A Big Ball of Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Stuff
Daniel Wise
With the NFL season coming to a close next month, I want to take the opportunity to turn some peoples' eyes toward the wonderful world of soccer. I'm not trying to convert people to swearing off the tried and true game of American football. I'm simply trying to expand some horizons. And by that, I mean to explain that there are sports out there that show, you know, the whole sport and not 3 hours of beer and truck commercials. I don't think it's a hard truth to face, especially with NFL players themselves lamenting the constant start-and-stop nature of the current game. When it comes to soccer, fans can always expect two uninterrupted, 45-minute halves divided by a brief, 15-minute halftime break. The fact that a game of soccer is able to flow without constant commercial breaks is fantastic. It's one of my favorite things about going to DC United games here in Washington, DC and watching the games on television. When I tune in, I get nothing but the sport. And I love it.
Here's the thing about how time works in soccer: like life, the constant, relentless march of time impends the end of all things, and what one does with that time is absolutely crucial. The clock doesn't stop for substitutions, fouls, or injury. Time passes unimpeded through the full 90 minutes; however, that time can be expanded past the 45 minutes of each half at the referee's discretion. Does that sound weird? Well, the referee can be a kind god and grant an extension depending on the myriad interruptions of play such as injuries, scuffles, substitutions, or the random pitch invader from the stands. In this post, I will explain how game lengths work in both regular season matches and tournament matches. This way, when you watch a game, you'll understand how teams manage the 90 minutes they're given to play.
Terms to Remember
Regular Season Games: During a season, teams in a league will all face each other in games to determine who will be the champion at the end of the season. Instead of depending on a straight win-loss record, teams will gain 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. All games during a season end at 90 minutes no matter what.
Stoppage Time: At the end of each 45-minute half, the referee can decide to add a couple of minutes of stoppage time to account for injuries, fouls, or other stoppages of play.
Tournament Games: Teams that compete in tournament formats, like the knock-out stage of the World Cup, will play in one-off games to determine a winner. There are no ties, so the games rely on extra time after the initial 90 minutes.
Extra Time: In tournaments, an additional 30 minutes (two 15-minute halves) is added after the first 90. If the game is still tied after Extra Time, the winner is determined by a penalty shoot-out.
Regular season games during league competitions operate a little differently from what American sports fans are used to. While most professional teams here in the states determine their worth by a win-loss record, in soccer, it's all about the points teams gain from wins or ties, and the points they drop when they lose. It's always 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for a loss. The team with the most points at the end of the season are the champions. It's important to note that points are different from goals, but those are eventually factored for tie-breakers. I'll get more into detail about this later this year. These games will always end at 90 minutes, so a clear winner is not guaranteed. Teams will usually manage time in a more aggressive style during regular season games. This way they can maximize the points they gain throughout the season. It's always handy to think of a season as many battles inside a broader conflict. Sometimes stalemates happen, but it's crucial to gain points throughout the season still.
Coaches and players manage time by adjusting their movement during a game. Have you ever ran around a field with intermittent sprints every so often for 45 minutes? 90 minutes? It's pretty tiring. So players have to manage how they use their energy. This is why you see a lot of passing around the field and not a constant sprint forward to score goals as quickly as possible. Players know that the clock is always ticking upwards. When they're able to keep the ball in their possession for most of the time, theoretically, that gives them the best chance to win the game. A popular strategy is a possession game where short, constant passing is a recipe for victory. When teams can pass well and move the ball forward methodically, they can frustrate their opponents and set up pretty cheap rent in their minds. This can soften up the opposing defense and lead to goals late in the game.
On the other end of the strategic spectrum, some teams will play very aggressively with long passes and a tight, interception-minded defense to maximize their chances to score goals. This can be demoralizing to teams that fall behind early and have to play catch up regularly. But the problem for the aggressive long-ball strategy is that it can wear out the team that employs it pretty quickly. That is why they try to get ahead early and then rely on a stout defense later in the game.
With these strategies, teams have to adapt to what their opponents are doing all the time. And one way they can break the concentration or momentum of their opponents is the classic dive. Dives are the black spot of the sport of football, but they are a crucial element to the sport. Like in NBA or NFL games, timeouts are used to interrupt opponents if they're doing well. If Stephen Curry starts going on a tear, making plays and dropping buckets, his opponents are going to do everything they can to take him out of his rhythm. Also, if you're the kicker for the Chicago Bears, you bet the Eagles are going to call a timeout to ice you. It's all a part of the game. And diving, like it or not, is as much a part of soccer as timeouts are to other sports. While diving might not be seen as the most honorable tactic, nobody ever won a championship entirely honorably (except for Chelsea FC midfielder and France's N'Golo Kanté, who is a beautiful, lovely angel-boy who is terrific, and perfect, and I love him very-very-very much).
However, there's a saving grace: stoppage time. When interruptions like fouls, dives, or injuries stop the play on the field, the referee is always keeping notes on how long these micro-interruptions take. These times of boring non-soccer are then added on to the 45-minute halves. This means that, in theory, the players and fans are getting 90 total minutes of real soccer every game. This, in essence, is the lovely generosity of the game on display. You really get to know the mettle of teams when you see how they take advantage of or squander, the 90 minutes they're given to win a game. Because at the end of the game, they have to live with the results and take stock of how they lived. Then they move on to the next battle having learned from their experience of the last match.
Tournament knock-out games are an entirely different beast to manage both from a manager's and a player's perspective. These games operate in the same way as regular season games do, except if there's a tie at the end of 90 minutes, teams have to play an additional 30 minutes split by two 15-minute halves. This wild post-game-mini-game is called extra time, and it can be utterly heart-wrenching to watch. Since tournament games can extend into 120 minutes, it's critical that teams conserve their energy and substitute their players wisely. Teams can only sub-in 3 players in one game, so a coach has to be mindful of who is running out of energy, who is in trouble with the ref, and the possibility that one of their players could get injured. Knock-out games sometimes display teams at their most conservative, but also at their most mind-bendingly strategic. A knock-out round game is often a cat-and-mouse affair where teams will try to out-smart their opponents with clever plays, frustrating tactics, and all-out athleticism.
The thing about tournament games, and it's something Americans can appreciate, is that there has to be a winner at the end no matter what. If the game is still tied at the end, then there's the world-ending drama of the penalty shoot-out where teams will line up their best and worst shot takers to take on the opposing goalkeeper in a 1-on-1 roulette of soccer death. It may seem like I'm being comically overdramatic for effect, but I'm not lying. I have experienced at least three penalty shoot-outs that have put me on the threshold of cardiac arrest, and I may have even suffered a heart attack that I didn't even notice at the time because I was that engrossed with what I was watching. I can't prove that I did, but I can't prove that I didn't either, so you'll really just have to believe me that tightly competitive tournament games are the closest to peak euphoria that a sports fan can experience. I would even say it’s death defying.
Throughout my years as a soccer fan, the mindset I adopted is to appreciate the time I'm given to enjoy each and every game of soccer I get to experience. 90 minutes in the grand scheme of things is not very long at all. And the best thing about soccer is that spectators are given nothing but those 90 minutes to take in the experience and really appreciate the spectacle of it all. Soccer is best viewed as a constant flow of action. There's nothing that stops the clock so your concentration can focus on the intricacies of the passing or movement of the players. You can become fixated on the mesmerizing flow of the game without fear of something ripping you from the action. When you watch the waves of players move and crash, you can get lost in the beauty of it all. Embrace it. As Bruce Lee said, "Be water, my friend."
“We must have had 99 percent of the game. It was the other three percent that cost us the match.”