soccer: why is it important in which minute the goal was made?

Factual Questions
1

I know nothing about soccer. I just don’t get it.
I mean, yeah,…okay…I get the general idea…There is a goal with net, and there is a ball, and when the latter goes into the former then it’s time to start rioting…

But why does it matter that the goal was scored in the 23rd minute? or the 47th?

I mean, for chirssakes,…in most games, that goal is gonna be the only damn thing that happened in the entire hour and half. So when they announce the final score of 1-0 or whatever, why is it so important that they also announce in which minute the goal(s) were scored?

It’s not like American football, where the clock is an important part of the game strategy. In soccer, one quick kick often reverses the entire direction of the field, and almost all the players suddenly turn 180 degrees and start running the opposite direction. So a goal can just as easily be scored at the 13th minute as at the 74th, right? What difference does it make?
Or am I missing something basic?

(yes, this is GQ… so I tried to restrain myself from the mandatory “soccer-isn’t-real-football, real-men-don’t-wear-shorts-and-knee-socks” Brit-bashing. But it wasn’t easy :slight_smile: )

2

What makes you think it’s important? Same as any other sport, they are giving it out as interesting information, not that it neccessarily changed the flow of the game.

In basketball, one quick pass reverse the entire direction of the court, and almost all the players suddenly turn 180 degrees and start running the opposite direction.
In football, a touchdown can just as easily be scored at the 13th minute as at the 74th, right? What difference does it make?

On your own terms, if it’s the only interesting thing in the whole game, then shouldn’t they announce any details about it?

And by the way, soccer teams play differently when they are up or down a goal, so maybe it is kind of relevant.

3

Both American football and hockey – sports that are governed by a clock – announce the time of each score in the box score of the game, and often in the articles about it. Why aren’t you complaining about those?

4

It’s possible to bet on the time the first goal is scored.

5

The time of the goal can by itself tell you a lot about the flow of the game. Of course, if you think that 1-0 means that nothing else happened, then this isn’t going to help much…

6

The thing is, it’s all pointless anyway seeing as how in five billion years the sun will run out of hydrogen. What use will those soccer scores be then?

7

Yeah, if they announce that the tying goal was scored at 89:30, you know it was a real event as opposed to being tied for most of the half.

8

Exactly. Or an example from this weekend:


Charlton  3-2  Sheff Wed

That tells us so much.


Charlton     3-2     Sheff Wed
           (HT 0-2)

Reid 51              O'Brien 6
Iwelumo 67, 87       Spurr 15

That’s a whole different story. Two early goals set Wednesday up with a comfortable lead. But after half-time, Charlton turned it around completely, with a winning goal just before the end of the match.

Sounds like a cracking game, in fact.

9

Especially with the winner scored by the home team with only 2 minutes left (plus stoppage time).

The OP’s main question shows an ignorance of score reporting for other sports. Hockey score reports show the minute of the goal (and the assissts awarded). Football reports do the same, if you look at more than the abbreviated format. Baseball does as well, by showing you in which inning runs were scored. Frankly, it’s only basketball where it isn’t shown in the report, and that’s cause scoring a basket in the second minute is usually meaningless.

10

I think you mean that real men don’t wear padding, helmets and use other players to block. :slight_smile:

11

Earth 0
Sun 1
on penalties

12

A goal scored late in the game might well change the teams strategy to “let’s just pass the ball around a lot to each other and annoy the crowd”.

Lots of sports do the same thing.

13

::stupid nitpick:: Not really - with NFL (professional league) rules, it’s nearly impossible to score a touchdown in the 74th minute. Anything after the 60th minute is sudden-death overtime, which is usually decided within the first 5-10 minutes by a field goal. ::sorry - couldn’t help it::

To the OP: the way I see it, it’s done for the same reason they report what quarter scoring was done in American football (continuing the analogy). To wit - a bit more information about the ‘story’ of the game.

14

You’re right, they play rugby. :smiley: [/hijack]

15

Officially, American football reports scores with the time remaining in each quarter.

Smith 11 pass from Jones (Johnson kick) 11:15 in the 2nd

And in hockey, the time is reported as time elapsed.

Gagne 5 (Moose, Squirrel) 19:59 in the 2nd (i.e., with one second left.)

16

I think he was talking about real time, in which case the 74th minute of a game typically corresponds to somewhere between the third and fourth minute of actual play. (Not including breaks for commercials.)

17

As Chez Guevara says it is possible to bet on the time the goal/s are scored.
What he never mentioned is that you can also bet on score at both FT and HT and who scores

18

A couple years back, Osasuna had a very long string of 0-1s with the goal scored above the 90th minute, in the “extra time” alloted by the refs to make up for time lost during gameplay.

That was one year the “extra time” rules got cursed very, very heartily by every Osasuna fan…

When goals are scored does affect strategy. An example: phase one of a tournament. Team A already has enough points from previous matches to be in phase two, no matter what they do in the current game. They’ll often do things like bench the usual suspects and use the usual benchwarmers as starters instead; or go for a defensive play and don’t bother much with scoring… but, if they’re going for this defensive play and the other team scores, then move to a more agressive form of play. If the other team’s goal has been in minute 87, the probability of getting a tie or an overturn will be lower than if it has been in minute 5… for reasons which I hope I don’t need to explain!

Many teams go “brick wall” when they don’t have anything to win, strategically, from a victory, nor much to lose. Last games in the local league and your team is neither top nor bottom of its division, for example. Brick wall tactics are easier and safer than “fancy play” or agressive tactics, why risk a forward’s legs being broken by some overeager defense when a victory doesn’t give you anything?

19

It’s worth mentioning that if the score is 1-1, 0-0 etc after 90 mins and the game goes to extra time (in cup games)

The score at the end of extra time is not recognised by the bookmakers, they pay out on the score at the end of normal time

20

Of course, a game that close to ending in a tie only to be decided by a TD would either have been very exciting or very boring.