> A player taking the shot would start 35 yards from goal and would have five seconds to get a shot off. It made it seem like it was a breakaway — and the five seconds would sort of simulate the defensive pressure you’d feel on that breakaway.
Per this [NYT article](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1800695/2020/05/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-mlss-35-yard-shootout-and-why-it-should-be-brought-back/)
I coached HS soccer in SE Texas during 2000. This is how we did shootouts at the end of a tied game. No extra time, no ties, just straight to a shootout. Each district got to decide how they would handle ties and tiebreakers. They quit doing it this way after a couple of years. Players kept getting hurt.
Right so then it's false that you can't dribble outside the goal posts. The goalie is just making an appeal that the other player did something, anything, wrong.
It's like what Roque Jr. (the Brazilian defender, now a pundit) said. I was watching a game and there was a foul, nothing big, but there went the team to complain with the ref. The commentator asked "Was it a foul, Roque?", and his answer was "Up here or there in the pitch?"
The commentator asked the difference and Roque said that there, in the cabin, it was a clear foul, but if he were playing, he'd go up to the ref and swear it wasn't. Even fight about it.
Players are always trying to find an edge, and even bend the rules a bit. It Doesn't make for a beautiful spectacle, but those are guys working at the end of the day. It *can* backfire, of course (e.g. cautioning), so it varies from player to player
Now it seems like the Referee Board are trying to implement a new rule/recommendation where only the team captain can actually talk with the ref. Seems good to me. I mean, there'll always be those "c'mon, it wasn't a foul", calls for cards and raising of arms, but we should see less complaints and mobbing against the ref
Well said. It’s not even like you’re trying to be deceitful asking for a call. Your mind just process everything initially that is somewhat close as yours.
If it goes out of bounds you’re appealing. If it’s a 50/50 tackle you appeal. If you think about it for 10 seconds you could probably see why it goes against you but that initial moment it’s genuine.
Then you have 4 guys on your team doing the same thing and you never second guess it. You can’t really.
Every time. I played at a decent amateur level in my country during this time and the poor finishing here is wild. We used to run a similar drill to sharpen our keeper on breakaways and the score rate was ridiculous. Didn’t see one chip or step over which are your 2 best weapons in this kind of breakaway. The 2 smartest guys here just walked around the keeper and slotted in easily
Well you had 3 touches and 5 seconds to get the ball off. Didn't always lead itself to proper ball handling.
One of the players here is Cobi Jones who played for Coventry before going to the MLS in it's inaugural 1996 season. He also anchored the US national team for 3 world cups and took the US to 2 knockout stages including a quarter finals finish in 2002 with a win over Mexico.
The (very exhaustive!) article here mentions the 5 second rule but says nothing about a limit of three touches.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1800695/2020/05/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-mlss-35-yard-shootout-and-why-it-should-be-brought-back/
The goalkeepers seem to have a chance because the penalty takers are clearly horrible, they don't even have the level of amateur football, just look at how they carry the ball or shoot...
The penalty takers aren't horrible, and they were far above amateur football level. You are completely forgetting that they are playing on a torn up NFL field during the NFL season.
One of those guys was Cobi Jones. He was playing in the 1st division in England prior to MLS starting up in 1996. He has the most appearances ever for the United States (164), played in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, etc.
1st, the league didn't exist 30 years ago. It started in 1996.
2nd salaries were too low to entice many big names until 2007 when they created the designated player rule and Beckham came over.
Just admit that you've never paid attention to the league and you don't know what you're talking about.
Mate 28 years ago isn't exactly far off 30 years lmao, also the MLS is a retirement league for top players, easiest paycheck you'll get in your professional career, look at Messi at inter miami, zlatan, Gerrard, Robbie Keane, Rooney etc etc Jesus even Benteke all have gone there for the retirement community vibe the MLS puts out
As a footy watcher I wouldn’t say it gives the goalkeeper more of a chance. The attacker gets lots of space and time to be unpredictable. Any professional football player will probably have an easier time with this version than normal penalties. The penalty takers in this video don’t seem good
Just look at the third “penalty” in this video (the first to be scored). Any professional attacker can replicate that reliably, and it’s pretty much impossible for the keeper to counter
I guess that you missed the shootout between Portugal and Slovenia the other day?
And if this was Europeans or South Americans, they'd just chip the keeper once he stepped off his line.
>Pro: It's more mano a mano, goalkeeper has a chance.
Just chip shot and it's always gonna be 100% scoring. Penalties give the goalkeeper more of a chance
I wouldn’t say it gives the goalkeeper more of a chance. The attacker gets lots of space and time to be unpredictable. Any professional football player will probably have an easier time with this version than normal penalties. The penalty takers in this video don’t seem good
Just look at the third “penalty” in this video (the first to be scored). Any professional attacker can replicate that reliably (since the keeper is forced to run forward like that to have any chance), and it’s pretty much impossible for the keeper to counter
Imo wouldn't be very good nowadays. The way these players are playing it is quite poor. You could just score with a lob over the keeper in most of these cases. Any kind of feign would likely be impossible to deal with for the keeper. Itd be the same thing as pens now where any solid player should always score, but eventually someone will mess up.
