Penalty shootouts: how Australia can avoid the cruellest World Cup fate | Jack Snape

G ermany know it . So do the Netherlands . The pain of the penalty shootout is the cruellest fate in football, the individual spotlight on the kickers serving only to embarrass those who fail the sport’s most basic test. Australians understand the stakes well too. Though the Socceroos have never faced a shootout in a World Cup, the most replayed moment in the history of men’s football in Australia is John Aloisi’s penalty to defeat Uruguay in the World Cup playoff in 2005. The memory of Cortnee Vine’s 2023 winner for the Matildas against France perhaps exceeds even Aloisi’s spot kick. The double-sized World Cup knockout rounds started this week and after two shootouts in the first four matches, their significance appears to have doubled as well. Ahead of the showdown on Friday against Egypt in Dallas (Saturday AEST), the Socceroos have already started thinking about who will step up in case penalties are needed. Midfielder Connor Metcalfe says spot kicks will be part of their preparations. “We’ll probably practise it towards the end of the week because it’s always a possibility,” he says. Some will need the practice. Socceroos full-back Jordy Bos says he has never stepped up to the spot before. “I haven’t actually taken a penalty professionally, but maybe that gives the keeper nothing to go off, so [it could be] a little secret,” he says. …