I was at the Fire's game tonight, and I couldn't help but think that it's unfair for a player to work so hard in drawing a pk and get nothing for it in terms of stats. Here's what I think would be fair: If a player draws the pk, but another converts, then the one who drew the pk also gets an assist. If the same player draws the pk and converts the pk, then he just gets a goal and no assist. If the pk is missed, no assist is given to the person who drew the pk. What are your thoughts guys?
I think it would be more useful to just keep track of how many penalties a player has drawn. The stats exist, it's just that nobody really bothers to cite them. But that's true of many statistics. People say, for instance, "This player has scored seven goals this year." They don't say, "This player has five goals from the run of play, plus two penalty kick goals this year." It's easy to keep statistics. What's hard is getting a consensus on how, or if, they should be used.
I agree. By the looks of it though, Marsch was taking that PK or it wasn't being taken. Call it the veteran rule, but Rolfe wasn't going to get it.
So if I'm a defender I make sure I commit a really vicious foul so the player is injured. Okay, so, like in basketball, if a player is injured then a teammate can take it for him, but does the injured player come back? Would it count as a sub? Should a fouled player have to take all other free kicks, or just direct ones?
I do think it's unfair that a player can get shafted out of any stats on a PK play (such as Chris and Nate did last night)...but then again, there's only 2 stats that matters: the score of the game and the team's won/loss record.
PK's only. If there's an injury...good question. How about the captain takes it? (but you may then need an alternate captain if the captain gets hurt)
Actually, when I was coaching, that's exactly what I did. If you drew the PK, then you got the assist. Also, just like the 2nd assist, if you made the sweet pass springing the guy that got the PK, then you got the 2nd assist. There's one other situation where I think an assist should be awarded that generally isn't - a shot that causes difficulty and creates a rebound which is then knocked home by someone else. If you put the keeper in such difficulty that he gives up the rebound and can't recover for the followup, then you've given your team the chance to score. I always awarded assists under this circumstance too.
I swear the MLS has done this before. I remember Damani Ralph finishing the season with assists, and I think this how he got them.
To add incentive for winning a penalty kick, the player who's fouled should decide. The player who's fouled will probably take the penalty most of the time, but you never know. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!!!
I remember actually seeing one European soccer stats site that did this. It also awarded assists to players drawing direct free kicks that were scored.