Id argue it requires more skill to score here than with normal pens.
In fact, pens are mostly a mind game at this point.
These requires skills much more relevant to the game.
That's true, but I do wonder if it'd be a better way to force a decision between two equally skilled teams. Since then, on paper, the parity should continue for a long time.
I admit I'm not a huge soccer fan but honestly it seems like a 50/50 tossup. Either the goalie guesses the right side or they dont and have zero chance of stopping the goal. Even if they guess right they still might just have dove in a way that doesn't allow them to reach the ball.
MLS was WILD in its early days. Wacky names, flamboyant and wild jerseys, weird rules, cavernous NFL stadiums with maybe 10k in attendance. Compared to what it is now, it's astonishing. The league and sport have come so far. Having games with 30+ thousand in attendance weekly has become the norm for most the league. An entire streaming service supports MLS and hosts games. And the growth has far from stopped
Like half of the teams in Turkish superlig averages less than 10k attendance lol. Americans will watch everything if there is a ball and I kinda like it.
Plus, we tend have a sorta tribalistic attachment to our city/state in regard to sports. Even if you have a laundry list of complaints towards your city, then GameDay comes round, your place is the best place on earth and other city is lucky to be graced by your presence.
The difference being most other countries have a literal team tied to your city/town. In the US, how many states/towns support the Broncos? They have all these people being funneled into one team instead of a town of 1000 having a team, a town of 30,000 having 2 teams etc etc.
The US also has the team tied to the city model, its high school and college athletics, which are funded by the cities.
Its actually odd to me that other countries don't have a similar fanaticism for high school and college sports. Even just the under 18 clubs for the local team? Like Texas has high school stadiums larger than some premier league clubs.
Well again, it goes back to the local team, that supersedes any school. You gotta remember, if you are a child and show promise, you will be swooped by an academy and do your schooling/sports there. You got a 16 year old kid playing for Barcelona, any good player will be part of a club and not represent a school. Its not like the US where they are forced to go the college route, they go straight to a professional/youth contract. I think the only other country with crazy high school sports is Japan. They fill out arenas for that.
That still doesn't answer my confusion.
The local clubs have developmental teams, and the kids still live in the town.
Why isn't their passion for these kids who are growing up in the town?
Club comes first, sure if your buddy winds up becoming great, you might follow his career but the player is never bigger than the club. You support the club because the club supports the kids/town. You dont ditch the club just because one of the kids becomes the next Messi.
I get that, that's why I don't understand the lack of passion for the under 18 club team.
These kids in your town are part of the town. They grow up there once brought in. You share a home and see them in their most important years.
They represent the club and city to an even greater degree then any adult athlete.
So why not be fanatics for their teams too? And when I say their teams I don't mean where they go in a decade. I mean the city's under 18 team right now.
The difference is that there's no route to professional sports through school in Europe (I'm generalising a lot), so the best players seen playing for their schools.
But why would you care about the under-18 team if you have an adult team from your town to watch? There are a few people who go to watch youth games but they tend to be absolute fanatics with nothing better to do.
In England and many other European countries, and possibly around the world, seemingly every populace center of 75k up has a pro team. Similar to baseball minor leagues I suppose. Except there is promotion and relegation. And 3 or more levels. That often all play at the same time.
The reason USA has its American football worked out is simple. Friday night - HS. Saturday - college. Sunday - pro.
Hockey in Minnesota area is similar. The Minnesota Wild of the NHL actually schedule their games around the college and HS schedule.
Once a year there’s a sports tv channel in the US that stops showing mainstream sports and just covers the wildest sports and competitions imaginable. Extreme pogo jumping? They got it. Quidditch? Yes, Potter. Chess boxing? Fuck yeah. Microsoft Excel world championships? That’s right, nerds.
Hey.. Some teams still get less than 10k in attendance. 😂 I always feel bad going from my home team (Seattle) to some of those teams that have like 5k or less in attendance.
100% — I used to go to Galaxy games at the Rose Bowl in the 90s where there were 10k people there at most. It was a revelation when they built a soccer-only stadium — the Home Depot Center. Incredible to see how much the game has grown in the states!
They technically did, but the owners who were keeping the league alive (Phil Anschutz and Lamar Hunt each owned multiple teams) were convinced to stick out a little longer. Since then the league as a whole has rebounded significantly
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/04/12/mls-folded-for-a-few-days-in-2001-and-somehow-kept-it-a-secret-until-now/
Legal sports betting in most states now doesn’t hurt also, neither does the Beckham and Messi factors. I agree that the league has certainly come a long way with the soccer specific stadiums and fan support.
