Analyzing Sergio Ramos' Penalty Technique

Sergio Ramos (Twitter @realmadriden)

JAKARTA - Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty technique is adored at Real Madrid. However, since leaving for Juventus two seasons ago, Sergio Ramos has taken over the task with ease. In his own style, the captain's technique is worthy of analysis.

Scoring key goals from 12 meters in the title race for the 2019-2020 La Liga title, the former Sevilla defender has a very unique style of taking penalties. This style is not included in studying how the opponent's goalkeeper usually moves.

Twenty successful penalties have catapulted Ramos into the specialist category from the spot. Now, MARCA learns more about the secret behind what has proven to be an efficient way to take penalties.

Ronaldo missed 13 of the 92 penalty kicks he has taken for Los Blancos, while Ramos has missed only one of 21 penalties. This means, the success rate for Ramos' penalty is 95 percent.

Furthermore, the failure of Ramos' penalty occurred 26 months ago. So it seems as though the captain has found a consistent way to avoid this failure.

He doesn't care what the opposing goalkeeper is doing. He has a lot of confidence in his abilities and he doesn't believe in the slightest that whatever the goalkeeper does can affect him.

Before taking the shot, Ramos waited for the goalkeeper to move, and then easily got the ball into the more obvious part of the net. It sounds simple, but it takes a lot of courage as an athlete.

🎯 Spot-kick perfection .✅ @SergioRamos has scored 20 penalties in a row without missing! #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/WMHMVm331G

- Real Madrid CF 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) July 7, 2020

Just a little twitch from the keeper was enough for Ramos to know where to put the ball to score. Ramos stood on the edge of the penalty area before starting a run where he didn't see the ball, only the goalkeeper.

Due to this technique, Ramos actually doesn't aim for the specific side of the net. So goalkeepers can't even rely on their own analytics department to make text-book guesses about where penalties will nest.

Ramos can place the ball anywhere in the goal. Furthermore, he can make decisions about it almost to the last second before he makes contact with the ball.

"I thought he was going to take a Panenka-style shot," Getafe goalkeeper David Soria explained after Sunday's match against Real Madrid.

With the control that the captain of the Spanish national team has, the goalkeepers have to wait a long time before they make a decision. This of course puts more pressure on them.