Thrill in the duel from the chalk point

At least ten shooters, two goalkeepers and - at some point - a winner: This Saturday 50 years ago, a hairdresser from Penzberg invented the penalty shootout. Since then, the duel from the point in the district has decided on victory and defeat as well as promotion and relegation.

District - It is slowly dawning in Mindelheim when Felix Pichler puts football on the spot on the penalty spot - under the spellbound glances of 600 spectators. So far you have seen a gripping relegation game about promotion to the Landesliga between VfR Garching and FC Sonthofen. After 90 minutes it was 1-1, and since no extra goals were scored in extra time, the penalty shoot-out must now be decided this June evening of 2011.

"Several experienced players pinched and didn't want to compete," recalls Daniel Weber, then coach in Garching. So Felix Pichler has to go - the youngest VfR kicker on the lawn. The goalkeeper parried his shot, while the remaining nine shooters showed no nerves. The rest is boundless jubilation at Sonthofen and bottomless disappointment at Garching. "It was a pretty violent penalty shootout," says Daniel Weber today. "These are experiences that you will remember."

Pure emotion: This is how Mercury reported about the penalty shootout of VfR Garching against Sonthofen in 2011; Trainer Daniel Weber (upper picture standing 2nd from left and on the bench in black) still vividly remembers it.

And they are experiences that football players and fans were denied until 50 years ago. If there was a tie after the final whistle and one or more extensions, either a replay was agreed or the winner was determined by lot. For example, the “coin toss of Rotterdam” in 1965 is unforgettable: after the national champions between Liverpool and 1. FC Köln had won 0: 0 in the quarter-finals of the European Cup and a deciding game including an extension with 2: 2, the lot had to decide . Referee Robert Schaut used a wooden disc with red and white sides, which got stuck vertically in the swampy lawn during the first throw. On the second try, the screen turned red - and Liverpool made it to the semi-finals.

Such random decisions disturbed many football fans at the time - including Karl Wald (1916-2011), hairdresser and referee from Penzberg. He then devised the penalty shootout as we know it today and presented it on May 30, 1970 at the twelfth referee association day of the BFV in Munich. With a blazing plea, he convinced those present, whereupon Bavaria introduced the penalty shootout in the 1970/1971 season. As a result, the DFB, UEFA and, in 1976, FIFA also adopted the new mode.

The first major tournament to be decided by the chalk point was the 1976 European Championships in Yugoslavia - when Uli Hoeneß chased his penalty into the Belgrade night sky. Since then, Wald's invention has written countless dramas: times in large, for example at the Dahoam final, which FC Bayern lost to Chelsea in 2012; and on a small scale - like a year earlier in Mindelheim, where VfR Garching scraped past the ascent with such precision. Her then coach Daniel Weber knew the thrill of penalty shoot-out from three perspectives - as a coach, goalkeeper and shooter. "I shot a lot of penalties myself, even in the game," the former keeper recalls. Whether you need a good shot technique or a calm head for the penalty kick? "I think both," replies Weber. After all, penalty kicks in general and a penalty shootout in particular “are always a nerve,” says the long-time VfR coach. "And one is better at it, the other less well."

Daniel Weber can give a long lecture on the "psycho-games" of goalkeepers who row with their arms, stalk the shooters before execution or pull a piece of paper out of the socks - like Jens Lehmann at the 2006 World Cup in the quarter-final against Argentina. Lukas Riglewski also knows such spearheads, after all he is responsible for the penalties at regional league team SV Heimstetten. "I pay as little attention to the goalkeeper as possible," says the 26-year-old. "I look for a corner beforehand and then try to shoot the ball as sharply as possible and place it there." When he lays the ball down on the chalk point, he "never feels any particular pressure," says Riglewski. "It is now routine."

Strange things to do on penalties

The young Garching-based Felix Pichler may have missed this in 2011, but Daniel Weber is protecting it then as now. In any case, the Mindelheim drama did not have a negative impact on the psyche of the team: VfR made it up the following year, later it went up into the regional league. “We went our own way afterwards,” Weber looks back. And he says: "In the long-term review, everything has its good."