You're right, it wouldn't work in basketball

6/9/2010 5:53:57 PM

Or football

Or hockey

Or...soccer

Or any sport with a finite amount of time and the potential need to score a game winning or game tying shot at the buzzer

Again, liking or disliking soccer is fine...I just think the timekeeping in soccer is ridiculous...I see no reason they can't do it like basketball, except for the "tradition" reason

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 5:57 PM. Reason : .]

6/9/2010 5:54:45 PM

Nah, works pretty well in soccer

6/9/2010 5:56:31 PM

Well, that's just it.

Soccer doesn't have a finite amount of time.

Additionally, it gives the benefit of the doubt to the team with the ball.

If you have a chance to score at 2:55 of an advertised three minutes of stoppage, you'll generally be allowed to score.

If you're lollygagging at midfield, the ref will end the game.

6/9/2010 5:58:11 PM

Not broken, do not fix, etc

6/9/2010 5:58:57 PM

if you're willing to settle for "pretty well", go right ahead

i for one love seeing a goal scored 94 minutes into a game and having no fucking clue if it counts or not, since only the officials know how much time is left

6/9/2010 5:59:13 PM

Quote :

"Soccer doesn't have a finite amount of time"

And thats a problem

Baseball doesn't have a finite amount of time either, but it does have a finite amount of innings, unless you're tied

Golf doesn't have a finite amount of time either, but there are a finite number of holes

6/9/2010 5:59:41 PM

i think "stoppage time" is pretty silly and indefensible

and is it just me or do soccer fans seem to get way more butthurt defending their sport compared to fans of other sports

6/9/2010 6:00:34 PM

It's like it's a different game with different rules or something

6/9/2010 6:00:54 PM

Its how they played it 1200 years ago before people could keep time, so thats how it should be in 2010

lets go back to leather helmets in football while we're at it

ps: i don't hate soccer...but i think their timekeeping is easily the most retarded of any sport in existence

6/9/2010 6:01:46 PM

Quote :

"i for one love seeing a goal scored 94 minutes into a game and having no fucking clue if it counts or not, since only the officials know how much time is left"

If the goal comes before the triple whistle, it counts.

If not, it doesn't.

How hard is that?

6/9/2010 6:02:30 PM

Thats like saying if Ray Allen hits a jumper before he hears the buzzer go off, it counts...if not it doesn't

Except there is no shot clock or game clock, just a few refs with stopwatches, and Allen has no idea when to shoot it

YES, i'm comparing different sports

NO, theres no excuse for one sport to have such imprecise timekeeping

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 6:04 PM. Reason : .]

6/9/2010 6:03:20 PM

The officials make it pretty clear when stoppage time is over

Not sure how that is confusing

6/9/2010 6:04:00 PM

what would be the harm in having a clock count down (or up) to a set time, determined by the officials?

6/9/2010 6:04:31 PM

not only would there be no harm, but then the actual fans and players would know how much time was left

crazy concept, i know

6/9/2010 6:05:53 PM

Unless there's a ref tampering incident, no one's going to blow the full time whistle if a team is on a game-deciding rush.

The clock determines the flow of the game in basketball.

In soccer, the flow of the game determines itself.

6/9/2010 6:05:54 PM

Are you guys saying that there aren't giant clocks in the stadium

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 6:06 PM. Reason : lol]

6/9/2010 6:05:59 PM

Quote :

"i for one love seeing a goal scored 94 minutes into a game and having no fucking clue if it counts or not, since only the officials know how much time is left"

This would never happen. No referee would stop the game when a team is about to score.

6/9/2010 6:06:20 PM

College soccer uses a clock. The officials constantly have to signal to the timekeeper whether or not to stop it, sometimes no one can figure out why it was stopped at one point and not another, sometimes the timekeeper misses the signal and they have to fix the clock setting, and the whole thing is incredibly confusing.

6/9/2010 6:07:35 PM

almost as confusing as the refs being the only people to know how much time as left, or allowing the refs to dictate how long a game is based on their own subjectivity

Quote :

"No referee would stop the game when a team is about to score"

sounds really fair...

