Additional period is producing excitement and goals
The Mutiny was pressing for its first-ever win in Chicago, and the July 15 game was scoreless. Mamadou Diallo rose to meet a cross from Eric Quill, and the league’s top scorer headed toward the net, where Fire keeper Zach Thornton crouched at the ready.
Diallo’s header was not hit hard, but it was well-placed, far to Thornton’s left and a yard or so inside the post. With both feet on the goal line, Thornton had a long way to go.
Chicago fans roared when the ball came spinning out of the goalmouth. The game, lengthened by 10 minutes of sudden-death overtime, was not yet over.
Thornton lunged full-length and palmed the ball to safety. The match ended 0-0.
Overtime has yielded seven goals in 33 games played (as of July 15), a hit rate of 21 percent. Colorado has twice won in overtime and sent a July 4 crowd of 53,126 into delirium when Marcelo Balboa banged home a loose ball to stun Chicago.
“There’s nothing like that, man,” said Balboa, “to score in sudden-death in front of a big crowd. The fans were going crazy, and they all went home happy.
“I think the overtime is great. Each team has an equal chance, and 10 minutes is not time for a lot of soccer, but it’s enough time to score a goal. Look at what happened in Chicago: Big Zach comes up with the save, and it was exciting.”
For MLS executive vice president Ivan Gazidis, just as important as the number of goals scored is the buzz generated by sudden-death.
“Even if there are no goals scored, there are more moments of excitement,” said Gazidis. “I haven’t seen any games where the two teams are just going through the motions. That was the fear that the teams would be extremely conservative.”
It was also feared that breaking up the 10 minutes of overtime into two periods ù as mandated by FIFA ù would prevent teams from establishing a rhythm. Perhaps so, but scoring opportunities can be a product of chaos as well as design.
ALL MANNER OF OVERTIME GOALS. Balboa’s goal came on a ricochet of a shot that had rebounded off teammate Matt Okoh. Mike Petke of the MetroStars downed D.C. United when he popped up at the far post to tuck away a Lothar Matthaeus free kick. Petke’s teammate Petter Villegas drilled a 25-yarder to topple Tampa Bay.
“Our approach is, ‘Let’s not do anything stupid to lose this game, but at all costs, let’s try to win it,'” said Petke, who noted the Metros were down a man but had scored a late equalizer to seize the momentum in the match he decided. “You have an extra 10 minutes to put the game away.
“I feel and a lot of our players feel we’re one of the [fittest] teams in the league, and that’s an advantage for us. Other teams are getting tired, and we’re still going at them.”
Overtime goals have been scored on scrambles, on free kicks, on blasts from outside the box. Not once has a penalty kick been awarded in overtime, which is how France beat Portugal in the Euro 2000 semifinals.
In formulating its overtime format, MLS evaluated the frequency of goals scored in FIFA competitions, in which 30 minutes of sudden-death is played.
The league also examined its own scoring in 10-minute intervals; like most leagues, the incidence of MLS goalscoring is highest in the later stages of a match. Last year, 82 goals (of 549) were scored in the last 10 minutes. Seventy were scored from the 71st to 80th minutes.
“One of the concerns was that five minutes each way would not be long enough to get any kind of rhythm, and I think there’s an element of truth to that,” said Gazidis. “But I think it’s creating excitement and some pretty decent soccer.”
DIRE D.C. UNITED. It seems every factor is falling the wrong way this season for D.C. United, and overtime is no exception. Nine times the defending champion has been taken into overtime, and it has yet to win.
It has, however, lost three games and tied six, and is the only team to lose at home in overtime, courtesy of Petke’s goal. Home teams have won six of the seven overtime games.
“At home, you have your own crowd there, and in overtime, the crowd is definitely into it,” said Petke. “It’s a motivation.”
United settled for a tie in Colorado on July 1 after Coach Thomas Rongen gambled by bringing in a third forward. “David Hayes had a great look at goal,” said Rongen. “But he didn’t score. … That’s the way it goes sometimes.
“Most teams will tighten it up in the back a little bit going into overtime. But the coaches and the players know there’s three points out there, so you’ll usually see a chance.”
Of the 26 overtime games that didn’t produce a goal, nine were scoreless after 90 minutes. A barren regulation time doesn’t guarantee a blank OT: Miami and Colorado both have 1-0 overtime wins on their ledgers.
THE FUTURE. Ten minutes is a brief period, some would say too brief, and a few overtimes have been lethargic. Yet the statistics indicate 10 minutes is sufficient time to produce a fair percentage of goals, assuming that at least one team has the desire to score.
A considerably longer period could induce widespread fatigue. Since the majority of MLS games are played in warm and hot weather, extending the overtime to the 30-minute international standard might force teams to conserve energy.
“Then it becomes survival of the fittest, seeing who can just grind it out,” said Rongen, “instead of technique and tactics. That’s part of the game, too, but I think 10 minutes is about right.”
MLS also consulted with its broadcast partners in determining overtime would last 10 minutes, which normally pushes a game beyond the standard two-hour time window.
But so did the shootout, may it rest in peace.
“The most important thing to me is we’re playing soccer,” said Gazidis. “We’re not going with a completely artificial mechanism, and if games end tied, they end tied.”
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney