Germany 2006 Scores Second Fewest Goals

One of the complaints Americans have against soccer is a perceived lack of scoring. While American football cheats by awarding multiple points for a single touchdown (truly 21-14 is nothing more than 3-2 when counting by 7), basketball spoils fans with offensive success. Yet at the World Cup 2006 thus far, there is a legitimacy to this complaint. With an average of 2.3 goals per match, only the 1990 Cup in Italy had fewer at 2.21.

The first flaw is the fad for packing the box with defenders. Teams playing 4-5-1 (the 1 being at attacker) against each other are doomed to be low scoring affairs. Breaking a line up like that requires much more aggressive play than is customary in the initial round of the tournament. This is easily solved – institute a golden goal (sudden death) extra period in the first round of play. Penalty kicks aren’t necessary here, but it will prevent teams from playing for a draw.

Beyond that, resolving extra time draws by penalty kicks was, is and always will be stupid. Far better to play a thirty minute extra period, and if no one has scored, begin removing 2 players a side at the 15th, 20th and 25th minute. It is against the laws of physics to play 4-5-1 when a team has only 5 players on the pitch. Such solution remains imperfect, but compared with penalty shots, it better reflects the overall soccer skills on the field.

The final issue is national team versus league team. Back when players made a working-class living from playing the game, pride counted for more than pounds, pesetas or pesos. Players were vastly more committed to playing for their nation. Whether Wayne Rooney’s World Cup was disappointing because of his injury or his uncontrolled temper is hard to say. What is certain is Manchester United had an agenda (making sure Mr. Rooney was fit to take on Chelsea and Liverpool next autumn) that didn’t necessarily mesh with the England agenda (which didn’t include losing to Portugal).

However, all of this presumes that 5-4 games are more entertaining than 1-0 results. To the uninitiated, scoring is always more exciting than not scoring. On the other hand, sports involve tension, anticipation and a false release in addition to the moment of glory. Anyone who has seen a baseball pitcher throw a perfect game understands this. A soccer match that ends in a 0-0 draw can be exciting; Ukraine against Switzerland happened to be 0-0 and it was dull. The Gods of Soccer, also known as FIFA, need to figure out how to deal with that paradox before South Africa 2010.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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