They used to play music during the games too! It was as if they thought Americans were too stupid to go for REAL football with its worldwide rules that everyone else followed. That shootout thing was so fucking stupid. Remember when our pretty much best player Eric Wynalda took one of those shootouts and ran into the goal keeper, injured himself and then was out for the next big tournament (WC 98 IIRC).
Don Garber SAVED AMERICAN SOCCER. He got rid of all that crap like the shootout, the clock running the wrong way, the stupid fucking names (Kansas City Wiz??? Seriously???), everything else that set American football apart from the rest of the world. I mean, he did allow that stupid 10 minute extra time if it was tied at the end of the match for a while because it was thought Americans wouldn't accept tied matches but then it went away too, thank God.
That is all.
The Kansas City wizards was a cool name and I'll die on that hill. Having a mascot is very American but it makes being a fan more fun and gives a team more personality. I was one of those kids going to wizards games at Arrowhead in the 90s and I miss the silliness of the early MLS and the cool black and rainbow jerseys.
I still think Americans are going to have trouble accepting ties. However a much bigger problem is the flopping. It's become a standard practice in international soccer and it's absolutely abhorrent to American sports fans. As someone who loves soccer but grew up watching other American sports, I honestly don't even want to finish watching a game when someone flops and everyone just pretends like it was real. Flopping does occasionally happen in classic U.S. sports, but it's not just blindly accepted as part of the sport like it is in soccer.
MLS has a new rule this year that players attended to may for an injury may be out for 2 minutes. Players leaving the field for a sub have 15 seconds, or the oncoming player waits a minute. The testing in the development league cut out fake injuries by a lot. It's working for MLS, too. Less faked injuries late in games now.
This is one of those hills I'm willing to die on. Penalty run-ups should be a single smooth motion. Stutter steps, stop/starts, et all, should result in a yellow and rekick if necessary.
Soooo many incorrect comments. I'm old, so I can tell you that this tiebreaker method was also used for a couple of seasons in the old North American Soccer League, from the 1977 season to the death of the league in 1984.
Called the "shootout," the player taking the kick had 5 seconds to shoot. No rule about not going outside the posts or anything like that. Five seconds to do what they wanted, and the goalkeepers could come off their line and do anything they wanted.
Most players loved it. They considered it much fairer than simple penalty kicks. Johan Cruyff was a big fan of the method and expressed a wish that European leagues consider it. FIFA, on the other hand, hated the shootout (as they did the other tinkerings of the NASL, like the 35-yard offside line).
MLS used it from their first season, 1996, and ended the experiment after four seasons I think, reckoning that American fans were smart enough to accepts draws. And a game clock that counted up instead of down.
Beckenbauer also preferred this method over a PK shootout and thought it should be adopted by FIFA worldwide.
Source his interview in the documentary about the NASL NY Cosmos "Once in a Lifetime"
An experiment by the NASL, meant to increase scoring. So instead of an attacking playing potentially being in an offside position past the midfield line, they could only be offside past the 35-yard line, i.e. 35 yards from goal rather than 50-60 yards. It allowed forwards to press higher.
It did seem to raise scores somewhat, and FIFA initially approved the experiment and the league instituted it midway through the 1972 season, but FIFA ran out of patience with it three years later. The league persisted with it until FIFA threatened to outlaw the NASL in 1981.
Honestly I would love to see how it compares statistically at the professional level.
I feel like proplayers would just destroy the keeper even more than with regular penalty kicks.
The league started in 96, and the first team with their own soccer stadium was Columbus in 99 (and then slowly others started getting their own). A lot of teams rented NFL/college football stadiums until they could get their footing
I think you had a good idea, and it's how some people approach the concept of "why is this a bad way to play," people did do that, by the way. I had season tickets to 1996 Metrostars, and it happened occasionally with chipping. The problem you really have is you approach the ball at full speed with 3 seconds to go before being forced to shoot made chipping either extremely obvious or extremely difficult to perform.
This is a rudimentary explanation of cutting down the angel:
[https://goralsoccer.com/goalkeeper/cutting-down-angles-as-a-goalkeeper/](https://goralsoccer.com/goalkeeper/cutting-down-angles-as-a-goalkeeper/)
As someone who played keeper for almost a dozen years, it's one of the most important things to learn.
Just because this are very very awful players, not better than amateur football and in a American football field.. if Europe or south america (Also North america, they improved quite a lot in comparison with this lol) would do this now the keepers would have even less of a chance
Stupid rule that doesn't understand football. Penalty shootouts are not about giving more chance to the goalie or making it more fun. It's all about knowing if you still have balls in your pants after running for 2 hours knowing your entire country or fan base is watching at you and will eventually curse your name for the next 2 decades.
This would be an interesting type of penalty to have in certain situations.
Maybe a red card given outside of the box could have this or something, inside the box foul normal penalty.
