That's what I get for having any opinion of soccer here!

[Guest-starring_Id]

No one got my ultra-hip Wim Wenders reference.

[EinsteinsHund]

@Guest-starring_Id

Also with penalty kicks - there’s always the concern of how much anxiety the goalie is experiencing.

@Guest-starring_Id

No one got my ultra-hip Wim Wenders reference.

Aaaaw, shucks, now in review I get it. Haven’t seen the film, though I’m a Wim Wenders fan, but of course I know the title, because it has a famous literary source by Peter Handke. Though I like the title of Sepp Maier’s autobiography even better: "ich bin doch kein Tor." (unbelievably bad untranslatable pun, and I like those. They’re harder to do in German than in English.)

[Cicero]

Let’s agree that soccer is a boring game played by actors simply so Buckety Buck can get his panties in a twist.

[Guest-starring_Id]

Yeah those diving crisis actors!

[Dead_Cat]

@I_Love_Me_Vol.I

I should add there is a better idea for settling a draw in a knockout round but it still involves a penalty shootout. It works exactly like the system in place now except the penalties are taken after the end of regular time (after 90 minutes).

Then, two 15-minute halves of extra-time are played. If the game is still tied after extra-time the team the won the penalty shootout advances to the next round. This ratchets up the intensity in extra-time because the team that lost the penalties knows it will lose unless it can outscore their opponents on the field in ET.

I’ve seen it called “The 90 Minute Penalty” but I don’t know if that is common.

I don’t know if it’s ever been tried at the professional level, but it probably would be an improvement over the current system. The winner of the shootout has a huge incentive to simply defend, of course, but at least the loser has an incentive to attack - under the current system, ET quite often involves both teams playing defensively, as they are too worried about conceding.

@Buck_Godot

If I had my druthers I like would be to make the penalty shoot out more like a breakaway chance at goal. Ball starts a mid field, two forwards have 30 seconds to score against one defense-man and one goalie. If the time ends or the ball leaves the field of play the chance is over. Then the next team gets a try. First team to score an unanswered point wins.

This would take too long, I think - seems to me the 2 attackers have a big advantage. If you made it 2 attackers vs 2 defenders + GK instead, then the advantage swings too far the other way and there would be very few goals.