Decoding the Brazil note said to show Erling Haaland and Norway’s penalty plans

How do you prepare for something that is by its very nature unpredictable? 

When everybody is watching, out to deceive, and the biggest clues — wrapped up in the smallest of details — only appear right at the last moment, is there really any use?

It is the question that has repeatedly faced goalkeepers in the age of soccer analytics when it comes to penalty shootouts. The information is out there, but attackers also know that every one of their past attempts have been studied and mapped. What if they go the opposite way, just to mix things up?

Trying to predict every penalty can tie a goalkeeper up in a psychological knot. But the consensus seems to be that shot-stoppers should do their homework, while also balancing their research with their instincts on the day, picking up on any signs from the attacker’s body language that might sway them from the original plan.

With so much data to take in, penalty ‘cheat sheets’ have started to appear on goalkeeper’s bottles and scribbled on pieces of paper. They present a fascinating case study of how to condense information into something digestible for a professional athlete who, in the heat of the moment, just needs to make a decision; left, right, or middle.

Not all goalkeepers deal with the mind-games the same. Some prefer certainty; before England’s penalty-shootout with Switzerland at Euro 2024, Jordan Pickford was spotted reading printed notes from his water bottle, his research summarised into simple instructions — “Dive left”, “Fake right”, “Set, react”. 

Others like to leave it a little more open to interpretation, and Brazil’s goalkeeper Alisson seems to be one of those players. The German newspaper Bild found and published what they say are the penalty notes for Alisson from Friday, written up in case their World Cup knockout tie against Norway on Sunday had gone the distance.

Scrawled handwriting and shorthand goalkeeping terminology make it difficult to read in places, but The Athletic had a go at translating it.

Here is what we learned about penalty-shootout planning at the highest level.

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The first thing to note is that unlike Pickford’s preparation, Brazil’s notes don’t always seem to give clear instructions on which way to dive.

Next to the name and number of each Norwegian player it has one of two adjectives: direito or “right”, and canhoto, which usually means “left-handed”, to describe which foot is the attacker’s strongest.

Intriguingly, this tracks for every player apart from Erling Haaland, who is described as right-footed in the document. His name is also spelt incorrectly, so we can only assume that this was a rushed mistake as an analyst wrote their notes quickly on the side of the pitch.

Another explanation could be that direito and canhoto are in fact direction markers. But given that the latter is rarely, if ever, used in that context, our assumption that the analysts are talking about footedness holds.

In parentheses, there is a description of each player’s preferred penalty technique. They note whether the player stutters — if there is a parada no meio, “a stop in the middle” of the run-up — and whether the shot tends to be placed high, low, side-footed or hit with power. 

The only indication of direction comes from the word cruzado, literally “crossed” in English, to suggest that the player is shooting across their body. That means right-footed players aiming for the opposite corner — their left, the goalkeeper’s right — and left-footed players going for the reverse. 

That seems to be a popular tactic for Norwegian players. Here are those notes translated by our resident Portuguese speakers at The Athletic.

Some players on the list, including David Moller Wolfe at the top, have never taken a penalty at professional level. Kristoffer Ajer has taken one, a thumped finish down the middle for Celtic against Hearts in the 2020 Scottish Cup final, seemingly at odds with the assessment given above.

It begs the question; how far back, and how deeply, have the analysts trawled to find relevant footage? And can the outcome of such research be trusted on such a low sample size?

For the prolific penalty-takers, particularly Haaland and Martin Odegaard, there is much more detail on what Alisson might have been able to look for, although such top-quality players are still not straightforward to read.

Since joining Manchester City, Haaland has taken 34 penalties for club and country; exactly 17 have been aimed towards the goalkeeper’s left, and 17 to the goalkeeper’s right. Simple instructions won’t suffice, so the analysts have resorted to looking for patterns in his technique.

Sometimes, the analyst’s advice holds true. Here against Fulham, we see a typical Haaland penalty — low, full of power and placed perfectly into the corner, and as the notes mention, across his body after an uninterrupted run-up. 

Two years later against Fulham, he slows slightly as he approaches the ball, watching the goalkeeper’s movement, before side-footing into the opposite corner, as the analyst suggests he often does.

That said, it is difficult to pin a single finish to a striker of Haaland’s quality.

Here he is against Fulham and poor Bernd Leno for a third time, running straight at the ball and… not going across his body.

Though you can’t blame the coaches trying to find something, anything that might give away his intentions, this is probably one to go off gut-feeling and hope for some good fortune along the way.

The theory on Odegaard meanwhile, despite a much lower sample size, does seem to hold value. 

As a reminder, when Odegaard takes a longer run-up, Brazil’s analysts note that he usually goes across his body. When the approach is shorter, he goes with the side-foot into the opposite corner.

Four of his first five penalties for Arsenal featured a curved run up and some quick stutter steps to take him close to the ball, where he only needs to walk up to it before striking. Every time, it is placed low and into the goalkeeper’s right corner, as the Brazilian analysts notice.

Here against Porto, notice how the quick steps finish further away from the ball, as Odegaard approaches to strike with a little more speed. This time, as expected, he goes across his body and to the goalkeeper’s left.

That isn’t the only piece of evidence. In the same game against Manchester United in the FA Cup in January 2025, he goes for the longer run-up and cross-body finish, only to switch to the shorter stutters and low side-foot into the opposite corner in the penalty shootout later on.

It is an incredible amount of detail, and a lot to consider for a shot-stopper as the attacker approaches the ball. But even just one penalty save, one moment where the extensive research and commitment to a plan pays off, can be enough to secure shootout glory for your team.

Pickford will already have his notes typed up should tomorrow’s crucial quarter-final go the distance. But this exercise offers a glimpse into the amount of studying that goes into actions on a soccer pitch that may look like split-second decisions, and for penalty shootouts that might not even take place.