But penalties are not as straightforward as some fans think. All the great players have missed in World Cups - Maradonna, Baggio and Platini. I always say the presidents of each of the football assosiations should take them because the responsibilty is so great.
Pele

The shoot out is either a test of team skill or it is a lottery - for it can't be both. It is the view of many participants that it is a lottery in practical terms as skill is affected too much by the pressure placed on individual team members.

But it is not a true 50/50 lottery. And where you have a side that thinks they have more than a 50/50 chance of winning on penalties (and possibly a past record that looks to support this) - the danger is that this team may be happy to play 90 minutes and extra time - with this in mind.

The second problem and possibly the most important one to me is that I like to look back and credit a player with some act of individual brilliance that wins the game - rather than what happens in a shoot out where someone will be blamed for losing it for their team. With some bitter irony - very often this is the player who has played the best in the game but has the bad luck to miss their penalty. All great TV drama I know but perhaps too hard on the indivdual player in a team game. And why then even bother with the game at all - why not just go straight to the penalty shoot out?

The fairest way to settle a drawn game is a replay. But that is not an option for big TV events like the World cup. The suggestion made here of playing the penalties first - will only make it more likely that the side which knows they will go through - will have no incentive to even try to win and will be content just not to lose.

Possibly a true lottery made before the game but which no one will know the outcome until the end of full and extra time - will at least ensure that each side has an equal chance of winning as they do of losing. Possibly a true lottery like this would result in there being less drawn big tournament games at full time?

Until those two fine last minute goals - if we are honest, most of us had already settled down and decided that last night's game was going to be decided on penalties. If the next two games are going to be settled on penalties - perhaps FIFA will seriously examine some alternatives? Hopefully they will anyway.

Perhaps the side who has committed the least fouls being awarded the game? Or possibly some other way of linking foul play with the result of drawn games - so that commiting fouls is discouraged and fair play is rewarded.