20 October 1968 - Lots May Be Fair, But They're Not As Exciting

A 1-1 Olympic quarterfinal draw between Bulgaria and Israel on 20 October 1968 resulted in FIFA's adoption of penalty shootouts.

The two teams met at the Nou Camp in León, Mexico. It was apparently a heated affair, as the official FIFA report of the match indicates that referee Michel Kitabdjian issued six cautions in the first minute (three to each team).

Despite boasting a strong attack that racked up the group stage's best tally of 11 goals, Bulgaria took an early lead with a 5th-minute goal from an unlikely source, Slavia Sofia defender Georgi Hristakiev. For the next 84 minutes, Hristakiev played a more traditional role as Bulgaria managed to stifle Israel's own prolific offense--they had scored 8 goals in the group stage, including a hat-trick from Hapoel Tel Aviv striker Yehoshua Feigenbaum against Ghana in their opening match.

But Feigenbaum eventually cracked the Bulgarian defense, drawing Israel level in the 89th minute and the match ended at 1-1 after 90 minutes. In order to determine which team would advance, the rules at the time required the drawing of lots. Bulgaria won and progressed to the semifinals where they beat Mexico, 2-3. They then moved on to the final, losing to Hungary 4-1.

After watching his team lose via lots, Israeli Yosef Dagan proposed to resolve draws with the modern penalty shootout, which FIFA adopted in 1970.

15 April 1944 - Kamamoto Rises

On 15 April 1944, 6-time Japanese league golden boot winner Kunishige Kamamoto was born in Kyoto. He was also the top scorer at the 1968 Summer Olympics, where Japan took the bronze medal.

Kamamoto joined the Japanese national team in 1964 while still a student at Waseda University. A striker, he started every match for them during the 1964 Summer Olympics, including a 3-2 win over Argentina in which Japan came back from a 1-2 deficit by scoring in the 81st and 82nd minutes. Kamamoto did not score any of Japan's goals in that tournament, but made up for it in 1968.

There, he opened Japan's campaign with a hat-trick in a 3-1 over Nigeria. After draws against Brazil and Spain, he then scored two more against France in the quarterfinals as Japan again won by a margin of 3-1. They were eliminated by eventual champions Hungary, 5-0, but proceeded to win the third-place match against hosts Mexico, 2-0, with Kamamoto providing both goals to finish with a tournament-high total of seven. He retired from international football in 1977 and remains Japan's top scorer with 75 goals in 76 appearances.

He spent his entire club career with Yanmar Diesel. Playing from 1967 to 1984, he scored 202 goals in 251 league appearances, winning four league titles (1971, 1974, 1975, 1980) and six golden boots (1968, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978) .