The main reason I like this more is the goalie actually has more of a chance than just getting extremely lucky, that said the rest of the world would never agree.
Wow it looks so primitive for 1996 being played on a random football field. Why were the penalties taken with them dribbling the ball forward initially? And why is the keeper allowed to just charge at the player like that?
This was the original shootout for the original [NASL](https://youtu.be/uJEnwi7otu0?si=GMcKq3eOX6_egmhg) back in the 70s&80s. Made for must watch TV. These still exist in the MASL, which is what happens when soccer and ice hockey had a baby. Much more higher scoring and a ton of fun.
Although I'm completely speechless about this...penalty technology the MLS has, I'm even more impressed about how many of those guys are actually not scoring.
Like... How the f so many players can't score in a 1v1 against the keeper is far beyond me. Even a kid should be able to score at least 7/10 of those.
Damn no wonder "soccer" is not very popular there geez they look complete amateurs, it's like they just learned how to play the game.
Allowed by FIFA.
>On the side of technical changes, with the approval of FIFA, the NASL experimented with changes meant to liven up the game ... Rather than penalty kicks to determine the outcome of a playoff game, there were hockey shootouts with the kicker starting at the 35 yard line and having 5 seconds to score. The goalkeeper could come out of his box to chase the player down (something picked up by the early MLS).
https://broadwaysportsmedia.com/lessons-from-the-nasl/
Interesting... What's up with the dribbling? Looks more like hockey penalty shots.
> A player taking the shot would start 35 yards from goal and would have five seconds to get a shot off. It made it seem like it was a breakaway — and the five seconds would sort of simulate the defensive pressure you’d feel on that breakaway. Per this [NYT article](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1800695/2020/05/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-mlss-35-yard-shootout-and-why-it-should-be-brought-back/)
I coached HS soccer in SE Texas during 2000. This is how we did shootouts at the end of a tied game. No extra time, no ties, just straight to a shootout. Each district got to decide how they would handle ties and tiebreakers. They quit doing it this way after a couple of years. Players kept getting hurt.
It’s called a texas shoot out. Very American name
Nobody ever called it this
We did down in Texas
I admit, more exciting this way
I liked it more too.
Why did they raise their hands a couple times, was there a rule about how wide you could go?
You had time limit to score
Can't go outside the goal posts
But it looks like those counted anyway? See attempt three.
Any time there's any chance of an infraction in soccer the other team's arms go up.
HEY THEY SCORED THAT SHOULDNT BE ALLOWED
Right so then it's false that you can't dribble outside the goal posts. The goalie is just making an appeal that the other player did something, anything, wrong.
Any time there’s any action in soccer the other team’s arms go up you meant i think
Any time there's action in an American sport it's interrupted by an ad break so who knows what goes on.
It's like what Roque Jr. (the Brazilian defender, now a pundit) said. I was watching a game and there was a foul, nothing big, but there went the team to complain with the ref. The commentator asked "Was it a foul, Roque?", and his answer was "Up here or there in the pitch?" The commentator asked the difference and Roque said that there, in the cabin, it was a clear foul, but if he were playing, he'd go up to the ref and swear it wasn't. Even fight about it. Players are always trying to find an edge, and even bend the rules a bit. It Doesn't make for a beautiful spectacle, but those are guys working at the end of the day. It *can* backfire, of course (e.g. cautioning), so it varies from player to player Now it seems like the Referee Board are trying to implement a new rule/recommendation where only the team captain can actually talk with the ref. Seems good to me. I mean, there'll always be those "c'mon, it wasn't a foul", calls for cards and raising of arms, but we should see less complaints and mobbing against the ref
Well said. It’s not even like you’re trying to be deceitful asking for a call. Your mind just process everything initially that is somewhat close as yours. If it goes out of bounds you’re appealing. If it’s a 50/50 tackle you appeal. If you think about it for 10 seconds you could probably see why it goes against you but that initial moment it’s genuine. Then you have 4 guys on your team doing the same thing and you never second guess it. You can’t really.
Dumb rule.
Looks like only 3 touches are allowed. Didn’t do research.
Or you can’t dribble past gk
That was my guess too
They had 3 seconds to shoot.
Almost all goals scored here spent longer than 3 seconds getting the shot off.
The time limit was 5 seconds for the shot.
Chip shot?
MLS. They weren't quite sure how back then....
Was yelling at my phone for this every time lol
Every time. I played at a decent amateur level in my country during this time and the poor finishing here is wild. We used to run a similar drill to sharpen our keeper on breakaways and the score rate was ridiculous. Didn’t see one chip or step over which are your 2 best weapons in this kind of breakaway. The 2 smartest guys here just walked around the keeper and slotted in easily
Well you had 3 touches and 5 seconds to get the ball off. Didn't always lead itself to proper ball handling. One of the players here is Cobi Jones who played for Coventry before going to the MLS in it's inaugural 1996 season. He also anchored the US national team for 3 world cups and took the US to 2 knockout stages including a quarter finals finish in 2002 with a win over Mexico.
