The stuttered penalty run-up has long divided opinion in football. Now, after a string of high-profile misses at the 2026 World Cup, serious questions are being raised about whether the technique's golden era is over.

A technique under pressure

Research by leading football psychology professor Geir Jordet, drawn from five years of Premier League data, found that the stutter gave penalty takers as much as a 10 percent advantage over conventional approaches. For years, goalkeepers simply had no reliable answer.

The laws of the game were amended in 2016 to stop players using a feint on their final step to force goalkeepers into diving early — yet the technique continued to flourish. Until now, perhaps.

Of the 11 stuttered run-ups recorded at this World Cup, six have ended in misses — a conversion rate below 50 percent, and that figure does not even account for Harry Kane's retaken spot-kick against Croatia.

Bono leads the goalkeepers' fightback

The Netherlands' shoot-out defeat to Morocco offered one of the tournament's most compelling case studies in penalty psychology. Morocco goalkeeper Bono has built a formidable reputation against spot-kicks, with eight of the previous 12 penalties he had faced being missed.

His method is calculated and ruthless: rather than being baited into committing early, Bono feints in one direction in response to a stutter — then dives the other way. On occasion, he feints twice. In effect, he turns the psychological pressure back on the penalty taker.