Based on the July 17 Early Access build. Penalties are young in this game: v0.78.0 (July 1) added spot kicks for fouls inside the box, and v0.80.2 (July 14) tore up the first version and rebuilt it around a run-up. That pace of iteration is worth knowing, because advice about the old free-movement penalties is already obsolete. Everything below is checked against the notes for the current system.
When you get a penalty
The trigger is real football law: fouls inside the penalty box concede a penalty kick, part of the game’s full rules implementation alongside cards, corners, and offside (see the football rules guide for the whole rulebook). Two wrinkles from the patch notes are worth knowing. The advantage rule interacts with penalties: if the referee plays advantage after a foul and nobody touches the ball at all, play is pulled back to the free kick or penalty rather than drifting on. And red card discipline is enforced around them; since v0.80.2 you cannot dodge a card by swapping positions or rejoining.
How the penalty system works since v0.80.2
The rework is described precisely in the official notes:
“Reworked penalties, instead of free movement for the penalty taker, a run-up happens after charging and aiming your kick. This gives the goalie certainty about shot timing without giving away shot direction, resulting in a more realistic score %”
Read that carefully, because it defines the whole mind game. You commit to power and direction first, then the run-up plays out. The keeper knows exactly when the ball will be struck but not where it will go. So the duel is pure direction poker: the taker cannot stutter or delay to bait an early dive mid-run-up, and the keeper cannot be caught off guard by timing. Follow-up patches refined the stage: v0.82.0 places the goalie at the edge of their line so jumps feel comfortable, stops the ball rolling off the spot, and fixes jockey mode interfering with your own kick.
Taking penalties: placement beats power
- Decide before you charge. The system locks your intention in early, so changing your mind mid-sequence is how kicks end up down the middle. Pick a corner while the referee is still setting up.
- Respect what power does. Everywhere else in this game, more power means more height and less precision, and reviews of launch-week penalties are full of blasted kicks sailing over. A firm three-quarter strike into a corner asks the keeper to be perfect; a max-power strike mostly asks the crossbar.
- Do not get cute against unknown keepers. A soft middle finish (the Panenka instinct) only works against keepers who dive early, and the run-up system tells them exactly when to react. Save it for someone you have already beaten twice in the corners.
- Vary corners across a match. Human keepers remember. If you scored low left, the next keeper guess skews there; the patch notes built this system specifically so reads like that matter.
Saving penalties: the keeper’s side
Keeping penalties is the purest version of the game’s no-RNG promise, and it is more winnable than it looks. The timing certainty is your gift: you cannot be baited by a stutter step, so the only decision left is direction.
- Hold the middle of your line and move late. You start at the edge of the line (v0.82.0), which keeps both posts reachable. Committing during the run-up is the one mistake the system cannot forgive, because the taker already chose their corner and cannot react to you anyway. Wait for contact.
- Standing tall is legitimate. Enough launch-week takers hit maximum power that a meaningful share of kicks go over or straight at the middle. A keeper who refuses to dive collects those for free.
- Read habits, not feet. Across a match or a rematch lobby, takers repeat corners. Track what this specific player did last time; that is a better signal than anything in the animation.
- The save is not the end. Parried penalties produce rebounds with attackers already sprinting in. Steer saves wide, exactly as the goalkeeper guide preaches for open play.
What about penalty shootouts?
Honest answer: we cannot confirm shootouts exist. The documented overtime flow is extra time with a golden goal (added in v0.78.0), which resolves drawn matches by sudden death rather than a shootout, and no official note mentions a shootout sequence. If a future patch adds one, it will be logged on the updates page and this guide gets a new section.
Fouls concede penalties, so the other half of this guide is not giving them away: the defending guide covers clean containment, and the shooting guide handles every finish that is not from the spot. Set-piece routines for the corners you win instead live on the tactics board.