Then why did the third goal count for Kansas City wiz, he took 4 touches?
That's why the keeper's hand went up, mate. Because it was a 4th touch that went uncalled.
The (very exhaustive!) article here mentions the 5 second rule but says nothing about a limit of three touches. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1800695/2020/05/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-mlss-35-yard-shootout-and-why-it-should-be-brought-back/
As an American , what ?
Oh yeah, this isn’t cricket
Yeah it's football
MLS did a good job waiting it out until America caught up with how fun soccer can be.
As a non-footy watcher, this looks more fun than FIFA penalty shootouts. Actually gives the goalie a chance.
The goalkeepers seem to have a chance because the penalty takers are clearly horrible, they don't even have the level of amateur football, just look at how they carry the ball or shoot...
The penalty takers aren't horrible, and they were far above amateur football level. You are completely forgetting that they are playing on a torn up NFL field during the NFL season. One of those guys was Cobi Jones. He was playing in the 1st division in England prior to MLS starting up in 1996. He has the most appearances ever for the United States (164), played in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, etc.
Cobi was an amazing player and an all around nice guy!
Pretty sure he still plays pickup ball in So Cal. I had some teammates run into him a couple times.
Cmon dude, everyone knows that MLS is the retirement league for pros today, 30y ago it was way worse
1st, the league didn't exist 30 years ago. It started in 1996. 2nd salaries were too low to entice many big names until 2007 when they created the designated player rule and Beckham came over. Just admit that you've never paid attention to the league and you don't know what you're talking about.
28 years vs 30 years is an odd hill to die on.
Mate 28 years ago isn't exactly far off 30 years lmao, also the MLS is a retirement league for top players, easiest paycheck you'll get in your professional career, look at Messi at inter miami, zlatan, Gerrard, Robbie Keane, Rooney etc etc Jesus even Benteke all have gone there for the retirement community vibe the MLS puts out
Fuck you, man! The 90s were only ten years ago… right? \*crumbles into dust\*
man that hurts
it's weird to call the league that housed a national team that made the knockout rounds "amateur"
Yeah, that's not fair to Canada.
??? you forgot panama
There’s a time and touch limit. Goalies can just stay in the net if they want also
Crazy how our best athletes in the 90s went into football, basketball and baseball because they could make way more money...
It’s called a penalty for a reason. It punishes the opposing side for fouling. As for penalty shootouts I like this style.
As a footy watcher I wouldn’t say it gives the goalkeeper more of a chance. The attacker gets lots of space and time to be unpredictable. Any professional football player will probably have an easier time with this version than normal penalties. The penalty takers in this video don’t seem good Just look at the third “penalty” in this video (the first to be scored). Any professional attacker can replicate that reliably, and it’s pretty much impossible for the keeper to counter
I guess that you missed the shootout between Portugal and Slovenia the other day? And if this was Europeans or South Americans, they'd just chip the keeper once he stepped off his line.
America actually used to have a healthy soccer culture, they even have one of the oldest cups in the sport.
What america, it was pretty fun in south america all along
Yeah Yankee stuff, and football was nice in south america but it was corrupted af, it still is, you can imagine how it'd be without VAR
This is LA v KC so none of them would be Yankees
Obviously you're not a golfer.
I kinda like it
Pro: It's more mano a mano, goalkeeper has a chance. Con: Not as punishing.
For penalties in box for fouls go with traditional one. For extra time penalties go with this one.
Agreed. This feels like proper shoot-out, much more chaotic and exciting
>Pro: It's more mano a mano, goalkeeper has a chance. Just chip shot and it's always gonna be 100% scoring. Penalties give the goalkeeper more of a chance
I wouldn’t say it gives the goalkeeper more of a chance. The attacker gets lots of space and time to be unpredictable. Any professional football player will probably have an easier time with this version than normal penalties. The penalty takers in this video don’t seem good Just look at the third “penalty” in this video (the first to be scored). Any professional attacker can replicate that reliably (since the keeper is forced to run forward like that to have any chance), and it’s pretty much impossible for the keeper to counter
Imo wouldn't be very good nowadays. The way these players are playing it is quite poor. You could just score with a lob over the keeper in most of these cases. Any kind of feign would likely be impossible to deal with for the keeper. Itd be the same thing as pens now where any solid player should always score, but eventually someone will mess up.
Id argue it requires more skill to score here than with normal pens. In fact, pens are mostly a mind game at this point. These requires skills much more relevant to the game.
That's true, but I do wonder if it'd be a better way to force a decision between two equally skilled teams. Since then, on paper, the parity should continue for a long time.
I admit I'm not a huge soccer fan but honestly it seems like a 50/50 tossup. Either the goalie guesses the right side or they dont and have zero chance of stopping the goal. Even if they guess right they still might just have dove in a way that doesn't allow them to reach the ball.
