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BGonline.org Forums
OT: A shame to end what is supposed to be the world's greatest game with penalty kicks.
Posted By: Colin Owen In Response To: OT: A shame to end what is supposed to be the world's greatest game with penalty kicks. *NM* (neilkaz)
Date: Monday, 18 July 2011, at 4:35 a.m.
I absolutely agree with this. I feel that there should always be provision for a replay for finals, particularly major ones such as this. For every men's World Cup final up to and including 1978 at least, and also the club European Cup finals to around this time, this provision always applied (usually scheduled for two days later). Whilst, in a compact tournament such as this, it might be unfair to the eventual winners if such provision applied to earlier rounds, reducing their chance of progressing further (true, to a lesser extent, in merely playing extra time) this is untrue for the two finalists.
Penalty kicks are, in truth, little better than drawing lots as they fail miserably in the two key areas: validity and reliability. Firstly therefore, there can be little correlation between proficiency at a team taking penalty kicks and at the game itself. (Positive correlation, but clearly very low.) Secondly, basing the result on only five kicks is highly unreliable: fifty kicks would have a statistical relevance!
There is also a big downside in that, at some point in the contest it is likely that one or even both teams will tend to settle for a shootout, thereby denuding the game as a spectacle. It is amazing how, when shootouts replaced coin tossing or replays, draws after extra time became much more common!
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