「经济学人」Sweet spot

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Sweet spot The secret to taking better penalties Practise with an augmented-reality headset Are you reading, Gareth Southgate? As the England football manager prepares for this year’s European championship, a Swiss neuroscientist is offering some help with the England team’s Achilles heel: penalty shoot-outs. (As a player, Mr Southgate is perhaps best remembered for missing a decisive spot-kick in a shoot-out against Germany in 1996.) Penalty kicks are used at the knockout stage of major tournaments to determine the outcome of drawn games. They have decided the winner in more than 20% of World Cup matches, including the final in 2022, when France lost to Argentina. More than 30% of shoot-out kicks are missed, but pros and pundits disagree on the value of practising them. In March Didier Deschamps, the manager of the French team, railed against suggestions from the national football federation that his players could prepare better. “I find it inappropriate, and I would even say di ………………………………