-only twist.

Should I shoot high or low?

The studies favour high, into the corners — a keeper needs roughly a full second to reach a top corner and almost never has it. The trade-off is the bar: too much height, too much power, and it’s gone.

Why can’t my keeper save everything?

By design — the dive speed is capped to mirror real life, where a keeper can’t react to a 0.3-second shot and has to guess a side and go.

Sources

• “Stop Guessing: Optimizing Goalkeeper Policies for Soccer Penalty Kicks,” arXiv (2025) — 77.9% conversion, 93.5% on target, ~16.8% of on-target kicks saved, ~500–600ms ball-flight times.
• “Waiting to score: Conversion probability and the VAR in football penalty kicks,” Journal of Sports Sciences (2023) — 77% conversion across six European leagues, 2015–2020.
• Dicks, Davids & Button, reviewed in the German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research (2018) — keepers need ~600ms to reach a side, up to ~1000ms for a top corner, and must anticipate rather than react.
• “Decision making on the spot,” phys.org (2018) — ball crosses the line in ~0.2–0.3s; the Peter Crouch chip-over-the-bar example (England v Jamaica, 2006).

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