4 ms·

Get rid of ties and soccer is 10x better. Nothing more frustrating than watching a game for 90 minutes that ends in a tie. This is one of the big reasons playo

Get rid of ties and soccer is 10x better. Nothing more frustrating than watching a game for 90 minutes that ends in a tie. This is one of the big reasons playoff hockey is much better than during the regular season -- ever watched a game go into 5 OTs?

philwelch 16y ago
This is a pretty common American cultural expectation, but it would really hurt soccer to have matches go into extra time unnecessarily. The fatigue and injury rate is already too high--look at how many great players are sitting out this World Cup, for instance.
- bialecki 16y ago
  So injuries are the reason they don't play golden goal? If so, that's ridiculous. All sports deal with injuries and sometimes that means star players don't play. What really bothers me is when teams "play for the tie" in certain situations and that's a viable option. Sports are not about playing not to lose, they're about playing to win. That's why the old Brazil teams and the current Argentina team are so fun to watch -- they're not worried about losing, they're playing to win. That's why the last US game was so entertaining -- they had to go for it in the second half so at least salvage a tie. Soccer should encourage more play like that.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    They don't play golden goal because in practice, golden goal leads to more defensive play. The current overtime procedure of extra time + penalties is the best of many mediocre options, and I suspect future innovations will lead to better procedures. When you look at the reality of match congestion in top level clubs, you have situations where you may have to play 3-4 matches a week at times, when 1-2 matches a week is the most a player can reasonably recover from. As a result of that, clubs already have to prioritize which competitions they care about--a club simultaneously competes for a league, more than one domestic cup, and maybe even an international cup or two, so "less important" competitions like the English League Cup and even, in recent years, the English FA Cup aren't taken seriously by some top clubs. You start adding extra time to a significant proportion of a club's league matches and you exacerbate that problem and lower the quality of play.

philwelch 16y ago

This is a pretty common American cultural expectation, but it would really hurt soccer to have matches go into extra time unnecessarily. The fatigue and injury rate is already too high--look at how many great players are sitting out this World Cup, for instance.

bialecki 16y ago
So injuries are the reason they don't play golden goal? If so, that's ridiculous. All sports deal with injuries and sometimes that means star players don't play. What really bothers me is when teams "play for the tie" in certain situations and that's a viable option. Sports are not about playing not to lose, they're about playing to win. That's why the old Brazil teams and the current Argentina team are so fun to watch -- they're not worried about losing, they're playing to win. That's why the last US game was so entertaining -- they had to go for it in the second half so at least salvage a tie. Soccer should encourage more play like that.
- philwelch 16y ago
  They don't play golden goal because in practice, golden goal leads to more defensive play. The current overtime procedure of extra time + penalties is the best of many mediocre options, and I suspect future innovations will lead to better procedures. When you look at the reality of match congestion in top level clubs, you have situations where you may have to play 3-4 matches a week at times, when 1-2 matches a week is the most a player can reasonably recover from. As a result of that, clubs already have to prioritize which competitions they care about--a club simultaneously competes for a league, more than one domestic cup, and maybe even an international cup or two, so "less important" competitions like the English League Cup and even, in recent years, the English FA Cup aren't taken seriously by some top clubs. You start adding extra time to a significant proportion of a club's league matches and you exacerbate that problem and lower the quality of play.