Question Number: 15204

Law 14 - Penalty kick 4/17/2007

RE: select Under 16

dave of Germantown, md usa asks...

I have a question about penalty kicks. In a state cup game that ended 1-1 after regulation and overtime, we went
to penalty kicks. I had the game videotaped and I was watching last night. Our first player stepped up to take her PK and it hit the crossbar. She started to walk away and so did the keeper. What I didn't notice during the game was that when the ball rebounded off of the
crossbar, it landed with backspin and was creeping its way into the goal when the ref stopped it, picked it up and moved it to the penalty spot. It looked to me (and I watched it about 5 times) that it had enough momentum to make it into goal. I looked at the rules and they are very
vague as to when a PK ends. So, my question is, when does a penalty kick
end?

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

The kick from the penalty marks ends when:
-The ball goes out of play;
-the kinetic energy from the ball has become expired. Basically, once it stops moving, no matter how many times it hits the crossbar, posts, or goalkeeper;
-or the moment the ball is touched a 2nd time by the kicker or otherwise illegally interfered with.

Taken on face value for what you have said above, the referee should not have interfered! The ball was still "live" and it could have been ruled a goal had the ball gone in.

That said, it also appears from your description that both the kicker and the goalkeeper walked away basically conceding that the kick was a miss. The referee also ruled or thought it was an obvious miss. In thinking more critically about it, the referee generally would be fairly far away from goal in order to get near the goal line and stop the ball - so I have to wonder how slow was it rolling? My last thought is (and no offense here), if you had to watch it 5 times to come to this conclusion, don't you suppose it's possible that you're being a bit overly zealous?

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

The referee should have let ball continue to roll. If it went completly past the goal line, under the cross bar, and through the posts....then ITS A GOAL. Kick is not over until all energy placed on ball is done.

Answer provided by Referee Debbie Hoelscher

I concur with my colleagues' answers.....

If I may...please, coach, read the law book. These are NOT penalty kicks. A penalty kick is awarded against a team that commits one of the ten offences for which a direct free kick is awarded, inside its own penalty area and while the ball is in play. This may seem really trifling...but if you are the coach, then supposedly you are an "expert" in this field. Would you be impressed if your doctor said that your sore throat cancer when it actually was an infection? You wouldn't be impressed if you called him/her on that and they replied, "oh, well same thing" would you? Or if your mechanic wanted a box wrench and called it an end wrench? The kick to which you refer is called kicks from the mark. There are detailed instructions in the taking of kicks from the mark in the appendix portion of the LOTG.