"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win." - Gary Lineker
former English soccer player and current sportscaster.
Editor's Response - ". . . and the English lose."
It's horrible that do-or-die elimination matches in arguably the most important sports tournament of the world have to be decided by penalty kick shootouts, and not by playing the game . . . that some call not boring.
And what makes the rulebook-writers think that tacking 30 more minutes of overtime (with the same rules and regulations) is really going to change anything if 90+ minutes of play hasn't produced a clear winner.
So, in the interest of fair-play or the typical 'American' intervention, I'd like to propose some changes to make the game more enjoyable for all of us, instead of playing to the whims of the old guard.
(1) After 90+ minutes of play, send both of the goal keepers to the locker room, leaving each team less 1 player, and with no 'goal keeper-only' saves, involving the use of hands and body, thereby truly making it a 'foot'ball game.
(2) As soon as one of the teams scores, the game comes to an end. Sudden Death. No bottom of the ninth heroics. First come, First serve!
(3) If no goal is scored after 15 minutes of overtime, another set of players (decided by each coach as to whom) from each team is taken out, and this goes on every 15 minutes, till there are only 2 players (1 from each team) left. Scoring a goal into an empty net with only one player to tackle should be pretty easy. (Just tell that to Argentina - 1 for 3 in the shootout vs Germany.)
(3b) . . . if not, short of forcing the coaches to enter a smoke-a-thon to see who can finish an entire pack of cigarettes the fastest, neither team should advance, and the next round opponent gets an automatic bye. This will surely eliminate the intentional defensive stance some teams display in the waning minutes of the game hoping to deliver the goods via the footwork of their star kickers.
Anyway, these changes would make the game more enjoyable and there would be no crying foul because a penalty kick goes amiss. What do you think?
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