6/9/2010 6:08:11 PM

6/9/2010 6:09:06 PM

Quote :

"Ernie All American 33522 Posts user info edit post i'm learning to enjoy hockey but soccer i just can't get into"

contradictions ITT

6/9/2010 6:09:32 PM

^^does that max out at "90+" or does it actually stop during stoppages?

6/9/2010 6:09:40 PM

four year old trolling exposed ITT

6/9/2010 6:10:13 PM

^^ Why would it stop during stoppages? Only the referee knows what he will add time for.

And don't give me the subjectivity argument. The refs called KG for a moving screen last night as a makeup for a foul on the out-of-bounds review that they saw on the replay but couldn't call. There's nothing more subjective about letting play run than there is about makeup calls.

6/9/2010 6:11:25 PM

It's a secret!!

6/9/2010 6:12:17 PM

honest question coming. not a troll.

do the really big soccer stadiums like the one in mexico city or wembley stadium have scoreboards? if so, what is on them other than the score? does it count up to 90? does it show who has received yellow cards?


i'm not a "soccer fan" but I was in europe in the summer of 2004 for the euro cup and I went out every night to watch the games and it was awesome. very much looking forward to finding somewhere cool to watch the world cup. suggestions on that? el rodeo? hibernian?



[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 6:13 PM. Reason : ^^^^ answered while i was typing ]

6/9/2010 6:13:06 PM

Quote :

"Why would it stop during stoppages? Only the referee knows what he will add time for."

and thats my problem in a nutshell

why not just signal to the scorekeeper during a ball out of bounds to stop the clock until the ball is thrown back in (or goal kicked or corner kicked back in)...then he could signal during a penalty to stop the clock, and signal to start it back after the penalty

why not introduce soccer to the 20th century?

6/9/2010 6:13:08 PM

Pretty sure the score board I posted above is Wembley

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 6:14 PM. Reason : Clock workers are awesome!! Signed, Colt McCoy]

6/9/2010 6:13:47 PM

wasn't their some outcry just last season that Man U. got extra stoppage time in a game and ended up scoring?

arbitrary timing just doesn't seem to make any sense in professional sports

6/9/2010 6:13:58 PM

Quote :

"why not just signal to the scorekeeper during a ball out of bounds to stop the clock until the ball is thrown back in (or goal kicked or corner kicked back in)...then he could signal during a penalty to stop the clock, and signal to start it back after the penalty"

Because the referee needs to watch the game, not signal the timekeeper twice every ten seconds.

6/9/2010 6:14:35 PM

Quote :

"arbitrary timing just doesn't seem to make any sense in professional sports"

exactly

and again, when i ask why people support it, if you say "because thats how its always been", fine, i can appreciate that...tradition, history, etc

but if you try to justify it some other way...you don't make any rational sense to me

^if he needs to watch the game, how about let the scorekeeper 'pause' the clock when the ball goes out of bounds, and 'resume' the clock when a ball comes back in bounds...does that sound so crazy?

6/9/2010 6:14:59 PM

If the timing rules are your only beef with soccer, I can point out plenty of other retarded timing rules in other sports if you'd like.

6/9/2010 6:15:40 PM

Because that's the way it's always been

and

It's not broken

6/9/2010 6:15:50 PM

^^well yeah that is my main beef with soccer

please feel free to point to other sports with timing issues

and realize that while sports like baseball and golf don't have set time limits, they do have their own explicit concrete limits

^its odd to me that someone so statistically grounded like yourself doesn't think human error dictating when a game ends needs to be re-evaluated by FIFA or whoever

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 6:17 PM. Reason : .]

