http://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-uefa-penalties-idUSKBN17Z0Y1"A new penalty shootout system similar to the tennis tiebreak will be tested at the European under-17 championship, which began in Croatia on Wednesday, UEFA said.
Known as ABBA, the system is designed to prevent the team that goes second from being put at the psychological disadvantage of always having to play catch-up.
Currently penalty shootouts see team A and team B take five penalties each in an alternating pattern with sudden death used after that if the scores are level.
Soccer's rule making body IFAB, which approved trials of the new system in March, says research proves the team taking the first penalty have a 60 percent chance of winning, giving them an unfair advantage.
Instead, IFAB want to try a new sequence that replicates the switch of serve between tennis players in a tie break.
It involves team A taking the first penalty, team B the second and third, team A the fourth and fifth and so on until each team had taken five. The sequence would continue if the shootout then goes to sudden death.
"The hypothesis is that the player taking the second kick in the pair is under greater mental pressure," said UEFA.
"If the opposition's first penalty in the pair has been successful, a miss by the second penalty-taker in the pair could mean the immediate loss of a match for his team, especially from the fourth pair of penalties onwards." UEFA said.
As with the existing system, the referee will toss a coin to decide at which end of the pitch the shootout takes place.
The referee will then toss the coin for a second time and winners can decide whether to take the first or second kick."
Comments
The proposed method is the same as with Tennis Tie Breaks, but in a tie break you need a 2 point advantage, whereas you don't in a penalty shoot out, so I'm not sure how this would work in sudden death?
Too many periods of e/t teams settle for a shoot out. This way one team has to go for it.
Also less pressure on pen takers as it isn't at that stage game decisive.
Wouldnt be a bad idea but I could see the winners of the shootout seriously parking the bus for 30mins
It would still be 0-0 going into extra time. The result of the shootout would only apply if the score is a draw after the extra time.
This way one team know a draw isn't good enough so would have to force the game.
Team A would start the shootout and with the way the penalties fall, Team B would start sudden death with one penalty, followed by Team A taking two.
The first Team A penalty would be to win if Team B missed or to level if Team B scored, the second Team A penalty would be to take the lead. Team B follows the same.
And so on.
For example, after a 0-0 draw, one team will go in to ET 1-0 up. But they can't risk parking the bus, because one goal conceded puts them behind, 1-2.
That way, the game is always won by playing football and not by winning the pens after scraping a draw.