Amanda Dlamini

You're never in a rush.

How do you do it?

Do you almost wait for a goalkeeper to choose a side?

What goes through your mind during that time?

I think it's scary, actually.

The penalties are very scary.

For some weird reason, you see the goalkeeper as a big object and these small goals, suddenly the goals are small.

But the run-up is very slow because I'm calculating.

If I feel that the goalkeeper is more on the one side, then I try to go the opposite side and make sure that I just take a shot on that side.

And most of the time it goes in.

I also spoke to one of my favourite players in South African football, international midfielder Gabriela Mudli Salgado.

The idea that penalties are a lottery or that anything can happen is a theory that has been around since shootouts began.

Ben Litterton says it was a mindset that cost the England men's national side time and time again.

But even with practice, the experience is still nerve-wracking.

The first World Cup penalty shootout showed the world the impact they could have on players.

But why does it cause so much pressure on players?

We're professionals being asked to do something most of us practice every day.

Before you take a penalty in a shootout, you stand on the halfway line with your teammates, often arm in arm.

When it is your turn, you have to make that long walk to the penalty area to take your shot.

For me, this is when the voices get louder and louder in my head.