Welcome to another edition of "Discuss," in which MLSsoccer.com editors debate the hot topics in North American soccer.
It’s the big talking point from Week 10: the penalty kick dispute between Columbus Crew SC teammates Kei Kamara and Federico Higuain, an incident which preceded a defensive meltdown that resulted in a three-goal lead turning into a 4-4 home draw.
So who should’ve taken that penalty kick in Columbus? Senior Editor Matthew Doyle, Editor-in-Chief Simon Borg, Senior Editor Arielle Castillo and Contributing Editor Charles Boehm chime in with their thoughts below.
DOYLE: Numbers not on Pipa's side
Anyone but Pipa Higuain should have taken it. By the numbers he's one of the two worst PK takers in league history (minimum: 20 attempts), and that's a large enough sample size to know he's no good at it. Plus his conversion rate (75% in 2013; 62.5% in 2014; 50% in 2015) has dropped each of the last three seasons. Kamara was wrong to air the dirty laundry, but the real failure in CrewVille was letting this be a discussion in the first place.
BORG: He who has the ball
When there is no designated penalty taker, as was the case on Saturday (and Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter offered up a mea culpa for that after the match), it's always going to come down to an old-fashioned battle of wills. Spin it any way you want, at that point there is no right person to take it.
Had Kamara won out, you can argue that Higuain was wronged — he's taken nearly every Crew penalty kick since joining the team in 2012. Plus, if it was really an alternating scenario (a point that Kamara says Higuain raised), it was Higuain’s turn anyway!!! But even after all that, if Higuain felt so confident and assured to literally stake his ground — he didn’t budge from the penalty spot — that’s the guy I want taking the kick.
CASTILLO: Give it up for the trick
Every replay of this on-field fight yields something more cringe-worthy. There’s the meltdown of grown adults squabbling in their very public workplace, Didier Drogba’s attempt to broker peace (as usual), the bit with Michael Parkhurst at the end. Higuain might be the usual penalty-taker, but he should have stepped off here, if anything out of respect for Kamara’s attempt to get his first MLS hat trick. According to some post-game comments, too, it seems like Pipa might have indicated at first he would let Ethan Finlay take the kick, before taking it back—and that’s just not how proper teammates should operate.
BOEHM: Strikers are a different breed
It's quite possible that Higuain was technically justified in snatching the ball and taking charge of that PK situation. But even if that's the case, he was far more tone-deaf than a maestro of his quality should have been in that moment. Strikers live and die by their goal totals, and all of Crew SC need Kei Kamara happy and in form – and not denying him a shot at his first career MLS hat trick is an easy step in that direction. Higuain should know that instinctively and act accordingly, whether he likes it or not.
