Save soccer, spare us shootouts

SHAWN CHENG/YH

Though I'm the first to admit that I enjoyed seeing Brandi Chastain with her shirt off following her winning shot, it would have been better to see the U.S. defeat China by playing soccer, not by winning what equated to a carnival game.

Originally, the penalty kick shootout was intended to be an exciting method of deciding soccer games that were deadlocked after regulation time and two overtime periods. Shootouts are obviously both suspenseful and fun to watch. Of course, so is Russian roulette. So is mud wrestling. Soccer is not a game for the MTV-satiated, eight-second-attention-span lovers of Scream. However, whether we like it or not, it is not bang-the-pots-and-pans fun to watch the U.S. and China play to a 0-0 tie after two hours of soccer. A simple game like soccer, a game with great tradition, deserves to have its outcome resolved by the overall skills of the two teams, not the kicking skills of five players and the guessing ability of a goalie.

No other sport has such great difficulty resolving ties. From hockey to cricket to curling, there is no other team sport that awards its world championship based on a gimmick. Tim Duncan and Latrell Sprewell don't have a free throw shooting contest after the first overtime of Game Seven. John Elway and Chris Chandler don't throw balls through flaming hoops when the Super Bowl is tied. Soccer must find a better way.

Following the 1994 men's and 1999 women's Cups, FIFA, amidst fan and player outrage, investigated other options for deciding the victor of tied games. Prior to penalty kicks, leagues used different tactics to resolve deadlocked games. Wins were often given to the team that had the most corner kicks at the end of regulation and the second overtime. This is like giving a football team a victory because it recorded more first downs. Using a meaningless statistic to award victory is even worse than having a shootout.

Major League Soccer (MLS) decides ties by using a different sort of shootout; players don't merely shoot from the penalty spot, they start at midfield and attempt to maneuver around the keeper to score. The aesthetics of this procedure may be different, but the concept is the same. MLS is allowing individuals to decide a team game through a TV-friendly gimmick. This is fine for an American league with sub-par players, but it is inadequate for deciding who wins the World Cup, a competition where the outcome means more to a nation than creatine to a Nebraska lineman.

The other option is having unlimited overtime periods—essentially playing until someone scores a "golden goal" to end the contest. To purists, this extended sudden death looks like it is the best option. To pragmatists, it's definitely not. With the current limited substitution rules in effect, players will play until they drop. After three or four overtimes, we'll see three forwards down with cramps and dehydration and three defenders puking by the corner flag. And we still won't see any goals. After about five hours of nonstop soccer, even the most hardcore British fans will be flipping the channel on their tellies to Mr. Bean.

The option that is picking up the most steam at this point involves both game play and a gimmick. In this option, the game would continue as normal if it is still tied following regulation. After five minutes, however, each team would be required to pull one player off the field. After each successive five-minute period, another player would be removed until only the two goalies remained. If no one had scored by this point, players would be added back into the game every five minutes. This option retains the elements of team play that are so crucial to soccer for a much longer period of time than a shootout. It also gives the team that is in better physical condition a distinct advantage. With fewer players on the field, the game's fastest, most skilled players would have room to make breakaway moves. This scenario could create showdowns between top defenders and top attackers with key games on the line.

We have now seen two world champions crowned on the basis of a shootout—this is two too many. When the next World Cup hits and the final game is tied after regulation, I'd rather see players coming off the field every five minutes than players taking off their shirts after shootouts.

Unless it's Brandi Chastain.

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