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• Only a matter of getting used to (Score:2)

  by ethan (3163) <reversethis-{ed. ... rap.nov.olissat}> on 2005.10.25 1:29 (#44122) Journal

  I think you find it lame because there is no real shoot-out tradition in US sports.
  
  In European sports it is a common element in games, especially in play-off soccer games. They have an overtime of twice 15 minutes and if the match is still tied, it's penalty shooting.
  
  One can muse about the injustice of winning or losing a game based on a duel between goalie and the one shooting. But some of the most memorable games in football have actually been decided that way. It's the occasion where heroes and deadbeats are born and some incidents during such shoot-outs are still talked about 20 years later. But then it may be different in soccer where the goalie statistcally only has a chance of maybe 20% or so to save a shot.
  
  It's also great when you're watching a match between two teams you don't really care about.
  
  We don't have it in regular season games, though. They tried to reduce the amount of ties by introducing the three-point scheme. You get three points for a victory instead of two. That means a tie (worth one point) is now less useful to either of the two teams than it used to be before.

  Reply to This

  • Re:Only a matter of getting used to (Score:1)

    by theguvnor (1723)

    s/US sports/North American sports/ If Europeans like shootouts, more power to them in their leagues. I intensely dislike shootouts for all the reasons Chris outlines: basically it's a chintzy way to decide a game where two teams have fought equally hard over 65 minutes, *and* I see no reason to _force_ a winner and a loser through a clunky mechanism that artificially reduces a team game to individual efforts. I cannot fathom why ties are unacceptable to so many people.
  • Re:Only a matter of getting used to (Score:2)

    by pudge (1)

    I think you find it lame because there is no real shoot-out tradition in US sports.
    
    No. I have followed soccer for much of my life, to some degree, and am well-acquainted with shootouts. I thought it was lame when a team lost in the World Cup via shootout, too.
    
    It's also great when you're watching a match between two teams you don't really care about.
    
    Well yes, that's the point. If I don't care, it's fine. But I do.
    
    We don't have it in regular season games, though.
    
    And on the other hand, we don't have it in