Heartbreak: the feeling everyone has after their team loses in a penalty kick shootout. And the one thing you’ll hear, again and again, is how it’s a wretched way to determine the outcome of a game - a team game reduced to individual luck.
So what’s the alternative? Try this on: SET PIECES. Set pieces answer the questions of practicality and fairness.
In line with the current rule, the teams will have five opportunities each. Set pieces will include a combination of corner kicks and free kicks (from the same spot). It can take place at one end of the field (simply by alternating the kicking team and exchanging the keeper). The end of the play would need to be worked out (I suggest the play is dead once the ball exits the penalty area, goes out of bounds or is secured by the keeper). This is an elegant solution to the problem of the football tie.
I know, even when my team wins by shootout, there is a pang of disappointment: I want the team (emphasis on team) to win and not have it determined by fortunate and unfortunate guesses (and yes, the occasional shocking execution on the part of the shooter). Set pieces utilize the entire team and by incorporating both corner kicks and free kicks, it varies the possibilities and doesn’t play into the strength of one team (for example, a team which has an effective free kick specialist).
World Cup 2018 is set to enter the knockout stage and with it, it is inevitable we will witness, what was, a well-played beautiful game reduced to penalty kicks. It will leave fans hollow (in that space right around where your heart is supposed to be).
Set pieces solve the problem of the impossibility of players running for countless hours (an often used, and justified, argument for penalty kicks is that players can’t run for an indeterminate amount of time) and answer the question of how to include the entire team in the result. I can’t imagine players (and fans) would chose a shootout over set pieces to break a tie.
This is it. This is the solution. This will make the beautiful game a shade more beautiful. And if our hearts are to be broken, let’s at least be satisfied with the method.
