Guatemala fell last night in the 12th frame of a penalty shootout to fellow League C foe Guadeloupe, missing out on the Gold Cup yet again after having been suspended for the previous two iterations. It was a heartbreaking defeat for a country that already suffered last month when they were eliminated from World Cup Qualification on goal differential despite never conceding a single goal and netting 14 of their own. It was also, according to the knowledgeable Mister Chip, tied for the longest shootout in a major tournament in history. Guadeloupe, on the other hand, are back to the Gold Cup for the first time since 2011, and look like they could cause a bit of an uproar in Group C.
But back to Guatemala. This was a horribly painful penalty defeat. Not only because they lost it, but also how it happened. The typically reliable Marvin Ceballos missed twice. Ricardo Jérez, the late goalkeeper substitute who was brought on as a penalty specialist, was largely ineffective. It was a shootout that felt like Guatemala should have won it several times, but ultimately it just did not come together and they went home.
Penalties are not a lottery. There is an art to taking penalties, and there are good penalty teams and bad penalty teams. But there are times when it feels like you've just been burdened with some bad luck. Between the 1992 AFCON final when Ghana lost on penalties to Ivory Coast and the 2015 AFCON final when Ghana lost on penalties to... Ivory Coast (both in marathon shootouts, no less!), a dark fog seemed to hang over all of Ghanaian football. I don't have the exact numbers any more, but I recall reading that between all the national teams (Men's + Women's, Seniors + Youths) and club teams in continental play that Ghanaian sides were something like 3-20 in shootouts during this period. Not to mention what happened during the 2010 World Cup! They were simply cursed.
Now that fog seems to be migrating to Central America. This is not Guatemala's first painful penalty defeat. You may recall that only a few months ago Comunicaciones lost in 18 frames to Motagua under similar circumstances; Comunicaciones certainly seemed like they were going to win for the majority of the marathon, and Gerardo Gordillo missed both his kicks, just like Ceballos did last night. It was an epic finish for us neutral fans but a crushing experience for Guatemalan football.
Curses may not be real in the magical sense, but people have the power to make them real. It is well known in Ghana that they suffer from a penalty curse, and it certainly adds a lot of pressure and doubt to each and every team that enters a shootout. And it only grows worse each time an attempt to undo the curse, whether it be through a priest's magic or a sports psychologist's mental exercises, inevitably fails. They have cursed themselves, in a sense. The same sentiment is beginning to brew in Guatemala. If they do not bounce back from these defeats soon, they may well find themselves suffering from a penalty curse of their own.
A good place to start would be to tell Gordillo, who is a combined 0-for-3 in the two shootouts mentioned above, to stop taking kicks. Maybe try focusing inwards more rather than jawing at the opposition, as several penalty takers did last night. Or maybe they need to just keep doing exactly what they've been doing and not waver in confidence, knowing the results will come soon enough. We don't know exactly what they are or aren't doing wrong, and that's part of what makes penalties so exciting. I don't think Los Chapines are facing a full blown penalty crisis just yet, but this is certainly a storyline worth keeping an eye on in the future.
