Away Goals Rule RIP

O

odyssey06

Registered User
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There's some mickey mouse soccer tournament going on but obviously without top teams like Republic of Ireland, Norway and Andorra I can see there is no interest here for it.

But in major football news... Uefa abolishes the away goal rule!

They have invented some statistics to justify it...
Uefa now argues that there is no longer a case for weighting away goals more heavily than those scored at home. In announcing the rule change the governing body said statistics show a steady decline in home advantage since the 1970s, with the ratio of goals scored at home and away changing from 2.02/0.95 to 1.58/1.15.

Uefa abolishes away goals rule in club competitions from next season

Uefa has abolished the away goals rule for all of its club competitions from next season
www.theguardian.com
 
I think it's a good idea to get rid of it. My understanding is that it was brought in to counter 'park the bus' tactics by away teams and encourage them to attack.
In 60's and 70's European football was a different beast. For one, the back pass to the goalkeeper was allowed. Liverpool, as great as they were, were masters at killing games away from home. It is hard to find footage of Liverpool legend Phil Thompson playing away from home in Europe where he actually plays the ball forward, seriously.
Aside from that, the motivation to kill the atmosphere was there. Also horror stories of out of date food being served to visiting teams and all sorts of other trickery were inducements for away teams to kill games off, so the carrot of the away goal was introduced.

The Italians then mastered the 1-0/ 0-1 result. Aggression and skill. Mouriniho still applies this standard. His philosophy is simple - we do not lose, not - go out and win.

One gripe I would have is the extra-time in second leg only. There is still a marginal advantage to home side in second leg if everything is all-square.
Why not have extra time after 1st leg if it ends in a draw after 90mins? If it is still all square after 2nd leg, have another 30 mins extra time also.
Alternatively, just get rid of extra time and go for penalties.
 
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Yeah that's an interesting point... straight to penalties maybe?
Maybe the away team could have a choice, if it's a draw at 90 minutes of the 2nd leg do they play extra time or go to penalties.

I can't think of anything else that wouldn't favour one team or another, or could cause side effects.
The teams might prefer to skip extra time as the games usually take place midweek at a crunch time of the season.
 
It is really the so called 'small teams' who would' park the bus' on the second leg if they managed to hold a top team away from home to a 1-1 draw in the first leg though. And more luck to them if they hold out. I do not think that they would care if the second leg was boring nor would the fans.
 
odyssey06 said:
Yeah that's an interesting point... straight to penalties maybe?
Maybe the away team could have a choice, if it's a draw at 90 minutes of the 2nd leg do they play extra time or go to penalties.
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Yes, that is an interesting discussion point, introduced by Wolfie.*
I think the word "choice" always gives an advantage. There are many situations where it is obvious who extra time would favour - possibly a man sent off, or maybe just obvious that one team is fitter and better on the day, or just simply everyone knows who is the best team - Dundalk would always go for penos versus Real Madrid e.g. The away team would know they have the backstop (sorry!) of penalties in these situations.

* A man of many dimensions. Not sound on the North or bitcoin, but knows his sport.
 
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If anyone looked at the Spain v Switzerland game last night, why would any team want to go to penalties. The standard of penalty kicks were very brutal.
 
joer said:
If anyone looked at the Spain v Switzerland game last night, why would any team want to go to penalties. The standard of penalty kicks were very brutal.
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The standard of penos has gone up I think and Switzerland did KO France on penos.
Not sure if the Swiss guys got a bit spooked cos they thought the Spanish keeper had seen what way they took peno v France.

Pre penos it was a coin toss!
 
Extra time and penalties are great to separate those in a do-or-die tie. On the Away Goal Rule, I have my reservations. But, nothing beats looking at a guy's face who earns circa €500,000+ weekly and covered in godawful tattoos after miskicking a simple penalty and driving the ball wide of the large area of goalposts.

I'm thinking to myself "What a brainless, overpaid ponce" while the television match commentator is saying "You've got to feel for him."
 
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joer said:
Even you Odyssey , Leper or I would have saved some of the penalties last night
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Hah!
I would rather see a few missed than they all go in except one and that guy takes all the blame.


Sometimes I think the keepers make it easy for the the kickers by trying to guess and dive to one side.
That makes sense for the teams proper peno takers.
But after the first 5 penos they should focus on defending the middle and not diving too soon. Make it hard to just roll it on or blast it straight... think you would see more misses.
 
As far as I am concerned there is only one way to take a penalty. Just ask Julian Dicks for West Ham or Alan Shearer sheer power and If a goalkeeper managed to save one of their spot kicks then hats off to him but not many were able.
 
I had a great technique taking penalties and I never missed either.

If soccer ever evolves into an American Football type format where personnel are brought onto the pitch to perform a specific task then there is still hope for me to fulfil childhood dreams at playing at the top level.
 
There is an element of this with some of the subs brought on towards end of extra time for their peno skills.

I remember a keeper being subbed in for 2014 world cup peno shootout - think it was the Dutch?
 
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