Penalties are about as pointless as this .... Just have 11 players from each team pee in a jar. The jar with the largest amount of yellow volume is rewarded the winner. The strategy is simple. Drink as much water as you can throughout the match, but hold it in. Don't let it out, until after the 110th minute.
Chess, also, has this "problem". If you split two classical games (2 hours + increment), two rapids (30 minutes), two accelerated (10 minutes), and four blitz (5 minutes), then you need something to separate these two guys, as the rest of the single-elimination bracket waits for them. So they play the equally-dreaded Armageddon game. White gets 5 minutes, and must win. Black gets 4 minutes, and draw odds. It's inherently asymmetric. Draw advances Black. Players dread being either side ... and yet both of them will bunker through the blitz games just to get to it The pace of the tournament is 3 days per round: 1 classical game eats 1 day each, and all 9 tiebreaker games take about 4 hours on the 3rd day if you get that far. If you won outright during classical (e.g. 2-0 or 1.5-0.5), then it's a rest day for you. Players grumble about Armageddon, and say what if soccer were this arbitrary
Then make the 2 overtime sessions 15 minutes each. Make it 120 minutes of soccer at least, before penalty kicks. I personally like 150 minutes.
I like the idea of four overtime periods. However, I'd limit the length of those periods to eight minutes each. Additionally, I'd allow for unlimited on-the-fly substitutions and confine the keeper's ability to handle the ball to the 6-yard box.
I like the idea of two 15-minute overtimes. No sudden death, but no goalkeepers. It would be very unlikely that it would go to penalty kicks. Someone is going to score some goals. But then goalkeepers might not like this. They wouldn't get their chance to shine in overtime. However, no one could blame them for losing.
To me, pulling goalies is the equivalent to placing the ball at the opponent 25 yard line. I was also thinking of limiting open net goals to shots within the penalty box. Then the teams still have to play, control the middle, etc. I don't think it will many goals, considering the typical SOG numbers in regular 90 minutes.
Right, but not soccer goals. What you're describing isn't soccer. Without keepers, you just get the ball to your strongest girl 40-50 yards from goal, and let her launch it. Then consider how teams would be forced to defend against this, most likely by dropping pretty much all their defenders back to the goal. So now there's no offside, either. No combination play in midfield, no overlapping runs. Just long-range blasts at goal, with players from both teams clustered in front of each goal. That's not soccer.