Posted by admin | Posted in Football Talk | Posted on 17-03-2010
I’ve watched two olympic soccer games and they both have gone longer then 90-minutes. Clearly the 1st period lasts 45-minutes. What’s the time in excess of 90 total minutes all about? Penalty time or something like that?
It’s interesting to me because, unless I’m missing something, “we the people” watching the game don’t have an idea when the game is going to end. Soccer time counts up. American Football and Basketball times counts down.
How odd.
you’re right, it should be two sets of 45 minutes equal to 90 minutes. Sometimes however, if there were plenty of faults or substitution during the game and times has been wasted for this, the referee would give a couple of minutes extra. Hope that clarifies
A traditional “soccer” match lasts 90min – 45min per half. At the end of each half the referee adds what is called injury time or stoppage time – that is the time that was lost during the match due to injuries, substitutions etc. If the teams are still tied after 90min (the two half’s) the go into what is called extra time.
Extra time goes for 30min (15min each half) this gives the teams a last chance to try get a goal ahead so a winner can be determined. If there is still no winner in extra time they then go for penalties.
Having the clock count up and not knowing exactly what time the game ends is the thrill. You never what can happen in those very last few seconds of the game, your team may still score – or, heaven forbid, concede a goal.
Dont know
The key is that if you notice, the clock never stops running. Basically, the referee tries to keep track of how much time is “wasted” through stoppages, injuries, substitutions, etc, and adds that much time on to the end of the period to make sure that the match ends up with 90 minutes of football.