And via The Macomb Daily: Japan beats U.S. in penalty shootout for 1st World Cup title
Japan has won the Women's World Cup, stunning the United States 3-1 in a penalty shootout Sunday night after coming from behind twice in a 2-2 tie.Here's the thing that irks me, and it has nothing to do with Japan winning. Sports like soccer, hockey and football are team sports. Meaning that many people are involved on both sides of the ball (or puck). There is a coordinated offense, and a coordinated defense. When you decide a game in a sport like that in a shootout, especially the championship game, it totally takes the team concept out of the picture. It devolves into a 1 on 1 situation. In hockey, you play overtime after overtime until someone scores. In football, you ply overtime after overtime until someone scores. But in soccer the World Cup was decided by this? That's just not right.
