What is a 'golden goal' and why is it trending at the 2026 World Cup?

If you grew up watching a golden goal end matches in an instant, the bad news is it's gone. The 2026 World Cup does not use the sudden-death process any more. The rule is gone, and it has been for decades.

But, if you have had on coverage of this year's World Cup during the knockout rounds, you've heard the phrase a bunch, especially on Monday, June 29.

What was the golden goal?

The golden goal was sudden death for soccer. If a knockout match was tied after 90 minutes, it went to extra time like it does now. The moment a team scored in the extra period, however, the game was over. The golden goal was the overtime winner.

These days it works differently. A tied knockout match goes the distance. Thirty more minutes, two halves of 15, played out no matter who scores or when. If the score is still tied, it goes to penalty shots.

Why it keeps coming up in this World Cup

The topic has resurfaced because the first full day of knockout games kept producing tight games. Monday saw two shootouts before bedtime. Paraguay sent Germany home. Morocco did the same to the Netherlands. Both matches were tied after the 90-minute regulation and 30 minutes of extra time. Both came down to a battle of goaltenders in penalty shots.

That was what the golden goal was built to prevent. Imagine both of those games being played until a goal was scored. That's the version of the World Cup that fans from the 1990s remember and why it is being discussed.

Why FIFA got rid of the golden goal

FIFA dreamed it up to make teams chase the win. It did the opposite. Players froze. Nobody wanted to be the one who gave up the goal that ended a World Cup, so extra time turned timid instead of exciting.

In the end it decided only two men's World Cup matches, ever.

Laurent Blanc poked in a goal in the 114th minute to push France past Paraguay in 1998. Ilhan Mansiz won a quarterfinal for Turkey against Senegal in 2002.

FIFA pulled the plug in 2004 and went back to the old way. Full extra time, then penalties if you need them.