When I was 14, I scored the winning goal for my team that put us through to the next of a round of a major soccer tournament. It was 4-4 and I was our last hope. My heart thumped and bumped. My teammates were holding one another tightly. The crowd was silent. Calmly, I placed the ball on the spot and kicked the ball home into the left side of the net. A surprise move, given I am left-footed.
It was my first taste of shoot out soccer. And I hated it with a passion.
After the celebration subsided, we looked at one another. We were not convinced of the victory. The team we beat was an old rival and we had dominated them during the regular season. We wanted to win as a team. We wanted to make them cry like we did the year before in the finals.
We lost in the next round. We had lost our edge having spent it in the previous round. Later that year, we reached the finals of our league. Ranked second all year, we were underdogs to the best team in the league. A team that beat us three straight times during the season. On that day, they were off their game and we were on ours. It was good enough; you guessed it, to get us into another shootout.
Once again it came down to me with our team trailing 2-1. I needed to score to keep the game going. Prior to my walking to the penalty spot, one of my teammates came up to me and said in French, "Hey, kick it off the side of your foot like the pros do." Dumb me, I listened. I didn't put enough power in the kick and the goalie had enough time to look at me with a perplexed look as he saved the shot. Game over.
The concept of the shootout to settle team sports is an abomination. There is no other way to describe it. A team game should be settled in a team manner. Philosophically, I am against it and you will never convince me otherwise. Yes, it is thrilling. Yes, fans enjoy it. Furthermore, from a marketing and drama perspective, you can't beat the shootout.
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
"Now if we give can just do something about the nonsense of giving a point for overtime losses in the NHL. Can anything be more sickeningly egalitarian? A loser is a loser. No?"
I agree with you. You practically need a graduate degree in mathematics in order to understand the hockey standings/points anymore... :-/
2 - alessandro nicolo
Tell me about it. It's misleading. For example, 23-14-1-4 is really 23-18-1. Four shoot out wins is not a win. It's a gimmick.