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Friday Kickoff: Blatter looks to eliminate penalties, Beckham to be honored & more

PKs (Getty Images)

If you are in the group of fans that cannot stand that important matches can come down to a penalty shootout, you are not alone. The president of FIFA has your back.

Sepp Blatter called for an alternative solution to penalty shootouts at the FIFA Congress in Budapest, saying that, ''Football should not go to one to one, because when football goes to penalty kicks, it loses its essence as a team sport.'' 

Blatter charged Franz Breckenbauer, head of the FIFA Football Task Force 2014, to come up with a more viable solution, with the topic being timely after Chelsea won the UEFA Champions League title by edging Bayern Munich on penalties.

Here are a few more stories to kick off your Friday:

BECKHAM TO BE HONORED AT WEMBLEY

Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham won't be suiting up for England when the Three Lions face Belgium on June 2, but he'll be a big part of the festivities at Wembley Stadium.

Beckham will be among those getting honored by the FA at halftime for having at least 100 caps for England. Beckham, who has not played for England since 2009, has 115 caps to his name and remains an ambassador for the country's national team. He'll be joined by the likes of Bobby Charlton and Peter Shilton during the ceremony. The honor won't conflict with any Galaxy matches, as the Galaxy don't have a league match until June 17 after this weekend. The club has a U.S. Open Cup match against the Carolina RailHawks on May 29 and would have a fourth-round match on June 5 should it get by the NASL side. 

Beckham's international soccer days are not completely sealed, as he is still expected to be named to Team Great Britain's Olympic squad when Stuart Pearce narrows down his roster in the coming weeks.

GUARDIOLA LEAVES POSSIBILITY OPEN FOR RETURN

Pep Guardiola will coach his final game for Barcelona on Friday, as he looks to go out with some more silverware in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao. Speaking to reporters, Guardiola left open the possibility for his return to the sideline after he gets some much-needed time off.

"I will be pleased to receive their calls, of course, but for the next months I have to charge my batteries, charge my mind," Guardiola said. "I'm going to rest and then I will wait and, when I will be ready, if one club wants me, if they seduce me, I will train again."

ENGLAND'S RUDDY OUT FOR EURO 2012

Norwich City goalkeeper John Ruddy's hopes of representing his country at Euro 2012 have gone up in smoke.

The Canaries goalkeeper broke a finger in training and has been ruled out for the tournament. In his place, Roy Hodgson has tabbed untested 19-year-old Birmingham City goalkeeper Jack Butland, who has spent the last two seasons on loan at League Two club Cheltenham Town. Butland does not have a cap with the senior national team, though he has been a part of the youth set up in England for years.

Butland will be third on England's depth chart behind Joe Hart and Robert Green.

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Do you agree with Blatter and think that games should not come down to penalties? What do you make of Beckham being honored in England? Do you see Guardiola ultimately being convinced to coach somewhere in 2012-2013? Are you surprised that England would not turn to a more experienced option to replace Ruddy?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. After the overtime periods, winner decided by

    A) total corners awarded only when keeper last touches the ball over the touchline

    B) number of red cards, if necessary

    C) number of yellow cards, if necessary

    D) number of fouls, if necessary

    E) penalties

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  2. “Roy Hodgson has tabbed untested 19-year-old Birmingham City goalkeeper Jack Butland, who has spent the last two seasons on loan at League Two club Cheltenham Town”…

    That’s like Cody Cropper becoming the USA’s #3.

    Good Grief! Doesn’t England have any decent goalies?

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  3. The Run-Up — what the NASL called the shoot-out — was a comical perversion of the game. It’s weak in hockey, but it’s clownish in soccer.

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  4. I prefer Golden Goal. I think with no prospect of a penalty shootout, there’s no incentive to shutdown and wait for the lottery to start.

    But, I think Paul Gardner proposed an interesting concept. If the game is tied, the team with more corner kicks wins the game. There is some sense to it because, in most cases, the team that has had more chances at goal will end up with more CK’s. And, if the game is tied and your down on CKs, you better get the ball down to the other end. And who knows, you might even get a chance at goal. There are obvious ways to game the system but it would be a fascinating experiment.

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  5. As a huge college football fan, I’d argue that college football overtime has nothing to do with football. No punting, no kicking game. Only a short field. It encourages scoring but that’s still not football. I like the NFL Playoff rule best.

    I think PKs are soccer at its purest. One guy is trying to score a goal. Another guy is trying to stop it. The entire point of it is to take the running out of the equation because the two sides have run themselves to death for 120 minutes.

    Any solution that involves running is by necessity going to be of a lesser quality than what has come before.

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  6. Because if possible it should be best on best. Do you really want to watch an Argentina-Brazil match that is decided by a bunch of nonames instead of Messi and Neymar? Germany without Ozil? The US without Donovan and Dempsey? It’s one thing when fate intervenes and a player cannot finish because of injury. It’s another when you set up a system where the inferior team can just park a bus in the full knowledge that the other squad’s best players won’t get to keep playing in extra extra time.

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  7. Right, because 7 v 7 doesn’t ‘reduce the essence of the sport’. Seems just as ‘artificial’ as a PK shootout. I think the better way to do it is to just maybe have 20-30 minutes more extra time with additional subs, like after 120 minutes you can make all 4 subs you have left, so, theoretically, 7/11(really 8/11 with keeper) would not have been playing for more than ~90 minutes. The others…

    Would also increase the importance of who makes the 18.

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  8. I’ve always thought of overtime penalties as a punishment for the two teams because they didn’t risk enough going forward and/or played too defensively. Problem is that one team can park the bus while the other plays in their half the whole game.

    I think there needs to be a way to punish teams for being totally defensive the whole game. Maybe the team that had the most shots on goal get an extra man in OT. Maybe they have to take penalties from farther back? Problem is that it creates perverse incentives.

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  9. How about something like PKs but from further out, like from the D? Removes much of the luck of the goalie guessing which side to dive to, as he has time to react.

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