Soccer question: minute or time left in half?

Of note, I think, is that high-school soccer, which I assume is the subject of the question, is managed differently from international soccer. The clock stops following goals, during an injury, when the ref is giving a yellow or red card, etc., and so there is no stoppage time. And I believe -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that a countdown clock is used, rather than counting up to 45 minutes (or 40).

 

I covered HS soccer for 5 years. They stopped the clock, but sometimes, the clockkeeper missed it. It was still official time on the field, resulting in them playing past 40 minutes sometimes according to the clock.

 

In my experience covering high school soccer, which is rather vast, the scoreboard clock is official since each half is over when the horn sounds at 0:00. That's why I use the time on the clock when each goal is scored. I look at the clock immediately after each goal and write down the time, rather than counting on some JV kid to stop the clock right away.

 

The half doesn't have to be over when the horn goes, though. The referee can wave it off and keep playing, though they often don't bother. Hell, I was covering a game once and the clock guy got up to go take a piss or get a drink, and on the way out said, "Hey, you mind keeping an eye on that?" Uh...sure? I'm pretty sure I screwed up at least once.

 

Well, a goal 1:20 into the second half would be the 42nd minute. A goal 20 seconds into the second half would be 41'.

 

An underrated point. The clock on the scoreboard in soccer is primarily a fan guide and is not official. The smart ones typically stop it with about two minutes to go in each half, leaving it to the referee's whistle to stop play.

Spike, there's no "American" style to writing a soccer match. After all, it IS the world's game.

 

Regardless of what is happening with the scoreboard clock or the timekeeper on the sideline, official time in a soccer match is always, always, always kept by the center referee on the field. Every game, every level.

 

What about high school basketball? Not being argumentative, but that time is kept by some random school official, not a referee -- unlike football. We don't do the 21st minute in basketball stories.

 

I understand your point, but soccer is different. Soccer officiating was well established before the state high school associations picked it up as a sanctioned sport. Unlike football or basketball, soccer has solid national and international governing bodies that are in sync, especially when training officials.

 

The difference is in basketball that random school official is part of the game by doing the clock. A basketball ref doesn't have a wristwatch going with official time.

 

Soccer doesn't do it that way, because it would "destroy the timeless flow of the game," or some other terminally-fossilized bullshit, for a player with the ball at midfield, trailing 4-3, to look up at the clock and see "0:20" or whatever time is actually left on the clock, and know he better get downfield and try to score pretty quick, because then -- this is an actual quote I've been given, in all seriousness, by "soccer experts" -- "if the actual game time is kept on the scoreboard, the trailing team will rush helter-skelter downfield in a mad dash to score, thus destroying the natural flow of the game."

The trailing team actually trying hard to score -- by god, we can't have that. Much, much better to have everybody just waltz around at a fine, pastoral pace, and then at some point, whenever the ref feels like it, he just blows the whistle and says "that's it."

Of course, the idea of a team actually scoring four goals in a game is almost as outlandish in itself.

Last year, I looked it up, and I certainly don't feel like doing it again, but do you know in the last 50 years of World Cup play, how many games have been played that took four goals to win -- that is, games in which the losing team scored at least three goals?

The answer is something like three.

 

It's actually five, since 1958, which would be 48 years ago. In addition, there also have been four ties of 3-3 or more, which technically meet your criteria. One of those was broken by penalty kicks.

As far as games in which teams have scored at least four goals, which you claim is nigh impossible, I didn't count, but it easily numbers more than 20.