Penalty shootout simulator

Because the series stops the moment the team behind can no longer catch up, even by scoring everything it has left. That is why scores like 4 to 2 and 3 to 1 are so common: the kicks that would have followed were never taken, and they are not counted as missed either.

Written out, the decision is over when one team's goals are greater than the other's goals plus the kicks that team still has. A shootout usually ends in eight or nine kicks rather than ten.

Not the same number, and this is where the mental arithmetic usually goes wrong. The first team kicks first, so after its third and the other's second, the first has two remaining and the second has three.

Counting five minus the round number for both sides gives the wrong answer at exactly the moment it matters, which is right after a kick and before the reply.

If the score is level, it goes to sudden death: each round is a pair of kicks, and the decision only comes when both teams have taken theirs in that round and the score differs.

That pairing is the whole point. Scoring first in a sudden death round decides nothing until the other team has answered.

No, and it does not try. It counts what you enter and tells you when the arithmetic has closed the series; it says nothing about who is more likely to score.

Studies on kicking first do exist and they disagree with one another, so putting a number here would be presenting a debate as a fact.