Science or Luck: Laryea Kingston talks about penalty taking

Former Ghana international, Laryea Kingston, has waded into the age-long debate about penalty taking in football being much more about strategy or sheer luck.

According to the ex-Black Stars winger, the art of taking penalties amounts to luck, and its therefore not necessary spending time practicing it.

The topic of penalties often evokes painful memories for Ghanaians.

After winning the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 1982, Ghana has had major heartbreaks in competitions following defeats via penalty shootouts -with the only exception being in 2009, when the Black Satellites won the ultimate at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The Black Stars lost the AFCON 1992 and 2015 titles to Ivory Coast via shootout and as well missed out on being the first African team to make the world cup semi-final stage after suffering elimination in the last 8 in 2010 following a penalty shootout defeat to Uruguay.

These occurrences and others have led to conclusions that Ghana has been unlucky with penalties.

Speaking on the Football Made In Ghana show on Citi TV, Kingston said“Some people think penalties are between you and the goalkeeper but it is the most difficult thing in football,” Laryea Kingston said.

“Sometimes you may get the decision right but your decision may be the same as that of the goalkeeper. So if you have noticed, all the great players in the world have missed crucial penalties in their career,” he remarked.

“For me, I do not see it as very important to practice it because it is not scientific. Sometimes you will go in with an advantage and still lose. An example is the 2015 AFCON against Ivory Coast. We led by two and you expect it to be easy but we lost. If practicing it and perfecting it makes you win then we should have won that. So it is not scientific,” he concluded.

Laryea Kingston played for Ghana at 2 Nations Cup tournaments (2006 and 2008).

Overall the 49-year old amassed 41 caps for the Black Stars scoring 6 goals in a national team career running from March 2005 to October 2009.

He currently works as a coach with the famed Right to Dream Academy.