About the beautiful game / Tareq Quiroz / 02 March 2009 / 1 Comments

Tareq Quiroz questions why scoring more goals away from home is necessarily an achievement and calls for extra-time and penalties to split teams when scores are level after two legs.

So the first domestic trophy of the season, barring of course the useless Community Shield, has been handed out. It may not have been a classic encounter but as a neutral there is nothing better than a match than ends in heartbreak for some and elation for others. For Man Utd it was a stepping-stone towards what they hope will be a clean sweep of trophies. I really don't think they can do it but there will be some who think opposite. If you are one of those then you can get on Utd at [11.0] in the Team Trophies market.

This part of the season is not for the faint-hearted. With less than a third of the league season left we are not far from what is referred to as the run-in. Some will escape impossible situations, others will get dragged down when they thought themselves safe whilst rewards will be handed out to those who can handle the heat as the pressure really cranks up.

Away from the pressures that the league brings we have plenty to play for in the FA Cup and the Champions League. Last week saw the return of european football's blue-riband event and all the big boys were out flexing their muscles, some with more success than others. It was the first leg of the last sixteen and it never fails to surprise me how much talk there is about what is a good result.

You even hear people say that winning 2-1 at home isn't a good result. Why? Because of that annoying away goal rule. I am not a fan and will never be converted. I just don't see the logic in putting a team through because they scored more goals in their away leg. We are playing over 180 minutes after all so surely that is plenty long enough to get a fair result. If that result is a draw then so be it. Let's play extra-time and penalties to resolve the issue instead of seeing who scored more away goals.

I recall just a couple of seasons ago when Inter, Barcelona and Real Madrid all went out at the same stage on the away goals rule. I would have much preferred to have seen those ties played out to a full and satisfactory conclusion. Barcelona I am sure will be looking to avoid any such doubts this year as they are current favourites for the crown at [4.1].

I hear people defending the rule by arguing that teams always used to put ten men behind the ball in the away leg looking for a 0-0 and that this rule encourage teams to look for a goal. That might be true of some teams but if they can pull it off, then fair play to them. Keeping goals out is part of the game after all! And it isn't as if it has totally worked in that regard either as there are plenty of cases when a team has drawn 1-1 away and then slotted ten men behind the ball in the home game as they know 0-0 will see them through.

There is simply no need for this law any more and it is about time the governing bodies addressed it. The away goal was introduced in the late sixties and at a time when many drawn ties went to a further match at a neutral venue. Penalty shootouts didn't come into force in any real form until the seventies but now they are used worldwide to decide ties. Some don't like penalties to decide an important match but I really can't see the argument to say that it is less satisfactory than having it decided because one team scored an extra goal away from home.

I really hope that none of next week's deciding second legs get settled on the lunacy that is the away goal rule. But one team that has made the most of the rule to put themselves in a great position are Liverpool. A 1-0 win at Real Madrid has them in the driving seat and they are currently [1.33] in the To Qualify market.

It is not as if the rule is applied the same all throughout the world with some tournaments not using it and others only using it after extra-time. It is far too easily accepted and it is time for world governing bodies to take a look at it and dispense of this nonsense once and for all.