American 35-yard shoot-out settles trans-Atlantic Selhurst affair
If there’s one thing football hasn’t yet perfected, it’s the penalty shoot-out. A cruel way to settle a game, defined often by luck as much as skill – surely there is another way? Believe it or not, there was, as those in attendance at Selhurst Park on this day (23rd March) in 1981 witnessed.
It was a trans-Atlantic meeting, as the Minnesota Kicks became the second side from the United States to visit Selhurst Park.
Minnesota played their football in the North American Soccer League (NASL), the precursor to today’s Major League Soccer (MLS).
This was before Palace had broken the Premier League, before the Premier League had broken America – before the Premier League had began to exist.
Minnesota had a former Palace man in their ranks, as Stewart Jump made his return to Selhurst Park.
And although the attendance was not vast – estimated by newspaper reports to be around the 2,000 mark – the entertainment was plentiful.
Les Carter put the Eagles ahead when Jump brought down Jerry Murphy for a penalty, but the side from the States hit back immediately through Alan Wiley (not that one) to even the scores.
Regardless, a shoot-out had already been arranged, irrespective of the final result. So… was the tie to be decided from 12 yards?
Not a bit of it.
Instead, the American-style shoot-out took place. Players picked up the ball 35-yards from goal, and had five seconds to dribble goalwards and find the back of the net, either attempting to round the ‘keeper and slot home or tucking it past him as he advanced.
What a spectacle.
Perhaps unused to such an occasion, four of Palace’s five takers were unable to convert, with only Murphy scoring.
But Minnesota were hardly prolific in front of goal and only bagged two of their own; typically, Jump was able to haunt his former side by scoring the winner before telling the press: “[These shoot-outs] add to the entertainment, and surely that is what the game ought to be all about.”
It certainly has been ever since.
Now 44 years on, Palace’s passionate group of American-based supporters continue to roar the team on from much further than 35 yards away.
Palace XI: Fry, Sparks, Hinshelwood (Smillie), Murphy, Banfield, Gilbert, Bason, Brooks, Carter, Langley, Hilaire (Leahy)
