Maxi Rodriguez

Germany-Argentina. Two great teams, playing a great competition. And what does it come down to in the end, the farce of penalty kicks! And one of the best players in the stadium, Lionel Messif, has never taken the field. I hate this game.

In a great sport, the ending is marked by the greatest achievement—Maxi Rodriguez's left foot in overtime against Mexico the other night, a dream goal. Letting a great competition drain off into the stultifying gutchurning spectacle of Penalty Kicks is as demoralizing as, say, letting a baseball game be decided by a home run derby contest with coaches from each side throwing batting practice. Or letting a football game be decided by a field goal competition. Or a basketball game come down to a competition from the free throw line.

Please change this game. Give us endless substitutions, so the world can see Messif, and Ballack is not crawling up and down the field, and the score is 3-2 or 2-1, not 1-1.

Soccer fans, tell me why I'm wrong.

The first two knock-out round games show everything that's wrong with soccer:

1. Trench Warfare. Almost all the scoring was early, four out of five goals in the first twenty minutes or so. The next two and a half hours of soccer, one goal, Maxi Rodriguez's beauty for Argentina in Overtime. But the point is, the game turns into an endless trudge of determined foes. And so indecisive that it has to be decided by an arbitrary farce: penalty kicks. Like having a great basketball game decided by a competiton of H-o-r-s-e.

2. Referees Ruin the Game. Sweden had no chance after Lucic, I think that's his name, was given a red card after a half hour or so. So they're down 2-0 and are playing with ten men; they had no chance.

Soccer should change the rules:

1. Allow endless substitutions. We'd get to see more players, there would be more scoring. Games would be decided when the players weren't half dead, or worse, by Penalty Kicks.

2. End the death penalty: Make red cards last for 10 minutes, not a whole game.