When Manchester United had returned to earth and John Terry’s tears had finally been washed away by the Moscow rain, we were left with the memories of an epic contest.

For 120 minutes England’s dominant sides were inseparable, just as they had been for 37 games of the Premier League campaign. Then came the operatic drama of the shootout. This is what these players, these millionaires who have reached the pinnacle of the game, should be all about. These are the players who should hold their nerve as the stadium descends into pandemonium.

Penalties are the moment when football becomes gladiatorial. Yet shootouts are bound up in the team ethic of the game. This is the moment when players can save their colleagues. Watch Cristiano Ronaldo bury his face in the Russian turf, his tears draining into the Russian soil, as he realises the gloved hand of Edwin van der Sar has delivered the redemption that looked so unlikely.

'The goalkeeper faces the penalty taker not as an individual but as the representative of the hopes and dreams of his team-mates'


Compare that with Terry, inconsolable, even hysterical, the man who in the mind of the fans – and crucially his own mind – embodies the very spirit of his club. Yet when Terry failed at the most crucial point of responsibility, when he looked around for someone else to carry the burden, there was no other. His team had been reduced to mere mortals. He himself was mortal, powerless to do anything but rage against the game that has delivered him to this peak, this defining moment, and then see it crash around his head.

Penalties are not the Russian roulette we have read about. They are not the moment when a team game is ripped up and decided by the errors of an individual. Rather they are the moment when the invisible bonds that run through a team are at the strongest.

The goalkeeper faces the penalty taker not as an individual but as the representative of the hopes and dreams of his team-mates. The penalty taker knows that a miss will cost his entire team, a goal will relieve the pressure or absolve the miss of another.

Nobody at Chelsea will blame Terry; how could they? He did not miss as an individual he missed as part of team. The team fell short as one as Terry slipped to the ground. Van der Sar will be feted but he saved the final penalty as part of team, his was the final act in the drama of a great side reaching its destiny.

Penalties are the fairest, if not the only, way to decide these matches. Replays are fine but with a mass global audience and thousands of fans crossing a continent to attend they are impractical. And they carry the risk of another stalemate.

Counting corners, shots on target, bookings? None of these options can leave the essence of the game untouched. If you are scared to give away a corner you don’t produce the kind of game we saw on Wednesday. Golden goal? Like its lesser sibling, the silver goal, this ruins the spectacle of extra time.

So penalties it has to be. Not as an affront to a team game. Rather as a team game broken down to its component parts, the shared mantle of greatness resting on one slip, one post, one save.