Malcolm Johnston said he can remember taking his first penalty kick on a soccer field when he was 8 years old.
“I would just go up there and kick it and hope for the best,” he said. “I wasn’t as methodical as I am now.”
Johnston has honed his craft to become one of the nation’s best in converting penalty kicks. The senior midfielder for No. 7 Maryland (9-2-5 overall, 4-0-4 Big Ten Conference) is a perfect 4-for-4 in that department this season and trails only Marquette’s Lukas Sunesson (5-for-5) among all NCAA Division I players.
Johnston is the first Terp to score that many penalty-kick goals in as many attempts in a season since midfielder Mael Corboz went 5-for-5 in 2014. (The stat does not include successes or failures in end-of-game shootouts.) As the team enters the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 1 seed and prepares to host No. 8 seed Northwestern (3-8-5, 1-5-2) in a quarterfinal on Friday at 7 p.m. at Ludwig Field in College Park, there’s a certain level of comfort for coach Sasho Cirovski knowing that Johnston can cash in on penalty-kick chances.
“He’s been our money man this year,” Cirovski said.
Johnston has come a long way from his youth soccer days. After making his only penalty kick as a sophomore and again as a junior, Johnston practiced every day last summer to refine his expertise. He said he usually took about five attempts at the end of each session to simulate the exhaustion he would have to conquer during the season.
“I think that’s usually when you kick a PK,” he said. “You’re never really taking a PK in the first minute. So you have to be able to get a hold of your breath and calm yourself down and block everything out.”
Without giving away too many of his trade secrets, Johnston said he approaches each penalty kick with a strategy.
“I usually have a side that I want to go, but through my practice time, I have the ability to change sides before I kick the ball based on what the goalie is giving me,” he said. “If he decides to go early or put more weight on one side of his foot, then I have the ability to go either way.”
As proficient as he has been, Johnston said he tends to skip studying film on opposing goalkeepers.
“I don’t want to look at what his psyche is,” he said. “I want him to worry more about me.”
Cirovski credited Johnston’s success to his composure more than his leg strength or analytical skills.
“When you step to a penalty spot, it comes down to confidence and execution to not get beat by the moment and to have that belief that you’re going to put the ball where you want it to go,” he said. “Some people have a stutter and wait for the keeper to go. He just has the confidence that when he gets up there, the ball is going to go into the back of the net.”
Maryland is 3-0-1 in games during which Johnston has converted a penalty kick. His first two penalty-kick goals staked the team to early leads in eventual wins against Virginia on Sept. 5 and Georgetown on Sept. 10, another gave the Terps a temporary advantage in a 3-3 tie with Penn State on Sept. 20, and the final one lifted the team to a 1-0 victory over Old Dominion on Sept. 30.
Junior forward Stefan Copetti said he and his teammates treat Johnston like a pitcher in the late innings of a no-hit bid by giving him space before he steps up to a penalty-kick opportunity.
“He’s very clutch,” said Copetti, who played on the same Vaughan Soccer Club with Johnston in Ontario, Canada. “He’s just a very composed player in the midfield. We count on him to dictate the pace of the game. He’s one of our leaders, and he makes sure that we’re possessing the ball and that we’re not making any silly mistakes.”
Johnston’s prowess at converting penalty kicks has fueled his emergence as a catalyst for the offense. He leads the team in points (14) and is tied for first in goals (5) and tied for third in assists (4).
“Obviously, it’s a confidence booster,” he said. “You don’t want to go 0-for-4 on PKs. That would probably mess with your confidence. I think it contributes not only to my confidence but also to the confidence of my team. I think if I can continue to knock those home, I think we’re going to feed off the energy and continue to use that positive momentum.”
While one might think penalty kicks are simple, Cirovski said looks can be deceiving.
“The shooter definitely has the advantage, but it’s a mind game between the goalkeeper and the shooter,” he said. “I think it takes a special person to not let their execution be marginalized by the moment. I guess taking free throws is kind of the same thing. There are great shooters in the flow, but when they step up to the line and everything is still, they have a hard time making their free throws. So it’s a bit like that.”
Games in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments that extend beyond regulation and extra time will be decided via shootouts. Maryland might have an advantage with Johnston in the fold, but he admitted he would prefer ending games before they get to the shootout stage.
“I don’t want any of our games to have to go that far,” he said. “I want to finish off teams earlier than that. But if it does, I think me and the rest of the team are ready to step up. We have confidence to step up and bury them. So if it happens, it happens, and we’ll step up and take care of business then.”
Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals
No. 8 seed Northwestern at No. 1 seed Maryland
Friday, 7 p.m.
Stream: Big Ten Plus
