Guest writer: Kedge
It’s a Saturday night. There you are curled up on the sofa with the one you love (a can of lager?) watching 'Match of the Day'...
The post match interview: on comes one of the managers, usually French with a name that sounds like 'Whinger' and complains about the referee favouring the opposition.
So which teams get all the penalty decisions in their favour?
Based on the number of goals scored from the spot in the Premiership so far this season (because I didn’t have easy access to the actual number of penalties awarded), here's what I found:
8 goals
Arsenal
6 goals
Bolton
Everton
Aston Villa
5 goals
Tottenham
4 goals
Man Utd
Liverpool
Blackburn
Newcastle
Middlesbrough
3 goals
Chelsea
Fulham
Charlton
2 goals
Reading
Portsmouth
Man City
Wigan
Sheff Utd
1 goal
West Ham
Watford
Was that the result you expected?
Showing posts with label penalties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label penalties. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 April 2007
Thursday, 29 March 2007
Penalties to settle matches?
Guest writer: Kedge
Some daft beggar recently suggested that penalties should be used to decide the outcome of matches. Great if you’re the manager of France, Italy, Portugal, or even Nigeria. That’s because your players will get all the penalty practice they need. Apart from Lampoon and maybe one of the Charlton Bents, no other Englishman gets to take them, let alone finding a team with five English players.
So rather than changing the game, why not change the points system?
How about 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and a point per goal scored and minus 1 for a goal conceded?
On that basis the current table would look like this:
Then I thought, why not bring discipline into the equation? Yellow cards count as -1, red as -2.
So the new table looks like this:
Not a lot changes, but I think it confirms that West Ham are doomed and Blackburn need to do something about their disciplinary record or they’ll be in trouble as well.
Some daft beggar recently suggested that penalties should be used to decide the outcome of matches. Great if you’re the manager of France, Italy, Portugal, or even Nigeria. That’s because your players will get all the penalty practice they need. Apart from Lampoon and maybe one of the Charlton Bents, no other Englishman gets to take them, let alone finding a team with five English players.
So rather than changing the game, why not change the points system?
How about 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and a point per goal scored and minus 1 for a goal conceded?
On that basis the current table would look like this:
Then I thought, why not bring discipline into the equation? Yellow cards count as -1, red as -2.
So the new table looks like this:
Not a lot changes, but I think it confirms that West Ham are doomed and Blackburn need to do something about their disciplinary record or they’ll be in trouble as well.
Wednesday, 4 October 2006
When the Pools Panel just won't do...
I read with interest that Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, has expressed his dissatisfaction at the way penalty shoot-outs settle drawn matches. Hmmm. That’s a worry. When Herr Blatter opens his mouth, one of the following usually happens:
(a) the laws of football are changed
(b) someone gets offended, or
(c) he inserts one of his feet.
Sepp Blatter is no stranger to controversy. In 2006 he proclaimed that 'football was a man's game and women should only play if they wore skimpy shorts.' OK, controversial he may be, but I think you’ll agree he’s not completely insane.
So what are we to do with the penalty shoot-out system and what alternatives could we embrace?
Perhaps we should turn to America, a country known to be intolerant of sporting events that end in a draw. Back in the days of the old North American Soccer League, a ‘Shootout’ would ensue whereby the kicker would run towards the goal from 35 yards out and have 5 seconds to stick the ball in the back of the net.
It meant the audience would see a variety of creative and entertaining approaches used to beat the keeper, like the one used by Hugo Sanchez whereby he'd flip the ball 20 yards up into the air before volleying it goalwards. Some players preferred to dribble around the keeper while others would shoot from a long way out, but whatever technique was used, it was regularly good fun to watch from a spectator’s point of view.
Some say that penalty shoot-outs don’t work because the onus is on one player from either team to settle the result, whereas football by its very nature is a team game. Why not, then, use the method favoured by some where, during the extra time period, one player from either team is withdrawn from the pitch every few minutes. With the growing space that would occur on the pitch, surely there'd be more chance of a goal being scored?
Maybe, but I think this would be a messy system to enforce. I think it could be made simpler by making the teams withdraw six players each at half-time in extra time. Or simpler yet, make both teams play extra time without their goalkeepers and prevent outfield players from entering the six-yard box? That would no doubt see a dearth of ambitious long-range shots, one of which would be bound to go in. A great system, especially if your name’s Xavi Alonso.
Once upon a time, replays were used to find a winner to a tied match, but this is a lengthy, drawn out method which as rightfully been dropped in the modern era. The FA Cup has, on occasions, seen a tie settled after as many as six replays, but even the use of one is seen as too many these days.
Maybe the amount of goals scored by teams in previous rounds should be taken into account? Well, maybe not. Though this at first seems like a good way to encourage teams to score more goals in all matches, it doesn’t, of course, allow for the occasional thrashing dished out by a big team over a lesser one.
So that would appear to be all the options under consideration then... except one. In World Cups and European matches from the black-and-white era, it wasn’t uncommon for the winner of a drawn game to be decided by the referee tossing a coin at the end of the game. Now how refreshingly simple that would be. Teams would try and score more goals for fear of losing the toss (should it be needed) and no time-consuming, elaborate system would need to be used either.
Perfect - in fact it’s just the sort of crazy, bizarre system that a man like Sepp Blatter would wholeheartedly approve of.
(a) the laws of football are changed
(b) someone gets offended, or
(c) he inserts one of his feet.
