In this World Cup so far, we have had 4 second round and 2 penalty shootouts. In that sense, we have had 2 of the most different penalty shootouts that you could have possibly had already during this second round.
The first one involved Brazil and Chile, where there were as many penalties saved as there were scored. The second one involved Costa Rica, the unexpected unbeaten team of this World Cup, and Greece, and in that one, only one penalty was missed, by Greece at a crucial time, their fourth penalty, which meant that Costa Rica had to score to win, which they did. Costa Rica didn’t miss a single penalty, and that is one of the rare situations where you can truly say that a team went through on penalties on merit, scoring every single one they took.
Otherwise, the penalty shootout is a lottery. Saved penalties, missed penalties, over the bar, wide, hitting the woodwork, easy saves, spectacular saves, we’ve seen them all at various points. It’s no way to end even a Johnston’s Paint Trophy match, let alone something as big as a World Cup match.
No team ever deserves to go out on penalties, and it hurts to see it. Some commentators seem to be under the false idea that a penalty shootout is something that all neutral fans love. In fact, I find this not to be true at all. Most true sports fans, the ones who want to see a great game, no matter who teams, no matter what the sport, absolutely hate the penalty shootout. It turns a game of skill, heart, passion and conditioning, into a game of chance, a game of luck, a game of who can win the lottery.
In sports like basketball and hockey, you get overtime periods, and you keep getting overtime periods until you score. In Soccer, you have 2 15-minute periods of Extra Time, no more and no less. Then you are onto penalties. Golden goal extra time was trialled, as was silver goal, where you had until the end of the 15 minute period to reply, depending on how late the goal was scored. For some baffling reason, both players and fans complained about these, and they have been quietly forgotten by most within the game, and most fans as well.
But, if after 2 periods of extra time, you cannot separate them, then you should have additional periods of extra time, where the next goal finishes the game. It should be a moment of skill that wins it, not a moment of luck. It would also stop the horrible situation that we get in most extra time games, where one or both teams ends up playing for penalties, for some, most or in some cases, all of that second period of extra time.
Costa Rica’s penalty shootout was the exception that proved the rule. Scoring every penalty you take, you can’t argue that they didn’t deserve to go through from that match, especially as they had a pretty blatant handball in the 18 yard box, missed by the referee, and that meant they didn’t get the penalty they should have had, but in the end, it didn’t matter, justice was done, and Costa Rica continue as the surprise undefeated team of this World Cup.
But I hope that sometime soon, we can finally persuade the footballing authorities, to do away with the lottery that is the penalty shootout. It’s no way to decide a game, especially not at a World Cup.
