Why is there no extra time in the World Cup group stages?
Penalty kicks are rife with tension as one of the best parts of watching international soccer. Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of these dramatic events, you’ll wait until the 2023 World Cup reaches the knockout stages.
You see, in the group stage, every team is awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw. If there’s a tie in the standings, goal differential becomes the tiebreaker. Such a round-robin setup makes having extra time redundant. Plus, more importantly, playing 120 minutes in the group stage would make little sense for a month-long tournament.
The group stage is fun and chaotic, but it’s technically supposed to be an appetizer to the main course of the win-or-go-home knockouts.
Have patience during this tournament. We’ll get to faint during sudden death and a penalty shootout soon enough.
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