Sepp Blatter is no stranger to controversy. In 2006 he proclaimed that 'football was a man's game and women should only play if they wore skimpy shorts.' OK, controversial he may be, but I think you’ll agree he’s not completely insane.
So what are we to do with the penalty shoot-out system and what alternatives could we embrace?
Perhaps we should turn to America, a country known to be intolerant of sporting events that end in a draw. Back in the days of the old North American Soccer League, a ‘Shootout’ would ensue whereby the kicker would run towards the goal from 35 yards out and have 5 seconds to stick the ball in the back of the net.
It meant the audience would see a variety of creative and entertaining approaches used to beat the keeper, like the one used by Hugo Sanchez whereby he'd flip the ball 20 yards up into the air before volleying it goalwards. Some players preferred to dribble around the keeper while others would shoot from a long way out, but whatever technique was used, it was regularly good fun to watch from a spectator’s point of view.
Some say that penalty shoot-outs don’t work because the onus is on one player from either team to settle the result, whereas football by its very nature is a team game. Why not, then, use the method favoured by some where, during the extra time period, one player from either team is withdrawn from the pitch every few minutes. With the growing space that would occur on the pitch, surely there'd be more chance of a goal being scored?
Maybe, but I think this would be a messy system to enforce. I think it could be made simpler by making the teams withdraw six players each at half-time in extra time. Or simpler yet, make both teams play extra time without their goalkeepers and prevent outfield players from entering the six-yard box? That would no doubt see a dearth of ambitious long-range shots, one of which would be bound to go in. A great system, especially if your name’s Xavi Alonso.
Once upon a time, replays were used to find a winner to a tied match, but this is a lengthy, drawn out method which as rightfully been dropped in the modern era. The FA Cup has, on occasions, seen a tie settled after as many as six replays, but even the use of one is seen as too many these days.
Maybe the amount of goals scored by teams in previous rounds should be taken into account? Well, maybe not. Though this at first seems like a good way to encourage teams to score more goals in all matches, it doesn’t, of course, allow for the occasional thrashing dished out by a big team over a lesser one.
So that would appear to be all the options under consideration then... except one. In World Cups and European matches from the black-and-white era, it wasn’t uncommon for the winner of a drawn game to be decided by the referee tossing a coin at the end of the game. Now how refreshingly simple that would be. Teams would try and score more goals for fear of losing the toss (should it be needed) and no time-consuming, elaborate system would need to be used either.
Perfect - in fact it’s just the sort of crazy, bizarre system that a man like Sepp Blatter would wholeheartedly approve of.
Thursday, 21 September 2006
Paying the Ultimate Penalty
Written by Kedge
An interesting article in the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph, prompted by the European matches midweek, revealed that Wayne Rooney handed over the penalty taking to Louis Saha and Frank Lampard relinquished his responsibility to Michael Ballack. As the Telegraph writer commented, this seems to be a worrying state of affairs considering England’s poor record in competitive penalty shoot-outs. Why are we giving our continental rivals additional practice? It’s not as if they need it.
Apparently on Le Continent, it is quite common for players to practice penalty taking, and it is even included in their soccer academies.
So after reading that, I thought I would trawl through the results so far and see who is taking the penalties in the premiership.
D Bent (Charlton) (twice)
R Fowler (Liverpool)
M Arteta (Everton)
J Bullard (Fulham)
E Diouf (Bolton)
J Angel (Villa)
J Barton (Man City)
F Lampard (Chelsea)
G Speed (Bolton)
T Henry (Arsenal)
J Beattie (Everton)
The only current player who could possibly be considered for England and who is taking penalties on a regular basis is Darren Bent. Presumably Lampard let Ballack take the midweek penalty as he had missed one the previous week, but Rooney has no such excuse.
For the sake of England’s chances in Euro 2008 I hope our regulars will start stepping up to the spot more often.
The Telegraph also pointed out that one current England player does take the penalties for his club. He was also successful in the penalty shoot-out in the World Cup, and he was reckoned on being our best player in that tournament.
Unfortunately he has also broken his leg. However he should be back in time for the Euro 2008 finals.
An interesting article in the Saturday edition of the Daily Telegraph, prompted by the European matches midweek, revealed that Wayne Rooney handed over the penalty taking to Louis Saha and Frank Lampard relinquished his responsibility to Michael Ballack. As the Telegraph writer commented, this seems to be a worrying state of affairs considering England’s poor record in competitive penalty shoot-outs. Why are we giving our continental rivals additional practice? It’s not as if they need it.
Apparently on Le Continent, it is quite common for players to practice penalty taking, and it is even included in their soccer academies.
So after reading that, I thought I would trawl through the results so far and see who is taking the penalties in the premiership.
D Bent (Charlton) (twice)
R Fowler (Liverpool)
M Arteta (Everton)
J Bullard (Fulham)
E Diouf (Bolton)
J Angel (Villa)
J Barton (Man City)
F Lampard (Chelsea)
G Speed (Bolton)
T Henry (Arsenal)
J Beattie (Everton)
The only current player who could possibly be considered for England and who is taking penalties on a regular basis is Darren Bent. Presumably Lampard let Ballack take the midweek penalty as he had missed one the previous week, but Rooney has no such excuse.
For the sake of England’s chances in Euro 2008 I hope our regulars will start stepping up to the spot more often.
The Telegraph also pointed out that one current England player does take the penalties for his club. He was also successful in the penalty shoot-out in the World Cup, and he was reckoned on being our best player in that tournament.
Unfortunately he has also broken his leg. However he should be back in time for the Euro 2008 finals.
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