6/9/2010 6:16:24 PM

well my main beef with soccer is that it is not nearly as interesting to watch as any other sport (besides baseball), but that is obviously subjective

6/9/2010 6:17:17 PM

I'm sure the 1972 Russian basketball team loves subjective refs

bad example, but thats the type thing that can happen when you don't have concrete rules about the length of a game

6/9/2010 6:18:26 PM

nascar did the opposite of what you're suggesting TreeTwista10. with the green white checkered and now having multiple green white checkered finishes, you don't know if the race is 500 miles or 503 or 506 etc.....

truth is pro sports is all about the fans and making them happy so they spend dat green. if soccer fans are clamoring for a change to the timing, then its fine just how it is

6/9/2010 6:21:13 PM

Quote :

"please feel free to point to other sports with timing issues"

Explain why the clock stops on an incomplete pass in football but not on a run play. Or why it stops when a player goes out of bounds instead of falling in bounds.

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 6:22 PM. Reason : .]

6/9/2010 6:21:40 PM

^ in NFL it actually doesn't always stop when a player goes out of bounds for tv/fan reasons which just goes to my point ^^

6/9/2010 6:22:59 PM

Football is awesome

I love 10 minutes of action and three hours of commercials

6/9/2010 6:23:35 PM

And there are a LOT more opportunities for a ref to be subjective in football than in soccer. Offensive holding?

6/9/2010 6:28:12 PM

Quote :

"And don't give me the subjectivity argument. The refs called KG for a moving screen last night as a makeup for a foul on the out-of-bounds review that they saw on the replay but couldn't call. There's nothing more subjective about letting play run than there is about makeup calls."

6/9/2010 6:29:32 PM

Quote :

"is it just me or do soccer fans seem to get way more butthurt defending their sport compared to fans of other sports"

I agree, they do.

But for everybody that wants to trash soccer for the way they keep stoppage time... changing that isn't going to make you like it, so why do you waste time complaining about it? If you don't like the sport, then whatever. Just don't make a big deal out of shit you know won't change your opinion about it.

I think that if soccer went to actual time stoppages (for penalties, injuries, etc) we'd just open the door for more artificial stoppages to have commercials and a bunch of wasted time so I'd just like to keep it the way it is.

And keeping time like basketball and hockey wouldn't be feasible as the ball goes out of bounds so much and often times, the play is immediately restarted so you're just asking for more opportunities to mismanage time, which is what the whole complaints seem to be about.

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 6:33 PM. Reason : .]

6/9/2010 6:31:57 PM

the only highlights in soccer are the 50 fans that get killed at every game

6/9/2010 6:33:55 PM

....and the 2 or 3 players on the field that get killed

6/9/2010 6:34:19 PM

...and one of the coaches that may get killed

takin a job as a coach is like takin a job as a night shift convenience store clerk..IN YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY

6/9/2010 6:35:45 PM

Quote :

"Explain why the clock stops on an incomplete pass in football but not on a run play. Or why it stops when a player goes out of bounds instead of falling in bounds."

Regardless of why, the players know the rules, and things like that come into play because players/coaches know how much time is left...3 minutes left in the 4th quarter with a lead? run the ball, run out the clock...3 minutes left in the 4th with a deficit? score before the clock hits zero

And if running the ball and getting tackled inbounds stopped the clock, or if incomplete passes kept the clock running...everyone would still know how much time they had left to score or defend, and could call and run plays accordingly to reflect that

Should NFL or NBA referees also keep time in addition to calling the game? Or could time be kept much more effectively and efficiently if you simply had a scoreboard operator whose job it was to simply keep time?

6/9/2010 6:56:38 PM

doesn't this excite you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAjWi663kXc

or some ZZ highlights?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71nwLXSS4Ug&feature=related

I don't understand why they won't paint no-charge arcs under college baskets.

[Edited on June 9, 2010 at 7:05 PM. Reason : ]

6/9/2010 6:59:28 PM

This is a pretty interesting read about soccer and the United States...its kind of political (ok some parts are very overtly political), I stumbled on it by accident, but figured it was worth posting here as it does bring up some good points from both sides, and overall just kind of sums up how while soccer is growing in US popularity, it still has a long way to go

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-philbin/2010/06/09/media-make-selling-soccer-goal

6/9/2010 7:41:32 PM