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.

          As for the men, 1994 saw Brazil beat Italy 3-2 in PKs to claim the World Cup trophy and in 2006 Italy triumphed over France. The 2010 finals between Spain and the Netherland came dangerously close to finishing in penalty kicks but Spain’s Andrés Iniesta saved us from that uproar by scoring the deciding goal with four minutes remaining in extra time.

The Comparisons

Since penalty kicks became such a hot topic, it has drawn many people to come up with other vulgar, comparable ways to end other sporting events. The idea of likening penalty kicks to something like a free throw contest at the end of an NBA game or a field goal kicking contest to decide an NFL game is laughable and shows just how ignorant Americans are about soccer and how much more difficult it is to score a penalty kick when it really counts than people realize. In a penalty kick the opposing team has an opportunity to prevent a goal and thus one team has the ability to stop the other, however free throws and field goals are determined by one team at a time. The only thing it can be juxtaposed with is a hockey penalty shot as they are both one-on-one as a player from each team has the ability to help their team by going through the opposing team. I am not an advocate of penalty kicks in tournament games, but let’s be fair and not compare it something that it clearly isn’t.

Coming to a Solution

So what is my solution to this problem? First let’s run through the uniqueness of soccer and how this makes it difficult to change as well as some of the proposed options that will not work. Ultimately I will take the best of all worlds and come to my conclusion.

The first solution that comes to the minds of many is the Golden Goal rule. In Golden Goal, the first team to score in extra time wins the match. It would seem like a plausible option as long as there is a goal scored in extra time. However, imploring this sudden death rule showed that many teams tended to become more defensive because of fear of giving up that deciding goal. Thus, the games went into PKs anyway and as an added penalty to the fans there were fewer goals in extra time. So Golden Goal won’t be able to silence the critics.

A big tradition of soccer is that each team is only allowed three substitutions for the entire game and once a player comes out, he or she cannot re-enter. This is one of the conventions that I am a huge fan of because this means that not only will the best players remain on the field but also one has to be in shape in order to last the whole game and spectators can more easily keep track of who is on the field when players are not running on and off every other play. In addition, this adds a more strategic aspect for the coaches because each move and substitutions needs to be thoroughly thought out since mistakes cannot be fixed with more subs. It is for this reason that the solution is should still have maintain that unique rule of soccer otherwise it eliminates the integrity of the sport. Also, more substitutions means that players at the end of the bench are going to get into the game, replacing the top players, late in the clock meaning that these players will be most likely to decide a game. In hockey it seems like a player on the 4th line often scores the game winning goal when a game goes into multiple overtimes, do soccer fans and teams really want a game decided by a player who rarely plays? We need to make the sure the game stays the same in that the best players are on the field and are the ones deciding the result of the game.

So here is my proposal for FIFA: If a match is tied after regulation, the teams play a 15 minute extra time session. The match will continue to go into 15 minutes sessions until a team is ahead when one of the sessions ends. The teams will get a short break in between extra time periods and will switch sides at the end of each overtime period So if the game is tied 0-0 at the end of regulation but is 1-0 at the end of the first fifteen minute extra time, the game is over. But if it it is still tied, say 0-0 or 1-1, at the end of the first overtime then it keeps going into extra times until a team is ahead at the end of the period. (Think of the NBA, a game keeps going into five minute overtimes until a team is ahead at the end of one of the overtimes). In doing this, teams avoid penalty kicks and get a winner by playing the game. 

Now, obviously players cannot keep playing fifteen minute extra time periods on top of the ninety minute regulation without eventually collapsing. The game would become much slower and less action packed if players cannot move because of exhaustion as a result of not being able to be subbed out because their team has used up of their alloted substitutions. In order to keep players rested, once a match goes into extra time, each team is allowed to make an unlimited number of substitutions and players who are taken out are allowed to be subbed back in. However, only those players who are on the field at the end of regulation are allowed to be subbed out and players who have not yet played yet are the only ones allowed to be subbed in once extra time has begun. If a player is taken out in regulation, he or she cannot be subbed back in. This way, a coach needs to be aware of the subs made in regulation because once a player is subbed out within the first ninety minutes, he or she cannot be subbed in in extra time.

For example, let’s say Players A and B start the game for a team and Players C and D are on the bench. Player A is subbed out in the 75th minutes (of regulation) for Player C who finishes the game, Player B is still on the field when the whistle blows at the end of regulation with the score tied, and Player D is still on the bench at the end of regulation. In any and all of the extra time periods, Player D can be subbed on for tired Players B and C and once Players B and C are rested up, they can come back on for Player D or anyone else on the field. But Player A cannot be subbed in in extra time because they were taken out in regulation (This is very similar to the penalty kick rule that only a player on the field at the end of the game can take a penalty kick, only a player on the field in extra time can be subbed in and out, in addition to players on the bench who have not yet played).

However, once a goal is scored in extra time, each team is only allowed two subs for the remainder of that extra time. This way, the team that score the goal cannot keep subbing players in and out in order to try and waste time. So whenever the game is ties then each team is allowed unlimited subs but once one team goes ahead then each team is only allowed two subs during the period of time when one team is ahead. If a sub is about to enter the game and a goal is scored before the sub is made it does not count towards as one of the two subs as long as the substitution is submitted to the referee before the goal is scored.

This allows the best players on each team to rest up during the game and still be able to come back on at the end if needed, thus allowing the starters to still dictate the outcome of the game. It also maintains the tradition of once a player comes off in regulation, he or she cannot be subbed back in for the rest of the game.

It may not be the perfect solution, but its mix of old and new may give both soccer traditionalists and penalty kick haters something to smile about.