Portimonense, a second-division Portuguese soccer team, won the first phase of the Carlsberg Cup. Did they score a goal? Oh no, certainly not. They exploited an obscure, age-specific tie-breaking rule. From PortuGOAL, via Dirty Tackle:
Soccer Team Exploits Age Rule, Wins Match
↵↵With all three teams in Group A finishing level on points and no goals scored, the competition regulations dictated that the winners would be decided by the youngest average age of the players used.
↵Alive to this fact, in the 91st minute Portimonense coach Litos replaced veteran goalkeeper Pedro Silva (35 years old) with his 19-year-old back-up, Sapateiro, which ended up making all the difference.
↵↵The obvious extension of this is to field a team of 9-year-olds and have them form a phalanx of sorts at their own goalpost, thereby preventing any goals and winning via the tie-breaking procedure. Man. My third-grade soccer team was way ahead of its time.
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