Messi's dilemma..Why do professional players perform less in important matches?

Introduction to translation

Lionel Messi, the best player in the world in the last decade according to many, became the second player to miss two penalty kicks in the history of the World Cup, after Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan, the first was in the 2018 World Cup, and the second when he missed a kick in the Poland match in the group stage in the current tournament. in Qatar.

Of course, this did not harm Argentina much, as it advanced to the round of 16, and even defeated Australia and will meet the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, but what happened raises an important question: Why do the superior players seem more shaky in important matches?

In particular, why do they miss penalties in those matches?

Raj Persaud and Peter Bragin, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, explain this phenomenon.

Translation text

We often find elite football players arriving and roaming in regular matches, overflowing with flowing vitality, and full of unlimited confidence, but soon the days come with shocking surprises in important tournaments, so the performance of these efficient players decreases and may cause the defeat of their teams.

The phenomenon of changing the level of professional players in important matches has always puzzled experts, and you may have wondered why a professional player would miss a penalty kick so easily.

This phenomenon has reasons indicated by psychological research, which shows that in important matches that involve a high level of threat and danger, pressures on players’ shoulders increase and levels of confidence decrease, which makes them perform less than expected, especially when taking penalty kicks.

❌Lionel Messi is now the 2nd player after Asamoah Gyan to miss TWO FIFA World Cup penalties.

🇬🇭 2006, 2010-Asamoah Gyan

🇦🇷 2018, 2022-Lionel Messi

🐐Still 🔝 #FIFAWorldCup Legends#Messi𓃵|#ARG|#GHA|#POLARG pic.twitter.com/pRhPhOfupK

- FIFA World Cup Stats (@alimo_philip) November 30, 2022

In a study titled "When the Stars Flop: General Condition and Suffocation Under Pressure in Penalty Shootouts," the Norwegian researcher Geir Jordet, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, analyzed all penalty shootouts in three major football tournaments: the World Cup, the European Nations Cup, And the European Champions League, and his analyzes included about 366 kicks.

The study confirmed that the players who recently won prestigious international awards such as the "World's Best Footballer of the Year" award performed worse in penalty kicks than their peers.

psychological burdens

Jordet believes that every reprimand or criticism is painful only insofar as it hits our critical strings, and this happens especially with those on whom the public has high hopes in important matches, where achieving the goal becomes the reliable way to measure the achievement of a player, so it weighs on his shoulders The player is under more pressure, and this task turns into one of the concerns perched on his chest.

This is because talented players, like ordinary people, need to be looked upon with approval and respect, so they feel threatened when their positive image is shaken.

The more your self-esteem and self-esteem is boosted through success, the more pressure you will have to continue performing at a high level.

Many players suffered from this phenomenon, led by young British tennis star Emma Raducano, who caused a sensation when she withdrew from her 2021 Wimbledon round of 16 match against Australian player Aila Tomjanovic.

At this moment, the player seemed to be crushed under the weight of anxiety after having difficulty breathing and feeling dizzy.

Jordet posits that players with high general expectations for performance feel more pressure in high-stakes junctures, such as a penalty shootout.

In clearer terms, the fear of missing the penalty kick makes them change the way they usually play and increases the chance of failure.

British tennis star Emma Raducano.

(AFP)

A recent brain-scanning study conducted at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Twente in the Netherlands attempted to explore what happens in players' brains at the time of penalty kicks, with the aim of understanding why talented players kick their kicks poorly.

The research included the installation of a headset equipped with a brain scanner (using infrared spectroscopy) for a number of beginners and professional soccer players when they took penalty kicks in different circumstances, including times of intense pressure, and normal times without much pressure.

The study authors, Max Slater, Natapong Thammasan and Manis Paul, indicated that the results of this study could have implications on a wider scale than the sports field, up to fields such as medicine and surgery that require quick reflexes and fast motor performance under severe psychological pressures.

The authors came up with two specific theories as to why players feel suffocated while taking kicks: excessive self-focus, and easy distraction and succumbing to distractions.

The theory of "self-focus" indicates that the severe pressures on the player's shoulders negatively increase his self-awareness, so he automatically finds himself always watching his steps with caution and trying to control his skills as much as possible, which prevents him from playing spontaneously, so the results come out differently. Wants.

