The African Nations Cup, a tournament that brings together all of the continent’s soccer talent – especially all those wonderful attacking players – ended in a 0-0 overtime tie.

It was decided by a penalty kick shootout, the only way that Egypt and Ivory Coast could manage to put the ball into the net. Egypt is the new champion, by a “score” of 4-2 over Ivory Coast. Six phantom goals, which are never called goals, nor credited to either the team or the individual scorer’s record.

The shootout is an unmistakable symbol of the modern game, a mirror in miniature of the way in which defense is more honored than attacking play. It is an acknowledgment that genuine goals are so hard to come by that the tie-breaker must be based on the fake shootout goals. It pushes to the center of the action the one indisputably defensive player on each team – if there’s going to be a hero in a shoot-out, it will be the goalkeeper.

Thus, Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El Hadari, by saving two of Ivory Coast’s penalties, became the country’s hero. And if there’s going to be a goat, it will probably be an attacking player on the losing side, the one who fails to score in the shootout. Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast’s top goal scorer, filled that role to perfection, taking the crucial first kick – and seeing it saved by El Hadari. Five minutes later the Egyptians were celebrating their triumph while Drogba looked on in tears.

One wonders … shall we see something similar on July 9, after the World Cup final? Will that, too, go to penalty kicks?

Most of the omens suggest it is an unlikely prospect. The promise of something better springs, as it so frequently does in soccer, from Brazil. Already an overwhelming favorite to take the title, Brazil’s strength is in the skill of its attacking players – in particular Ronaldo, Kaka, Adriano, Robinho, and Ronaldinho. If the Brazilians win this time round, surely they will do it in a blaze of goal-scoring. That was the way they won their first title in 1958, with a 5-2 win over Sweden. In 1970, at a time when the sport was clouded by defensive caution, the Brazilians ran riot, averaging more than three goals a game, and destroyed the ultra-defensive Italians in the final, 4-1. Happily – the Italians having abandoned their catenaccio formation and the Greeks having failed to qualify – there will be no overtly defensive teams in Germany.

Against that optimistic scenario must be measured the realism of current trends. We have already had one 0-0 World Cup final, and it featured Brazil. That was in 1994, when Brazil beat Italy 3-2 in the subsequent shootout. A tie-breaker final was a great rarity 12 years ago, but not any more. It is a depressing fact that three of the current title-holders among soccer’s four major tournaments won their crowns in a shootout: Brazil, South American champions (4-2 over Argentina); Egypt, African champions (4-2 over Ivory Coast); Liverpool, European club champions (3-2 over AC Milan). The fourth winner, Greece, won the 2004 European Nations Cup despite scoring only seven goals in six games. Another triumph for the defensive game.

It is also clear that soccer’s climactic games do not feature many goals these days. The last four World Cup finals have produced a grand total of six goals, half of which came in France’s 3-0 win over Brazil in 1998.

Does it have to be this way? Does goal-scoring have to be so difficult to the point that any game that features more than four goals is regarded as an aberration? To insist otherwise is to indulge in fantasy soccer … but this past Saturday the fantasy burst into vibrant reality at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, where Schalke hosted Bayer Leverkusen in a Bundesliga match.

Not a game you would have marked down for goal-scoring feats, Schalke having managed to score only 22 times in 20 games this season. Its high position of fourth in the league table was due largely to its defensive play, just 12 goals conceded.

When the game was over, the Schalke defense was in tatters and goalkeeper Frank Rost had been beaten four times. Not that it mattered, for even more astounding things were happening at the other end of the field, where Schalke, the team that couldn’t score, had found the net seven times!

How to account for such a total reversal of Schalke’s form? It could have been down to new coach Mirko Slomka, in the job for only a month – except that in its two previous games under Slomka, Schalke had failed to score. After the deluge of goals against Bayer Leverkusen, Slomka confessed that he simply didn’t understand what had happened. “We made a few changes in training,” he offered, “trying to move forward more quickly.”

As the game ended, the 61,542 fans were on their feet to give both teams a standing ovation for a spectacular game. But the applause went beyond the players, it embraced the sport itself. Here was a rare sight these days: soccer showing what a wonderfully entertaining game it can be.

One is left wondering why it can’t happen more often. Why can’t there be more games that pull ecstatic fans to their feet to roar and cheer? Perversely, these very same games that delight the fans give coaches nightmares. They speak disparagingly of tennis scores or hockey scores, and set about “correcting” things. Slomka, having admitted his bafflement at the goal outburst, zeroed in on the four goals conceded and remarked that “I and my staff must look into that.”

That is the standard approach: attacking soccer remains a mystery, but defensive soccer can be organized. No doubt it will be quite a while before Schalke gives up four goals in a game again – defensive organization and training will see to that. Players, especially midfielders, even forwards, will be reminded of their “defensive duties” – and the chances of another unbridled seven-goal spree will disappear.

The chances of a 7-4 scoreline at the World Cup are even more remote. In a tournament where a poor goal-difference can mean elimination, keeping the goals-against count low is considered paramount – and a lot easier than scoring goals.

Indeed, goal-scoring has not been one of the World Cup’s strong points for some time now. Not since 1958 has the tournament averaged more than three goals a game, and four years ago it was 2.52, the second lowest figure ever. The sport needs the fillip of a free-scoring team. Once again, it needs help from Brazil.

pgardner@nysun.com