Penalty madness in the 2023 Women's World Cup: Abnormal and the goalkeeper repeatedly broke the law

No World Cup has seen the madness of penalty situations like this one in Australia and New Zealand. The madness comes from the excessive number of penalties and the broken kicks of the players.

Statistics show that, after 12 matches, up to 8 penalties were blown by the referees. Notably, all the first 8 matches had penalties. This is an unprecedented record and is considered unusual. Most of the 11m kicks after being supported by VAR.

Half of them are broken stones, accounting for 50%. Percival (New Zealand), Christine Sinclair (Canada), Hermoso (Spain) and Alex Morgan (USA) were unable to convert clear chances into goals.

The number of broken phases would have been increased to 6 if the two goalkeepers of Haiti and Zambia did not break the law. Both teams have just entered the World Cup for the first time. They show opposite faces. Haiti only lost 0-1 to England and Zambia 0-5 to Japan.

Even Haiti only lost with the penalty situation. In the 29th minute, on the 11m mark, Stanway faced goalkeeper Theus. The goalkeeper of the team from CONCACAF successfully pushed. However, Theus broke the law by moving first. In the replay situation, Stanway finished successfully.

Similar is the ball phase of Zambia. Substitute keeper Sakala successfully pushed Ueki's penalty kick, but VAR stepped in when she jumped too soon from the cross. The Japanese striker easily beat the opponent when kicking back.

After a series of 8 consecutive matches with penalties, the teams have gradually become more cautious. In the remaining 4 matches, the referees did not blow any more 11m free kicks. However, with the support of VAR, it is likely that the upcoming stage of the 2023 World Cup will see many of these 11m kick situations.