A craze is taking over Brazilian football. Its called paradinha, and it means “little stop” in Portuguese. Paradinha is used by Brazilian football players during penalty shots. Usually, the player runs to the ball and shoots, and in most cases the goalkeeper tries to read the body movements of the shooter moments before the shot, diving to the side of the net where he believes the attacker will try to place the ball.
Paradinha is different. The attacker runs to the ball and suddenly stops dead before striking it. This fools the goalie into thinking that a shot is about to be taken, so he dives to the side of the goal where he thinks the shooter will aim the ball. Once the goalie takes a dive, the player uses the opportunity to kick the ball into the opposite direction to where the goalie has dived.
