Real Salt Lake won this year's MLS Cup over heavily favored Los Angeles and while the result was surprising, it didnt surprise me that much that this game ended up with penalty kicks deciding the winner. It seems as if any big soccer result ends up coming down to penalty kicks. Soccer needs to change their rules on this. Not asking for big radical moves here, just ones in regards to high profile matches, such as the World Cup.

The past two World Cups have been decided by penalty kicks, and in my opinion, I think that somewhat tarnishes the result. I know the soccer purists out there are against changing the rules, but what is wrong with having the game decided by the same way in which you played it for the past 90+ minutes. Yes, I realize that players get tired after running up and down the pitch so much during this contests, but endurance is part of the game.

Here is my proposal. Have a 45 minute sudden death period (with a 15 minute break after each sudden death period), where each team has three opportunites to subsitute players. If they prefer, teams can also make substitutions for players who previously left game.

What makes a product good is consistency, and thats why soccer should change to this format in order to make the world's most popular sport even that much more popular.