Most viewers who only tune in for the World Cup are used to the format: two 45-minute halves, 90 minutes total, then extra time if it’s tied, then a penalty shootout if it’s still tied after that. But historically, that hasn’t always been how the World Cup — or other tournaments — worked. Here’s a roundup of a few things casual World Cup viewers might not know, and why the current format ended up looking the way it does.
The Golden Goal: When One Goal Used to End the Match
Extra time once had a famous rule known as the “golden goal” (or sudden death) — whichever side scored first in extra time won immediately, without playing out the full two periods.
The rule was meant to encourage attacking football, but it backfired: teams got so afraid of conceding the killer goal that they played even more conservatively. As a result, it only survived two World Cups (1998 and 2002) before being scrapped. The infamous 2002 South Korea vs Italy match is the textbook example — striker Ahn Jung-hwan, now a TV personality, headed in the winner in the 117th minute of extra time to eliminate Italy, a goal that earned him lasting resentment from Italian fans to this day.
The Silver Goal: An Even Shorter-Lived, Weaker Version That Never Reached the World Cup
Beyond the golden goal, there was an even shorter-lived rule that never actually made it to a World Cup at all — it was only briefly trialled at the UEFA Nations League level: the “silver goal.”
The silver goal was a watered-down version of the golden goal: if a team was ahead when the first half of extra time ended, the match ended right there, without playing the second half of extra time. For similar reasons to the golden goal, FIFA abandoned this rule too, in 2005, reverting fully to the standard two 15-minute periods of extra time.
Scrapping Extra Time Entirely? Copa América 2024’s Experiment
The debate over extra time is still ongoing. Copa América 2024, for example, eliminated extra time for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and third-place match entirely — a 90-minute draw now goes straight to penalties.
Tournament Trivia: 32 Knockout Matches — the Same as an Entire World Cup From 1954 to 1978
With the expansion to 48 teams, this tournament’s knockout stage alone has 32 matches. For comparison, every World Cup from 1954 through 1978 had exactly 32 matches across the entire tournament, group stage included.
The Penalty Shootout Curse: No Team Has Ever Won 3 in One Tournament
No team in World Cup history has ever won three penalty shootouts in a single tournament. Croatia came closest, winning two shootouts in both 2018 and 2022, as did Argentina in 2022 — but nobody has ever made it to a third.
This tournament added an extra knockout round, meaning teams now have one more chance to find themselves in a shootout. Whether that curse finally gets broken is something worth keeping an eye on.