In a nail-biting game against Mexico’s Tigres in this past weekend’s Concacaf Champions League, Orlando City SC proved to everyone that they don’t like giving up.
The team fought until the 89th minute before Ercan Kara pulled off an insane bicycle kick (with an assist by Facundo Torres) that tied the two teams up 1-1, but thanks to a ridiculous rule and some even more ridiculous judgment calls from the refs throughout the game, the win was given to Mexico.
The “Away Goals” rule is an old method of tiebreaking from the 60s that is used when teams are forced to play each other twice. If at some point, those teams find themselves in a tie, the team that thas scored more goals “away from home” wins. In effect, their goals count double in the event of a tie, rather than going into overtime or going into a penalty shootout.
One (of the many) problems with that rule is that it makes the first half of the game more important for the away team get a leg up. And then they, on paper at least, don’t have to play as hard in the second, because they’re already ahead if the other team manages to score. A point that was driven home as a stadium full of people watched Orlando City fight tooth and nail to stay in the competition.
It was a scrappy, elbow-throwing, fight to the finish and some great soccer to watch, which made it all the more deflating to see our players efforts disregarded by such a dumb, archaic, rule, which hasn’t been used in Europe since 2021.
