Corner is a new feature each Monday on US Soccer Players that attempts to breakdown an issue trending in the world of soccer in under 400 words. Yes, this explanation counts.
For those of you watching the end of the National Football League playoff game between the San Francisco 49er's and the New York Giants, you probably took a soccer moment when the announcers explained the new and improved rules for overtime. If the team that wins the coin toss scores a touchdown with that first possession, the game is over. If they score from a field goal, the game switches to sudden death. If they don't score at all with that first possession, it's also sudden death.
As confused attempts to find a winner go, this is right up there with the various debates between the golden goal and silver goal concept in soccer. That was high up on the agenda a few years ago, when scoring first in overtime meant your team won the game. Then it was holding that lead through the overtime half when the game was scored. World soccer's rules makers eventually opted to shelve both systems and go with playing overtime all the way through and if still tied letting penalties decide things.
Except for pro hockey, there's no equivalent for penalties in North American professional team sports. That takes away the ability to decide a winner through an existing part of the game. No field goal kicking contests or home run derbies to decide who wins. Football below the pro level as well as the Canadian Football League use what they really seem to believe is a fairer overtime system, but it's as convoluted as anything soccer is ever likely to come up with. By comparison, what the NFL put in play this season seems reasonable.
That's where soccer has already gotten it right. The instant winner method isn't as fair as it needs to be when overtime is in play - normally the knockout stages of tournaments. Neither are penalties, but soccer can't reasonably follow the National Hockey League version of playoff overtime where the teams simply keep playing for as long as it takes. With that in mind, the NFL has shown us that it could be worse.
Corner Rating: (1-11 with 11 being a lock that this issue doesn't go away) 9
Last Week's Corner: The Supplemental Draft didn't get the same attention as the SuperDraft, but there was still a push to make more of it than necessary. Appeals to MLS history are fine, but it's a very tough sell to make what were the third and fourth rounds of the old SuperDraft matter more than a conference call among the League and its clubs. Credit MLS for seeing that, but this stays an 8.
