I can think of a lot of “tried, but failed” solutions.
(I support Carlisle United, the first football team in the world to lose a cup final by a golden goal. At least with a penalty shootout you have a chance to fight back. FIFA and the football confederations agreed when they abandoned that rule.)
Before replays the rule was to let the match continue until there was a winning goal, or until the players collapsed from exhaustion, or it became too dark to see what was going on. Again, it didn’t work very well.
Penalty shootouts are the worst solution, except for all the others that have been tried over the last 160 years. You also don’t get them in the leagues, which are the main competition in most countries.
You’ve piqued my interest. What are some of the other “failed” solutions?
If you don’t think a “golden goal” is a better solution than the current skills competition, I guess we’ll have to part ways. You seem to think it’s unfair, but assuming the ball starts mid-field or in some other relatively fair manner, it’s COMPLETELY fair and way more exciting then the current, silly solution.
How many of those sports often end in 0-0 results? And fatigue makes scoring less likely?
ETA: another factor is that, in soccer tournaments, playing a marathon game is terribly unfair to the team that wins, but has another game to play after the current tied game. If a team ends up playing 200+ minutes to achieve the win, they might as well forfeit the next game if it is one or two days after.
The excuses are great. Rhetorical question aside, all the sports, plus Hockey, are very tiring and can be exhaustive. Some of the most memorable games in the history of all these sports are games that went to multiple OTs/innings. They go down in history.
Again, there is something in between playing forever and skills competition.
Oh, and I will say, that for regular season or non-definitive games ties or a PK is fine. I get that over a full season, it could be detrimental. Responding to your edit, I get that in tournaments it may be necessary due to both time constraints and overall wear-and-tear. Again, I’m talking about the highest levels here.
Falling to the ground seems as good a way as any to signal that you’ve been improperly tackled. Men’s soccer is a contact sport between large fast solidly-built athletes who will do whatever it takes to impede an opponent, and left unchecked that can mean serious injury. (Just ask Ryan Mason.) I’m not crazy about players who “make a meal” of it, for example clutching their face when touched in the ankle, and would like to see more cards for simulation (VAR should make this easier to check), but I prefer to see players rolling on the ground than players being carried off on a stretcher.
Many variations of golden goals, silver goals, replays, and the original rule of “play on until there is a result”.
It’s me, history and a billion football fans, vs you.
Regarding the cup final that Carlisle lost, Birmingham City deserved to win, but everyone though the end was anticlimactic and the Birmingham fans themselves took a few seconds to realise that they had won. Ten years later the golden goal experiment was abandoned as a failure. You seem to be the only person who won’t accept that.
Has the 5000 meters ever ended in a tie? And, in that case, it’s fine as it’s an individual sport. Having 2 winners is fine. Sports are exhaustive in other ways besides stamina.
Just a criticism and in the same breadth I acknowledge it’s a great game, a great sport. I played it as a kid, in HS, and some college intramurals. All of my kids played it to various levels. In fact, watching them I grew to really enjoy the game more and more. It’s more that the PK thing keeps me from following the higher levels too far.
Here’s my favorite iteration of that meme. As somebody who follows the world pro cycling tour closely, this is no joke:
Just a couple days ago in la Vuelta a Espana a rider (Vine) went down right against his team car at around 40mph. He had been in a breakaway and after the crash the cameras didn’t show him for a long time. Commentators were assuming he’d had to abandon. Cue HUGE surprise when, some hour+ later, he catches up to the lead group. His kit was torn, looking not unlike this meme. Totally incredible. I think he placed second or third on that stage. Superhuman after a crash like that.
These announcers are being very judgemental. The guy in green could have uttered something really sarcastic or critical to the guy in red, causing him to instantaneously collapse in existential sorrow.
If I were the referee I would have been all over the guy in green: “What did you say to him? What did you say, mister!!”
