Penalty Shoot-outs are some of the most exciting and stressful situations to watch in football matches for both the players and the viewers. A penalty shoot-out is considered a tiebreaker in the game of football. If you are new to football or have not yet experienced a penalty shoot-out, it is important to understand why it is used and its rules.
What Is a Penalty Shoot-out In Football?
A penalty shoot-out in football is a series of kicks taken by two football teams to determine who wins the game. The team’s alternate kicks until one team achieves more scored goals than the other.
The team that achieves the most goals wins when the penalty shoot-out is over. A penalty shoot-out is often also known as a kick from the penalty mark, which can be too descriptive to remember. Therefore, we use the term penalty shoot-out for simplicity and to make it sound more exciting.
A penalty shoot-out happens at the end of a match when there is a tie, and the tie needs to be broken.
If there is still a tie at the end of the penalty shoot-out, the two teams continue to take alternate penalty kicks until one has achieved more goals than the other.
Rules for a Penalty Shoot-out Vs Penalty Kick In Football
Penalty Kick
To understand what a penalty shoot-out is, it is necessary to understand a penalty kick. The opposing team is awarded a penalty kick when the defending team commits a handball or foul inside its own penalty box during a match.
In a penalty kick, any player from the football team who has won the penalty puts the ball on the penalty spot, a round mark eleven meters away from the middle of the goal.
Then, the player must try to score a goal with just the goalie on the opposing team to defend the goal. Since it is a 1v1 situation, the player taking the kicks has an advantage.
This is also called a spot-kick. The goalkeeper needs to have at least one of their feet touching the goal line or behind the goal line as soon as the penalty taker shoots the ball. The penalty kick must be retaken if the players do not follow these rules.
The ball must also be still before being kicked. A penalty shoot-out has the same rules as a penalty kick. A penalty shoot-out occurs if there is a tie in the match after 120 minutes of play.
Penalty Shoot-Out
There are two coin tosses for a penalty shoot-out. The first coin toss determines which side of the field the kicks will be taken from, and the second coin toss determines which team will take the first penalty shoot-out kick.
Before the shoot-out begins, each football team chooses five players to take the kicks. When teams take alternative penalty shoot-out kicks, it is known as the ABAB system, which is commonly used worldwide in large events like the World Cup. However, in some domestic-level competitions, the ABBA format is used for the order for penalty kicks.
One thing that makes football one of the best sports is that even the goalkeeper can participate in a penalty shoot-out, as only players who were on the field during the final whistle of the second half of the extra time can participate.
Penalty shoot-outs are only used to determine the winner in a football match that is tied after extra time.
What Is the ABBA Format?
While penalty shoot-outs are mostly taken using the ABAB format, the ABBA format has recently been used. Football/soccer players can practice their kicks at home using a backyard soccer goal to prepare for the ABBA or ABAB format. Practicing your kicks ensures better accuracy when it comes time to perform a penalty shoot-out.
The ABBA format is new and has been tested by FIFA, where two teams take penalty kicks in a row, similar to a tennis tiebreaker. It has been used at the Carabao Cup in England and UEFA youth tournaments.
Final Thoughts
You have a better understanding of football now that you know what a penalty shoot-out is and the rules of it. While you will see the ABAB method for shoot-outs, you may begin noticing the ABBA format being used more often to break the tie during the match.
