Tap Penalty
A two-man penalty or "tap" penalty occurs when the penalty-taker, instead of shooting to score a goal, taps the ball slightly forward and to the side so that a team-mate can run on to it. The team-mate, like all other players, must be at least ten yards from the penalty spot when the ball is kicked. This strategy depends on the element of surprise, so that the team-mate can reach the ball ahead of any defenders. It was made famous by Johan Cruyff in a match for AFC Ajax in 1982 against Helmond Sport.
Arsenal players Thierry Henry and Robert Pirès famously failed in an attempt at a similar penalty in 2005, during a Premier League match against Manchester City at Highbury. Pirès ran in to take the kick, attempted to pass to the onrushing Henry, but miskicked; as he had touched the ball (but barely moved it), he could not touch it again, and City defender Sylvain Distin reached the ball before Henry could.
Read more about this topic: Penalty Kick
Famous quotes containing the words tap and/or penalty:
“A book is like a man—clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.”
—John Steinbeck (1902–1968)
“Plato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the penalty of abstaining to speak,—that they shall hear worse orators than themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)