The World Cup has been an incredible tournament, filled with unmatched competitiveness, amazing goals, clutch saves, and nail-biting moments all provided an exhilarating watch this year. One of the most nerve-racking moments in any soccer match is when a penalty kick is awarded. A penalty kick is a moment in a match where the goalkeeper of one team must face a player from the other team that is shooting the ball at the goal from a mere 12 yards away. This intense moment is one on one and can have a huge impact on the game. In this years’ World Cup there were 23 penalty kick attempts with 17 scored and 6 either saved or missed (not including penalty shootouts).

As you can see goalkeepers have a harder time saving penalty kicks than penalty takers scoring. This can come down to many factors, such as the speed of the kick, research states that the strongest shooters (the ones usually taking the penalty kicks) can kick the ball at a rate of 80mph in which the ball reaches the goal line in 500 milliseconds. A goalie typically takes 600 milliseconds to move from the center of the goal to one of the outer goal posts. Penalty takers utilize many different strategies that make it even tougher on goalkeepers, such as slowing their motion or completely stopping their motion (known as feinting) as they approach to shoot, making it difficult for goalies to not expose their guess and move well before the ball is struck.

You may be asking yourself, “what does this have to do with Business Intelligence?” One way in which goalkeepers can guess correctly more often is to collect and study data on the kick taker, allowing them to more accurately guess the direction of the kick. Goalies can study the kick takers tendencies, preferred foot, use of feints, and possible tells in their body language. Goalies usually predict more accurately the longer they can watch the run up of the kick taker. In the end they must make a decision on which direction to go based on all the data available to them. You too must make these decisions for your business. 

Using business intelligence to make better business decisions could make the difference in stopping a shot. Even if the odds are against you, prepare as much as possible and start building your business intelligence platform today. We would love to give you the tools to make those business decisions more manageable. Reach out and let us show you how.