Yesterday, in the Football World Cup 2018, we saw the strange phenomena of two teams being tied on points, goal differences and even for goals. I am talking about Senegal and Japan here.
The next tie-breaker in this scenario as devised by FIFA was to give advantage to the team having fewer Yellow cards, due to which Japan went through. FIFA made this rule to encourage fair play. However, the way Japan played at the end was anything but fair, by wasting time and depending on the result of the other match, rather than trying to score a goal themselves.
I really dislike this rule. Firstly, because when a team gets a Yellow card in the game, the opposing team is already given a penalty. So, in this scenario, Senegal was kinda penalized twice. Secondly, how many Yellow cards are given depend also on referees, as some referees are more lenient than others.
A better way to break this tie in my opinion, would have been to count number of corners, or shots hitting goal posts/crossbar, or even goals scored in open play (not through free kicks or penalties).
What is your opinion on this. Do you think, counting the number of Yellow cards was a fair way to break this sort of tie, or do you recommend some other method?