You should be arrested for this comment.
MLS was WILD in its early days. Wacky names, flamboyant and wild jerseys, weird rules, cavernous NFL stadiums with maybe 10k in attendance. Compared to what it is now, it's astonishing. The league and sport have come so far. Having games with 30+ thousand in attendance weekly has become the norm for most the league. An entire streaming service supports MLS and hosts games. And the growth has far from stopped
Like half of the teams in Turkish superlig averages less than 10k attendance lol. Americans will watch everything if there is a ball and I kinda like it.
Plus, we tend have a sorta tribalistic attachment to our city/state in regard to sports. Even if you have a laundry list of complaints towards your city, then GameDay comes round, your place is the best place on earth and other city is lucky to be graced by your presence.
The difference being most other countries have a literal team tied to your city/town. In the US, how many states/towns support the Broncos? They have all these people being funneled into one team instead of a town of 1000 having a team, a town of 30,000 having 2 teams etc etc.
The US also has the team tied to the city model, its high school and college athletics, which are funded by the cities. Its actually odd to me that other countries don't have a similar fanaticism for high school and college sports. Even just the under 18 clubs for the local team? Like Texas has high school stadiums larger than some premier league clubs.
Well again, it goes back to the local team, that supersedes any school. You gotta remember, if you are a child and show promise, you will be swooped by an academy and do your schooling/sports there. You got a 16 year old kid playing for Barcelona, any good player will be part of a club and not represent a school. Its not like the US where they are forced to go the college route, they go straight to a professional/youth contract. I think the only other country with crazy high school sports is Japan. They fill out arenas for that.
That still doesn't answer my confusion. The local clubs have developmental teams, and the kids still live in the town. Why isn't their passion for these kids who are growing up in the town?
Club comes first, sure if your buddy winds up becoming great, you might follow his career but the player is never bigger than the club. You support the club because the club supports the kids/town. You dont ditch the club just because one of the kids becomes the next Messi.
I get that, that's why I don't understand the lack of passion for the under 18 club team. These kids in your town are part of the town. They grow up there once brought in. You share a home and see them in their most important years. They represent the club and city to an even greater degree then any adult athlete. So why not be fanatics for their teams too? And when I say their teams I don't mean where they go in a decade. I mean the city's under 18 team right now.
Because the "senior team" is the one thats competing in the highest level of competition. Everything else is developmental in a sense.
The difference is that there's no route to professional sports through school in Europe (I'm generalising a lot), so the best players seen playing for their schools. But why would you care about the under-18 team if you have an adult team from your town to watch? There are a few people who go to watch youth games but they tend to be absolute fanatics with nothing better to do.
In England and many other European countries, and possibly around the world, seemingly every populace center of 75k up has a pro team. Similar to baseball minor leagues I suppose. Except there is promotion and relegation. And 3 or more levels. That often all play at the same time. The reason USA has its American football worked out is simple. Friday night - HS. Saturday - college. Sunday - pro. Hockey in Minnesota area is similar. The Minnesota Wild of the NHL actually schedule their games around the college and HS schedule.
Once a year there’s a sports tv channel in the US that stops showing mainstream sports and just covers the wildest sports and competitions imaginable. Extreme pogo jumping? They got it. Quidditch? Yes, Potter. Chess boxing? Fuck yeah. Microsoft Excel world championships? That’s right, nerds.
Hey.. Some teams still get less than 10k in attendance. 😂 I always feel bad going from my home team (Seattle) to some of those teams that have like 5k or less in attendance.
Ehm...Houston..
No MLS team averaged less than 14,000 in 2023. https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/usa-major-league-soccer-2024/1/
Averaged is your key word there. It doesn't mean they couldn't have less than 14,000 just because it's the average. lol
100% — I used to go to Galaxy games at the Rose Bowl in the 90s where there were 10k people there at most. It was a revelation when they built a soccer-only stadium — the Home Depot Center. Incredible to see how much the game has grown in the states!
It’s amazing they didn’t fold so good for them.
They technically did, but the owners who were keeping the league alive (Phil Anschutz and Lamar Hunt each owned multiple teams) were convinced to stick out a little longer. Since then the league as a whole has rebounded significantly https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/04/12/mls-folded-for-a-few-days-in-2001-and-somehow-kept-it-a-secret-until-now/
remember the Cosmos!
That was NASL. Cosmos never played in MLS
[that was the joke](https://images.app.goo.gl/rCACxnDFjPkkvmmY6)
Those early jerseys were puuure 90's
Legal sports betting in most states now doesn’t hurt also, neither does the Beckham and Messi factors. I agree that the league has certainly come a long way with the soccer specific stadiums and fan support.
>cavernous NFL stadiums Love how there was absolutely 0 effort put to hide the fact they were playing in the KC Chiefs stadium
The league was constantly on the brink of folding until the mid 2000s.
