The Agony and the Ecstasy
Twelve years ago today, July 17, 1994, the Italians lost the World Cup final on penalties to Brazil, an indignity that they managed to reverse this year in their bizarre final with France. These are the only two World Cup finals ever to be decided on pk's, and Italy factored in both, as if you didn't have enough good reason before to hate the Italians.
Every four years I sit around watching the World Cup with friends and eventually having the discussion about what an unsatisfying conclusion the penalty shootout is, how arbitrary, how stupid. I think since the 1990 Cup I've been breaking out this nugget - "It's like ending a baseball game with a home run contest!" How I love saying that.
The discussion always proceeds to the alternatives, and then descends quickly to the level of jokes, three-leg races, cock-measurings, fights to the death, etc. Because the only TRULY satisfying alternative is that the match be played again, and because for all sorts of reasons it seems that this will never happen, the discussion is a dead end.
It should be mentioned that prior to the penalty shootout, the method of tie-breaking was drawing lots. German referee Karl Wald came up with the idea of the shootout , which he first proposed to the Bavarian football association in 1970. After the Bavarians adopted the procedure, the Germans followed suit, and soon after UEFA and FIFA. The first major tournament to be decided on penalties was the 1976 European Championships, when the Czechs prevailed over the Germans (those are the Czechs hoisting their ill-gotten trophy up there), and the first World Cup match to go to the shootout was one of the greatest matches in World Cup history, when Germany won in pk's over France in the 1982 semi-final.
So... is the shootout preferable to drawing lots, or flipping a coin? I'm not sure. The shootout gives the casual fan some illusion of resolution, whereas the true football fan knows that there has been none. I almost prefer the random solution, just to emphasize the fact of the matter. This year's World Cup was plagued by the penalty shootout, two quarterfinals (including the epic Germany/Argentina match) and the final, all decided by penalties. Three flips of the coin, essentially. A World Cup final decided on penalties is a particular atrocity, one that we first saw 12 years ago today, and then again just over a week ago.
(Tell me once more - what exactly are the obstacles to replaying a drawn World Cup final? Just the final, mind you. If the rematch ends in a draw, then go to penalties. Why the fuck not? Someone explain this to me.)
4 Comments:
drawing lots? i'd rather it end in arm wrestling... zidane and rooney's exits would've stung tenfold. i think the PKs work. as evidence, i'd say that my mom (who only watches pbs, and that only a couple hours a month) even claimed to be on the edge of her seat during the italy-france shootout.
Well Drew, your mum would be on the edge of her seat if they fired pistols at each other as well, I imagine. Is a shootout exciting? Yes. Is it a satisfying conclusion to a match? Does it feel like anyone has really won when they prevail on pk's? No, no.
I was reminded when I saw the Cosmos movie that the NASLshootouts were done sort of NHL style. The shooter got the ball at the 35 yard line and as soon as he touched it the goalie could move off the line. It gave the goalies a better chance and opened up the possibilities for an imaginative player to get spectacular. It doesn't solve the ultimate theological problem of a team game being resolved by an individual performance only vaguely related to the original contest, but it defnitely had some more razzle dazzle. I bet if they had done it this way in '94 I would remember much more than just Baggio's sky job from the final.
You know I-berg is serious about his soccer when he starts talking about the penalty shootout posing a "theological" problem.
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