What is the longest penalty shootout in football history?

I like the sports culture of the United States. Their ability to attract the public, differential content around them and embellish each of their sports to the maximum in search of income, business, employment, feelings that will pay off in… money. An ideology that may exist in many countries, but which they magnify and turn into a unique and incorrigibly successful reality. Everything is a product and that is why you should try to sell yourself in the most special way possible. And everything is perfectly structured for it. One consequence of this agility between sport and business is the duration of many of their sports. In Yankee culture, no. Nascar races, NFL games, long baseball dates and many more NBA breaks. Football has also been unable to escape this commercial ideology applied to the sport as the MLS always starts ten minutes later than the stated time in each of its matches for reasons of sponsorship and television content. However, punctuality, the starting point, is untouchable in the West. In European ideology, a live sports practice that a fan attends usually never lasts longer than two hours. It is almost unthinkable and they even try to prevent it. Now the history of the sport is gone, there, here and in every corner of the world great and historical proofs that time is not always controllable… and thank you, so be it!

Wimbledon, the coolest and most historic tournament on the tennis circuit every season, will never forget the 2010 edition. American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut crossed paths in pursuit of greater aspirations in the most famous grass-court tournament, which they were a step ahead of. first on an afternoon on 22 June and departed on 24 June. The match broke all time records after 11 hours and 5 minutes of play, but also the number of games played to determine the winner, a total of 183. which are remembered, because the exchange of blows between Andy Bowen vs. Jack Burke (no less than in 1893), was the most realistic, cruel and aggressive reflection that exists in this sport, because that day the endless battle was a duel of defiance, of limits, of fear… The chronicle of what happened, written by The New York Times, makes “the men in the audience were asleep in their seats, it started around dinner time and some left because they went to work even without breakfast”. Because? Because the two fighters 110′ rounds ‘ were damaged to exhaustion. Burke ended up with all broken bones in both his hands and wrists, so the referee decided a draw was fair. It had to end anyway.

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In football, the duration, limited by format to 45 minutes of two parts with a minimum extension of time with regard to that which is “lost” (which was not useful to contest the ball), the duration is very controlled. It is impossible that in logical situations where there is no variation due to urgency, a footballer’s health problem, controversies in the stands… a match lasts almost two hours. If it exceeds this, the only possibility that the match belongs to a knockout tournament is that, due to a draw at the end of 90 minutes, extra time belongs to the 15 minute extra time in two more halves that would extend it to a maximum of 30 minutes . In activity, in competition, in dispute… it is impossible for a football match to last longer than the prescribed 120 minutes and then some. Yes indeed, There is only one factor that makes the intention to manage times completely uncontrollable and that has nothing to do with its duration… the penalties.

The batch of final releases has a clear format. Five assured shots for each team to reveal the winner between whoever is able to take the most shots to the rival net. However, if those five throws do not produce a winning team, a winner is not determined until one of the two teams misses their throw and the rival does hit it. There is no other way to end a match that, due to its format and regulations, cannot end in a draw. This inability to end a match except through force majeure has seen real milestones achieved in the history of the king of the sport in terms of endless, agonizing and exhausting penalties.

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However, of all penalties, no shootout exceeded (and probably will never exceed) the longest in history. singular context. Unrepeatable definition. Namibia. aside, KK Palace, second class. On the other, the FC Civic Windhoek, one of the largest in the country, in the national elite and with several international players with the Round of 16 Cup selection in 2005. Since then the most historic match in Namibian football. Two quick goals from the locals looked to lead to a calm and surprising win that never happened, as the second-half visitor response put a final 2-2 at the end of the 90 minutes. The format of the cup competition in the country uses extra time as an alternative to the tiebreaker, as happens in many tournaments, with the two clubs moving back to midfield and looking to fight for another 30 minutes in extra time. There were no changes and after 120 minutes both clubs chose their penalty takers in front of no more than 3,000 people in the stands.

He scored the first, he scored the second, he missed the third, he missed the fourth… “The penalty kicks followed one another. And it goes on, and on, and on, and on…”, recalls Tito Kunamuene, league director of the Namibian Football Association, who watched the live result of the match. “Civics had the national team goalkeeper and KK Palace had already achieved enough by staying alive until then, but even if one saved a shot, the other repeated the same scene. When one scored, so did the other. If one failed, so did the next…”, he insists, assuring that there was tension and little by little they began to think that those shots meant more than a simple penalty shootout in some remote place on the planet. lasted 120 minutes and 48 penalties (yes, 48 ​​shots), to end with the match finally won by KK Palace 17-16. “We didn’t think it was a record, although something strange happened. I’m very proud “said Tito Kunamuene, who will never forget, apart from such an important fact, the face of the fans is at the end of the game. “Actually, at the end of the last pitch and when we left the stadium, we spoke the faces in front of them Everyone was beyond relieved The exhaustion made them think of something other than football. No one wanted to spend time there anymore…”. It was the big football day in Namibia, in Africa and around the world, because today, just ten years later, it is still the longest penalty shootout in history.

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Second place, by the way, is complemented by an incredible one Argentinos Juniors Racing Club of 44 penalty kicks in 1988. On that court, the Argentine Federation had tested a new system in the traditional format, so the tournament had the particularity that the tie of each match would always be resolved in the penalty shootout and the winner took an extra point. Yes, unbelievable but true. And it is that it was so unreal that many say that this meeting was three times, because in the third, that of the group, it lasted exactly 45 minutes. cheeky! In the end, Argentinos was declared the winner with 20-19.

The stage is completed by 40 places made in a fifth round cup match in France between the humble FC Obernai and ASCA Wittelsheim, where due to the lack of light, with 15-15 in the shoot-out and after 20 shots per team, the referee decided to abandon the match and follow the rules in this case: victory for the team of the lowest category. Yes, it’s not a joke. There the record for the longest run in history in Europe was set.

However, I don’t want to ignore any fact. And it is that one of the glorious parties was recorded in Turkey in 1996, then Galatasaray and Genclerbirligi They were looking for a place in the quarterfinals. The success rate of both was incredible as they scored an impressive 32 consecutive penalties in the shootout. That number of hits without a miss turns out to be unique in itself, as it still holds the record for penalty kicks in a row in the elite. That, until İlyas Kahraman (Galatasaray), made a mistake and his rival got the standings after a great 17-16 (33 fines in total).

Incidentally, it is curious that with the number of words that influence football every day, an alternative to the term ‘batch’ has not yet been created that seems immutable, regardless of country, culture and even language. Perhaps if one side dares to challenge such a record for the Namibians, a thinking head will find enough creativity to fashion another word to match the passage of time. Meanwhile, let no one steal this honorary title from a country so humble in terms of football, it seems divine justice that it is so.