Ending Soccer Matches in Penalty Kicks

Past PKs

There is no doubt that there has been a lot of backlash towards the sport of soccer after the U.S. lost to Japan in the Women’s World Cup Finals 3-1 in penalty kicks. This brought up the old argument against ending such an important game with PKs, something that may not necessarily validate the winning team as champions. Two of the last four Women’s World Cup champions have been crowned after prevailing in penalty kicks during the finals, the other one being the famous 1999 game at the Rose Bowl between the U.S. and China when Brandi Chastain famously ripped off her shirt in celebration after scoring the winning PK. Of the four quarterfinals matches in the 2011 Women’s World Cup, two went into penalty kicks, one of which was when the U.S. prevailed over Brazil and the other was France defeated England.

How to Fix MLB All-Star Weekend

Home Run Derby

          The Derby right now consists of eight players, three rounds, and three hours along with having to hear Chris Berman yell “Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, gone!” every other pitch. In addition, this year they seemed to have introduced a new idea where each league has a captain, this year it was David Ortiz for the AL and the NL’s Prince Fielder, and that captain selects three players from their league to join them. One would think that this would make the Home Run Derby something like a team event where maybe the most combined home runs wins the Derby, but we quickly learned that the whole “captain” concept really had nothing to do with the actual event as hitters were on their own once the pitches were thrown.

U.S. Women Battle Past Brazil in World Cup Classic

Fighting Through Adversity

It will go down as one of the greatest World Cup matches in history, both men’s and women’s. Number 1 in the world United States vs. the 3rd ranked Brazilian squad with goal scoring machine Marta. The United States went up 1-0 on a Brazilian own goal less than two minutes into the game. The game went without another goal until U.S. defenseman Rachel Buehler was called for a foul in the box on Marta, given a red card, and sent off. Here is when things got messy for the head referee and the U.S. team. The penalty called was certainly not clear cut. Although the red card had to have been shown if the foul was given, considering Marta had a clear path to the goal, the foul could just