Wednesday’s Champions League Final pitted two English teams—Manchester United and Chelsea—against each other for the first time in the 53-year history of the tournament.
It was a fierce battle, as both teams missed opportunities to put the game out of reach during regulation, and ultimately the game was forced into overtime with the scores knotted up at one.
After neither team was able to net a goal during the two overtime periods, the match moved into penalty kicks to determine the winner.
And it was at that point that a beautiful sporting event was ruined yet again by a terrible overtime system.
Now don’t get me wrong—the penalty kicks proved to be very exciting.
Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the greatest soccer (or football, depending on where you are) player in the world currently, missed the third kick for United, opening the door for Chelsea.
And then, when you thought Chelsea had it wrapped up, Captain John Terry slipped on the team’s fifth shot for the win, sailing the ball far right of the post.
United went on to win when keeper Edwin Van der Sar made a diving save to his right, and the celebrations began.
But lost in the celebration was how United managed to win the historic matchup, by beating Chelsea in a challenge that is entirely different than the game that had taken place over the initial 90 minutes of regulation, and extra 30 minutes of overtime.
And herein lies the problem that many of our college and professional sports are facing today—overtime rules.
For starters, let’s take a look at some of the main sports and see how their respective overtimes are currently formatted:
Hockey
The NHL currently uses a combination of points, extra time, and a shootout. When regulation ends, each team is awarded one point in the standings.
We're going to send you the most entertaining Manchester United articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
17 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete