Silver goal. Remember the short-lived football rule that broke the Czech Republic’s neck in 2004?

Silver goal. A rule that hasn’t been used for a long time, but Czech fans will probably never forget it. At the memorable European Championship in 2004, it took away the Czech footballers’ hope of levelling the match during the second half of extra time. What was this rule, how did it differ from the more famous Golden Goal and how did Tomáš Galásek go down in history?

If a Czech football fan thinks of EURO 2004, which was played in Portugal, he or she will probably feel anxious and remember feelings of sadness and regret.

The Czech national football team had a simply incredible team led by Karel Brückner. Names like Pavel Nedved, Tomas Rosicky, Milan Baros, Petr Cech, Jan Koller, and Marek Jankulovski commanded respect throughout Europe, and it was no coincidence that the Czech national team was one of the biggest favourites to win the tournament. However, fate had prepared a completely different scenario.

The Silver Goal Rule

If the cup encounter does not produce a winner within the traditional ninety minutes, the match goes into extra time. Currently, extra time is played for thirty minutes and is divided into two halves of fifteen minutes each. Regardless of the number of goals scored or the result during the first half. If even this set time does not decide the winner, the match will head to a penalty shootout.

Football is constantly evolving and so we have the opportunity to see attempts to implement new rules, different restrictions or regulations. In 2002, the Silver Goal Rule was created to complement the already existing Golden Goal Rule, a rule dating back to 1993. What were the differences?

The Golden Goal could also be called sudden death. If either team scored a goal in extra time, the match was immediately abandoned. This rule was last used in men’s football in 2002 during the World Cup. A year later, it was also used for the last time by the women during the World Cup.

The silver goal gave the losing team a chance to do something about the result during the first half of overtime. If the game ended in a tie, the first fifteen minutes of overtime followed. If one team was ahead during the fifteen minutes, the match was over. Otherwise, the second half and any penalties followed.

Czech footballers also tasted the bitterness of a silver goal at the aforementioned Euro 2004, when they faced Greece in the semi-finals. The taste was all the worse because the Greeks scored a goal in the last minute of the first half of extra time. The Czech footballers had no time to react to the goal. Greece completed another unexpected execution and advanced to the final.

Tomáš Galásek wrote history

The Silver Goal rule was only used for one year and we saw it in three cases. However, it only worked twice in those three games.

In 2003, the Europa League final (then the UEFA Cup) offered the first opportunity to see the newly introduced rule in action. The match between Porto and Celtic ended 2-2 after ninety minutes and the spectators could look forward to an extra time encore.

The Portuguese club eventually decided the match in extra time, but it wasn’t until the 115th minute that they scored the winning goal. That is, in the second half and so Celtic still had five minutes to score the equalising goal. That didn’t happen and José Mourinho and his charges could start celebrating European success.

In the 2003/2004 season, the Champions League offered only one single extra time. It was in a preliminary round match between Ajax and Austria’s Grazer AK. The winner was decided by a penalty goal scored by Tomas Galasek in the 103rd minute. Two minutes before the end of the first half of extra time.

Back in 2004 FIFA decided to abolish the Silver Goal and reintroduce the classic extra time with a possible penalty shootout. Unfortunately for the Czech fan and all football fans who wished the Czech national team success at Euro 2004, the Silver Goal rule was the last one to take effect.

Tomáš Galásek is the only footballer in the whole history who was present in both matches that were decided by this rule. Once he was able to rejoice, unfortunately not the second time.

Source: Wikipedia.org