Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and in this video, we’re talking about the origin of the soccer term panenka. Pull up a seat & let’s start the discussion.
The soccer term ‘panenka’ means a delicate chip into the middle of the goal when a player is taking a penalty. Usually, a goalkeeper dives to one side and the shot is effective if executed properly. But it requires a ton of nerves and a shooter can look pretty foolish if a goalkeeper doesn’t dive and easily catches the weak shot.
Why is it called a panenka? The man who first made this penalty famous was named Antonín Panenka.
Panenka was an incredibly talented attacking midfielder who played for the Czechoslovakian national team in the 1970s. He also played club soccer for one of Prague’s smaller clubs, Bohemians Praha.
During this time, there was a strict transfer system in communist Czechoslovakia that meant he couldn’t move to a bigger club in the country and certainly couldn’t move abroad. Therefore, he was relatively unknown prior to becoming a legend in 1976 due to the limited international media coverage of Czech soccer.
Before we get to that, let me tell you how his style was developed. Given his skillset, he became Bohemians’ designated penalty taker in the early 1970s. He wasn’t bad at it but certainly wasn’t remarkable.
Then in a league game against Plzeň in 1974, Panenka missed a penalty. The ref spotted an infringement, so the penalty was required to be retaken and Panenka missed again. He actually scored a penalty later in the same match, but he was so upset with himself for his 2 earlier misses that he made a commitment to improving his penalty taking.
After every training session from then on, he would stay after with the Bohemians’ goalkeeper to practice penalties. They would have friendly wagers of beer, chocolate, and cash based on the result. The goalkeeper was so talented at saving penalties that it forced Panenka to become obsessive at trying to beat him.
One night, while lying in bed, he noted that goalkeepers almost always dive to one side of the net, so kicking it into the middle of the goal was a good strategy. He also noted that if you kick it too hard, a goalkeeper could save it with his legs, so a delicate chip would be most effective.
So, Panenka tried his strategy in training and began winning his friendly wagers. That gave him confidence to begin trying the technique in friendlies and league matches, where it was also successful.
Even when the opposing goalkeeper anticipated the penalty style, Panenka was still very successful, because it requires a ton of nerve for the goalkeeper not to dive.
One month before the European championships in 1976, Panenka scored a penalty with his trademark style in a league match against his international teammate goalkeeper who was well aware of the style. Even though he knew about the delicate chip, the goalkeeper was fooled by Panenka’s run up to take the penalty.
Because there was not 24/7 news coverage of soccer like there is today, few people outside of Czechoslovakia knew about Panenka or his penalty style at the start of the European Championships in the summer of 1976.
The Czechoslovakian national team made it to the finals, where they drew 2-2 against West Germany. That meant penalties would decide the champion for the first time ever in a major international finals match.
Czechoslovakia made their first 4 penalties. After Germany missed their 4th penalty, Antonín Panenka stepped up with a chance to win Czechoslovakia’s first major trophy. He took a long run up, and as the German goalkeeper dove to his left, Panenka hit a delicate chip into the middle of the net to win the tournament for Czechoslovakia. This penalty was unlike any other previously seen on the international stage, especially considering this was the deciding penalty for a team who had never won a major title.
Panenka had done this hundreds of times in training and had done it competitively 9 times before hitting this famous penalty, so to him, it wasn’t a big deal. But to the wider soccer world, this penalty looked like the most daring and risky penalty they had ever seen. That’s why it has gone down in soccer history and has a name unto itself.
Panenka’s success rate highlights just how effective this technique is. He would use his trademark penalty 35 times competitively in his career and only missed once. Other soccer greats have also utilized panenkas in high pressure moments to great effect. Famously, Andrea Pirlo and Zinedine Zidane used panenkas in World Cup matches in 2006 and 2010, respectively.
So, that’s where the soccer term ‘panenka’ comes from. If you have anything else to add to the discussion, please let us know in the comments section below the video.
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