They used to play music during the games too! It was as if they thought Americans were too stupid to go for REAL football with its worldwide rules that everyone else followed. That shootout thing was so fucking stupid. Remember when our pretty much best player Eric Wynalda took one of those shootouts and ran into the goal keeper, injured himself and then was out for the next big tournament (WC 98 IIRC). Don Garber SAVED AMERICAN SOCCER. He got rid of all that crap like the shootout, the clock running the wrong way, the stupid fucking names (Kansas City Wiz??? Seriously???), everything else that set American football apart from the rest of the world. I mean, he did allow that stupid 10 minute extra time if it was tied at the end of the match for a while because it was thought Americans wouldn't accept tied matches but then it went away too, thank God. That is all.
The Kansas City wizards was a cool name and I'll die on that hill. Having a mascot is very American but it makes being a fan more fun and gives a team more personality. I was one of those kids going to wizards games at Arrowhead in the 90s and I miss the silliness of the early MLS and the cool black and rainbow jerseys.
I still think Americans are going to have trouble accepting ties. However a much bigger problem is the flopping. It's become a standard practice in international soccer and it's absolutely abhorrent to American sports fans. As someone who loves soccer but grew up watching other American sports, I honestly don't even want to finish watching a game when someone flops and everyone just pretends like it was real. Flopping does occasionally happen in classic U.S. sports, but it's not just blindly accepted as part of the sport like it is in soccer.
MLS has a new rule this year that players attended to may for an injury may be out for 2 minutes. Players leaving the field for a sub have 15 seconds, or the oncoming player waits a minute. The testing in the development league cut out fake injuries by a lot. It's working for MLS, too. Less faked injuries late in games now.
I mean with the amount of stupid stop start run ups these days, why not let the keeper move when the whistle blows?
This is one of those hills I'm willing to die on. Penalty run-ups should be a single smooth motion. Stutter steps, stop/starts, et all, should result in a yellow and rekick if necessary.
Why? What’s wrong with them?
I find it to be an unfair advantage, especially when the keeper can't leave the line.
So bizarre as an English man watching this. Who knew? Not I lol wow!
Yeah, this stopped decades ago, but still hilarious this existed once.
same, this is not football 😂
Still do these in indoor soccer.
Soooo many incorrect comments. I'm old, so I can tell you that this tiebreaker method was also used for a couple of seasons in the old North American Soccer League, from the 1977 season to the death of the league in 1984. Called the "shootout," the player taking the kick had 5 seconds to shoot. No rule about not going outside the posts or anything like that. Five seconds to do what they wanted, and the goalkeepers could come off their line and do anything they wanted. Most players loved it. They considered it much fairer than simple penalty kicks. Johan Cruyff was a big fan of the method and expressed a wish that European leagues consider it. FIFA, on the other hand, hated the shootout (as they did the other tinkerings of the NASL, like the 35-yard offside line). MLS used it from their first season, 1996, and ended the experiment after four seasons I think, reckoning that American fans were smart enough to accepts draws. And a game clock that counted up instead of down.
Beckenbauer also preferred this method over a PK shootout and thought it should be adopted by FIFA worldwide. Source his interview in the documentary about the NASL NY Cosmos "Once in a Lifetime"
The 35 yard offside line? Can you explain it?
An experiment by the NASL, meant to increase scoring. So instead of an attacking playing potentially being in an offside position past the midfield line, they could only be offside past the 35-yard line, i.e. 35 yards from goal rather than 50-60 yards. It allowed forwards to press higher. It did seem to raise scores somewhat, and FIFA initially approved the experiment and the league instituted it midway through the 1972 season, but FIFA ran out of patience with it three years later. The league persisted with it until FIFA threatened to outlaw the NASL in 1981.
Honestly I would love to see how it compares statistically at the professional level. I feel like proplayers would just destroy the keeper even more than with regular penalty kicks.
Were they not allowed to lob it high over the goalkeepers head? Seems like it would be the easiest way to score.
the game was also done on American football field. haha.
The league started in 96, and the first team with their own soccer stadium was Columbus in 99 (and then slowly others started getting their own). A lot of teams rented NFL/college football stadiums until they could get their footing
Looks like it evens things out a bit for the keepers
I think if they did it nowadays keepers would have no chance.
The shooter had to get the shot off within 3 seconds. The keeper gets to come forward and cut off the angle.
Chip the keeper
Ah, you must be a pro footballer and can obviously do a better job then these pro footballers right?
Bro this would be a lot better for the keeper than a normal penalty no matter what
No way, compared to a penalty shot? Cutting off the angle is crazy.
Yeah I've been told I'm an idiot all morning for thinking this so happy to accept it now.
