Watching the UEFA Champions League Final -Manchester vs Chelsea, I noticed something interesting.
(a proper disclosure - I rarely watch sport matches, probably not more then 2-3 times a year :) )
A short brief, for those who didn't watch the game:
The match was to be decided with a penalties shoot-out after 120 minutes of playing and a score of 1:1 on the board. There is a draw in the first 10 kicks (5 for each team), We are at the stage when every kick means winning or loosing...
The kicker is Anelka from Chelsea and the goalkeeper - Van Der Sar from Manchester, the tense is at peak, and just when Anelka is about to kick, Van Der Sar does something that alerted my senses: momentarily, he points his hand to the right , as if he signals Anelka, "I know you are going to kick that way".
Anelka kicks to the left side and Van Der Sar "surprisingly" bets and jumps to this side, pushing the ball away.. the match is over, Manchester United wins.
Many would say it's just a coincidence, I rather believe it's not.
It is well known that just before penalty kick, goalkeepers jumps several times in order to destruct the kicker's attention. I think that Van Der Sar just upgraded the system - pointing one way, thus leading the player's subconscious to kick the other direction.
And a small anecdote for closure : I was "youtubing" for about an hour to find a video of the penalties with decent resolution, with no luck. Only after googeling it a bit more ,I managed to find one, interestingly, having this title: "Van Der Sar pointing".
Yeahhh! I am not alone! :)
Sir Lancelot
2 comments:
Lance, this is a pretty cool observation. The best ones are the most "obvious" most others would miss.
It seems like a logical deduction that because the goalie pointed right, the kicker.. kicked left. There are a few options as to why.
1. I don't remember what it's called, but when kids are two years old they would do everything opposite just because they shouldn't/can't, or specifically, told not to. He kicked left in-spite of the pointing, or in spite.
2. The kicker misread the goalie's body language to mean he expects and therefore prepares for a kick to the right, therefore kicking to the left.
Anyone has a guess as to what actually made him do it?
I don't see how this is relevant to NLP, although I am far from an expert?
Pinky.
Hey, why not:
"All warfare is based on deception." -- Sun Tzu
(Griffith translation, although that statement seems straight-forward to translate).
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