A professional or expert tennis player may play without much effort while in a state of complete harmony that is not disturbed by anything, but in a fleeting moment he may have feelings of the need to think carefully about his steps before throwing the ball, and the idea that the player should look at the physical sequence of events with all his might. This focus undermines the element of fluidity in his performance, and his play is punctuated by shortcomings as a result of the high level of self-awareness to this extent, and the loss of the smoothness provided by the unconscious.

In clearer terms, excessive pressure forces the player to focus his attention and attention on executing certain skills with great urgency, even though if he let himself go without bothering, he would perform them better.

What is happening inside the brain

Increased activity in the prefrontal cortex could be due to players' concerns about the consequences of scoring or missing a penalty.

(Getty Images)

We now come to the second explanation, which is “distraction” or “submission to distractions.”

This theory indicates that excessive anxiety shifts the player's focus related to the main task, such as taking the penalty kick, to focus on distractions or distractions that are not related to the task, such as being dominated by some obsessions such as: “What if I miss the goal and that is the main reason for Losing the championship?

The results of this study, published in the journal Frontiers in Computer Science, show that the motor cortex of the brain, which is the region related to physical activities, was more active in normal conditions in which players did not suffer as many concerns about their performance. .

In contrast, the players who experienced higher levels of anxiety had more activity in their prefrontal cortex (PFC) (an area responsible for helping us set and achieve goals).

Increased activity in the prefrontal cortex could be due to players' concerns about the consequences of scoring or missing a penalty.

Research has shown that there is an inverse relationship between the activity of the prefrontal cortex and the motor cortex in cases of anxiety. The higher the activity of the former, the lower the activity of the latter.

The role of the prefrontal cortex in allowing the player to engage long in the consequences of what will happen before the penalty kick is taken may be the main source of distraction.

The study also proved that professional athletes, when they are overwhelmed by anxiety, increase the activity of the left temporal lobe in their brains, and the left temporal lobe is mainly responsible for understanding, memorizing and forming speech, so this part shows activity when we teach ourselves certain instructions.

This means that left temporal lobe activity is an indicator of players suffering from overthinking, which undermines their automatic skills and game play.

So, the main advice for players in both cases, whether self-focus or distraction, remains for players to trust their automatic skills more and suppress self-indoctrination and over-step thinking.

What way to calm whispers?

(Getty Images)

We cannot deny the fact that indoctrinating ourselves with instructions and in-depth thinking about our movements are necessary mechanisms in the early stages of learning motor skills, but the adoption of these mechanisms is only valid in certain stages, and once the player has passed these stages and imbued with sufficient experiences, he must abandon this method He unleashes his automatic skills.

This strategy becomes the secret of success only in one case, and that is when it is adopted by inexperienced players.

So it all depends on whether you are a seasoned professional player or a beginner with no experience.

It seems, then, that the player's vision of himself and his real appreciation for the level of his skills play a role in achieving the desired goal.

In another study by Gordet entitled "Why do English soccer players fail to take penalty kicks?"

Published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, Jordet reached one of the psychological secrets that plays a major role in the success of Italian players in football (specifically penalty kicks), which is the player's confrontation with the goalkeeper.

This opportunity for prolonged eye contact between the two opponents makes penalty shootouts a unique psychological encounter not normally found during the fluid nature of normal play.

Among the top eight European teams, Italian footballers have the second highest rate of not avoiding the goalkeeper (by turning their backs), and of "staring straight" at the goalkeeper.

The fact that we may not usually realize is that goalkeepers during penalty kicks rate players who look away from them and evade eye contact as less confident and less likely to score a goal.

This analysis showed that among all European countries, English players had the highest rate of looking away from the goalkeeper and avoiding eye contact during a penalty kick.

Ultimately, it's natural that anxiety impairs performance, but when you show your fear to your opponent, you increase his confidence in his ability to defeat you, and he uses your fear as a way to calm himself.

Perhaps the difference between winning and losing, or success and failure, is someone's ability to control what goes on in their head at the end of the day.

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Translated by: Seema Zaher

This report is translated from Psychology Today and does not necessarily reflect Meydan's website.