PK's were good enough for the world cup!
I think those who don't understand soccer call strong defense and patience "packing it in the back".Why should a coach cater to his opponents strength and ignore his own. Every coach in every sport is supposed to have a game plan and help his team execute that game plan. Why is it not accepted in soccer to have strong defensive play? Nobody ever puts down a strong defense by a football team. In fact those stats are celebrated.People call it a "stingy defense". Should teams just keep running the ball on a solid defensive line? No, you open up the passing game and hope for the best. In baseball much is said about a no hitter and perfect games are record setting. Would you have pitchers throw underhanded to "give the hitters a chance?" I'm sure we have all heard of "hack a Shaq".Should a coach play an all out attacking style of soccer if he has a solid defense? All of this discussion just shows that maybe americans are not ready for soccer. Most "real" soccer games end with a very minimal amount of goals scored. The leading scorer in the EPL has 29 goals. The second place scorer is at 19. That's 8 months worth of soccer-not alot of goals.
Maybe games should end in a tie, but we had it that way a couple of years ago and an equal number of people were unhappy. If it comes down to pk's, then pk's are part of the game and coaches better practice for them. By the way, if you lose in pk's you got beat!
