August 5: PK’s Determines Winner

Nike Mercurial IX

The penalty shoot-out is one of the most anticipated and simultaneously most hated methods to return a result in soccer and it was on this day in 1970 that penalties were called on to determine a result in British football.

Manchester United took the honors winning the spot kick routine at the expense of Hull City.

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Surprisingly this first in soccer history came in the completely insignificant Watney Mann Invitation Cup. The Cup was held for four years from 1970 – 1973 and featured the top two scoring teams from each of the football divisions that had neither been promoted nor qualified for European competition.

And the shoot-out made way for George Best, the first players to take a penalty, and Dennis Law, the first to miss a penalty, to work their way into the record book one more time.

Manchester United went on to finish as runners-up to Derby County in the Watney Mann Invitation Cup.

The penalty shoot-out was not a revolutionary idea at the time, however. FIFA and UEFA adopted the penalty shoot-out as a way to determine a winner in the same year. The penalty shoot-out replaced the method of drawing lots for the winner.

Soccer Birthdays

1948 – Ray Clemence, English footballer
1968 – Oleg Luzhny, Ukrainian footballer
1972 – Theodore Whitmore, Jamaican footballer
1974 – Alvin Ceccoli, Australian soccer player
1974 – Antoine Sibierski, French footballer
1976 – Marian Pahars, Latvian footballer
1977 – Michael Walsh, English footballer
1979 – David Healy, Northern Irish footballer
1980 – Wayne Bridge, English footballer
1980 – Jason Čulina, Australian soccer player
1980 – Ali Umar, Maldivian footballer
1985 – Laurent Ciman, Belgian footballer
1985 – Salomon Kalou, Ivorian footballer