Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup Fourth Round match between Columbus Crew SC and the Chicago Fire was a breathless affair that had to be decided by a penalty-kick shootout — and a marathon one to boot.
So much so that the shootout, which ran on long enough to require all 11 players on either side to take spot kicks, has tied an all-time record for most penalties taken in a shootout involving an MLS team.
Not only that, the clinical finishing skills shown by both sides to make the shootout stretch on for that long — 19 of the 22 spot kicks were successfully converted — have put this game in another select statistical club:
The long-running duel eventually forced both goalkeepers to shoot from the spot, and the Fire's Richard Sanchez got to play the hero twice over, first netting his own PK and then saving the effort from his opposite number, Columbus' Logan Ketterer, to win the game for the visitors:
