Tips/examples of Soccer gamers

I prefer using only the minute and I've yet to read any story that uses the seconds. Personally, I prefer stoppage time.

 

Stoppage time is more appropriate because it takes into account time taken setting up free kicks, yellow/red cards getting administered etc.

 

stoppage time may not exist depending on what level your covering. In high school, the clock is stopped for bookings, PKs, goals and injuries. It may also be stopped at the officials' discretion for excessive time wasting. But when the clock hits 0:00, that's it. And it's only 40 mins in high school.

 

However, at some of the better soccer programs they have an actual clock running and they stop at once it hits 2:00. This allows the referees to stop it at their discretion, not the person working the scoreboard.

 

Or you could be covering a game where an official (or former official) mans the scoreboard.

In the district I cover, most teams have such a scorekeeper and at the two-minute mark, the center official will give a thumbs-up to let him know to keep the clock rolling or a thumbs-down to tell him to stop the clock and announce official time is now on the field.

In the postseason, official time was always on the scoreboard clock.

 

I would never use equalizer in a game story.

 

I'm assuming that you are new to the field. As others have pointed out, you need to give us a bit more if you want us to be really helpful, but, failing that, I'll speak in general terms.

Writing a soccer gamer is the same as writing a gamer for any sport. Tell the story of the people playing the game, rather than getting bogged down on the play-by-play of the game itself. We write about people. Sports are just what the people we write about do.

When I covered high school stuff I made a point of contacting every coach in the area prior to the start of the season. I went to the schools, introduced myself, and asked them to give me a list of 2-3 players that were deserving of coverage. I told them to give me their best player, yes, but to also tell me about players that were deserving in non-scoreboard ways--maybe they had a 4.1 GPA, or they volunteer with the Special Olympics three days a week, whatever. Find the personal story. Then, when you go to the game, you have 5-6 players, with stories to tell, that you can watch for. Chances are one of them will do something worthwhile during the game.

You focus in on one player, tell her story within the context of the game, then tack the stats to the end. It's a formula that works every time, regardless of the sport you are covering.

As far as the soccer-specific stuff....It's a pretty simple game. Just don't pretend you are writing a "football" piece for the Guardian. You live in Canada (unless you mean Ontario, CA...). Write it for Canadians...i.e. pitch = field, strip = jersey, boots = cleats, nil = zero, etc.

 

Do, however, read the Guardian and learn how to put together gamers without leaning on play-by-play.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/

 

I always use "75th minute" and not the time on the scoreboard. Some clocks count up, some count down. But the minute is always the same.

Shots on goal seem to be a difficult stat for coaches and staticians in soccer. A SHOT is when you feel the player kicked the ball to the goal with the intent to score. A SHOT ON GOAL is when a shot either goes in or was saved and would have gone in had the goalkeeper or defender not stopped the shot. A shot that hits the crossbar or post is not a shot on goal since it had no chance of going in. A shot on goal must either be a goal or save.