The 2022 World Cup delivered the kind of ending NBC Sports said the NFL cannot match: a penalty shootout that stretched nerves far past 90 minutes and another 30 minutes. On Monday, two of three World Cup games in the round of 32 were decided this way, with Paraguay-Germany and Morocco-Netherlands described as mentally exhausting and thoroughly thrilling.
Paraguay-Germany, Morocco-Netherlands
Each shootout began after 90 minutes plus another 30 minutes of typically low-scoring action ended in deadlock. Then the format changed fast: five kicks per side, with every attempt raising the pressure until one team finally separated itself from the other.
That is the part the NFL cannot recreate. The article said American football is globalizing and that soccer has held worldwide popularity for decades, but its main point was narrower than a sport debate. World Cup shootouts work because they arrive only in the single-elimination phase, not the group stage, so the stakes are immediate and final.
World Cup penalty sequence
The mechanics are part of the drama. A shootout can end after at least six kicks if one team makes the first three and the other misses the first three, which means the suspense can collapse in a hurry or drag through every round of attempts. Penalty kicks are part of the game and happen from time to time, but they are not part of the normal flow of a soccer match, and that break in rhythm is what turns the finish into a separate event.
Misses linger. A shot that clangs off the post can be hard to forget, and so can a failed save when the ball trickles over the line. Viewers of World Cup knockout games are left with a different kind of finish than the NFL provides: not a long drive or a final defensive stand, but a sequence where each kick can change everything.
USFL, UFL, NFL
The comparison with the NFL was direct. The USFL and now the UFL have embraced a version of a two-point shootout approach, while the NFL has treated that idea as too gimmicky because it is not part of the normal flow of the game. The NHL was mentioned as another contrast: it uses a shootout in regular-season games, even though its playoff games theoretically can last forever.
That leaves the World Cup with a finish few other events can duplicate. As long as knockout games are level after regulation and extra time, the shootout remains the cleanest and harshest way to decide who advances, and Monday’s Paraguay-Germany and Morocco-Netherlands results showed why the format keeps producing the same exhausted reaction from viewers.