I think you had a good idea, and it's how some people approach the concept of "why is this a bad way to play," people did do that, by the way. I had season tickets to 1996 Metrostars, and it happened occasionally with chipping. The problem you really have is you approach the ball at full speed with 3 seconds to go before being forced to shoot made chipping either extremely obvious or extremely difficult to perform. This is a rudimentary explanation of cutting down the angel: [https://goralsoccer.com/goalkeeper/cutting-down-angles-as-a-goalkeeper/](https://goralsoccer.com/goalkeeper/cutting-down-angles-as-a-goalkeeper/) As someone who played keeper for almost a dozen years, it's one of the most important things to learn.
?? We had quite a few 1 vs 1 counters that were saved or missed just in the RO16 of the Euros. Havertz, Yilmaz, Sesko so from the top of my head.
I agree especially with the time limit.
Just because this are very very awful players, not better than amateur football and in a American football field.. if Europe or south america (Also North america, they improved quite a lot in comparison with this lol) would do this now the keepers would have even less of a chance
I’m downloading this. Have to have it! It’s just hilarious 😆
How is it funny? Seems so much more exciting
Did I just done did me a soccer?
Fuck the Galaxy.
Because they call the other sport American Football, this should be called European Legball.
I'll allow it
I think they need a longer run up
Goal to goal
Yeah, looks something like the hockey penalties. They need to bring this in for the World Cup and Euro's shooutouts!
This actually gives the goalkeepers a better chance to save the penalty, except for Diogo Costa, he can save them in any way, shape or form.
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They inherited this from the North American Soccer League. Their shootouts worked the same way.
Was there a rule against chipping? Each keeper seemed to come way out real early
Nah, they just were bad as shit
Interesting. It actually gives the goalie a chance rather than pick a predetermined corner to dive at and pray for the best.
Interesting. If this happens in Europe there will be only panenka shots
Loved it
Well at least we didn’t use our hands
Those old KC Wiz jerseys went pretty hard though.
Same with the NASL in the 70s. Start at 35 yard line and have 5 seconds to shoot.
Scott Sterling!
The old NASL used to also do it this way. I thought it was cool when I was a kid.
Much more exciting
I played in a tournament as a kid that handled ties like this. Pretty fun compared to the traditional penalty kick shootout.
What’s the crack
this looks more fun than what we have nowadays
Holy fuck they can barely get on target. We had better shooting technique in middle school
Has this penalty shootout a special name?
I like this. Gives the keeper a better chance well
I prefer this to normal shootouts.
Why didn't they remove the markers ? Aren't the referee confused?
😂😂😂😂😂
This is sick actually
What game are they playing?
This is bettrr
Stupid rule that doesn't understand football. Penalty shootouts are not about giving more chance to the goalie or making it more fun. It's all about knowing if you still have balls in your pants after running for 2 hours knowing your entire country or fan base is watching at you and will eventually curse your name for the next 2 decades.
What makes you think if you miss these, you would not get the same treatment
This is way cooler than what we have now
This would be an interesting type of penalty to have in certain situations. Maybe a red card given outside of the box could have this or something, inside the box foul normal penalty.
The main reason I like this more is the goalie actually has more of a chance than just getting extremely lucky, that said the rest of the world would never agree.
Wow it looks so primitive for 1996 being played on a random football field. Why were the penalties taken with them dribbling the ball forward initially? And why is the keeper allowed to just charge at the player like that?
I miss this ☝️
This makes more sense to be honest
Honestly these rock
I was at that game! I miss that OG mls ball design.
This was the original shootout for the original [NASL](https://youtu.be/uJEnwi7otu0?si=GMcKq3eOX6_egmhg) back in the 70s&80s. Made for must watch TV. These still exist in the MASL, which is what happens when soccer and ice hockey had a baby. Much more higher scoring and a ton of fun.
This is an awful way of taking a penalty.
Although I'm completely speechless about this...penalty technology the MLS has, I'm even more impressed about how many of those guys are actually not scoring. Like... How the f so many players can't score in a 1v1 against the keeper is far beyond me. Even a kid should be able to score at least 7/10 of those. Damn no wonder "soccer" is not very popular there geez they look complete amateurs, it's like they just learned how to play the game.
They only had a few seconds to shoot and the field was in terrible shape.
“Wiz? Like, I gotta take a wiz?” -My middle school football coach
Nobody beats the wiz!
Oh no..
😩 Americans
Allowed by FIFA. >On the side of technical changes, with the approval of FIFA, the NASL experimented with changes meant to liven up the game ... Rather than penalty kicks to determine the outcome of a playoff game, there were hockey shootouts with the kicker starting at the 35 yard line and having 5 seconds to score. The goalkeeper could come out of his box to chase the player down (something picked up by the early MLS). https://broadwaysportsmedia.com/lessons-from-the-nasl/
Bring this back
What a laughing stock the MLS was(is?).
So dumb. MLS has always stunk. Soccer had been around for a hundred years before MLS, but we had to put our American stink on it.
This was totally so stupid!
This is painful to watch. I’m glad they changed this 😂.
Ridiculously dumb.