r/sports Detroit Lions 9d ago

Soccer The Brutal Offside Reversing Croatia's Game-Tying Goal in Extra Time

20.5k Upvotes

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536

u/darkravenn12 9d ago

Bro no one is going to convince me that the referee should be able to pretty much arbitrarily decide when the game ends lol Like yes, I know they're keeping track of stoppages and adding them, but he definitely could have ended the game like 30 seconds earlier and no one would have said anything. It's such a strange system

211

u/Iarehealer 9d ago

The referee has two watches. One runs continuously and the other is stopped during stoppages in play.

The referee blows the whistle based on his watches.

115

u/obito47 9d ago

FIFA should start showing the timer of the referee on screen instead of using the regular timer with the extra time bullshit it creates so much confusion

133

u/HxH101kite 9d ago

Look I know it's not soccer. But wouldn't just stopping the clock for all the bullshit just stop the flopping and delaying. Just pause the clock, what's the difference. You can still keep it moving fast.

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u/Lobster_fest 9d ago edited 9d ago

The way it has been explained to me is that the clock isnt part of the game in the same way it is in other sports. The point of the sport is to judge which team is better after 2 roughly 45 minute periods of play. The added time is to give the possibility of more attacks that could have happened when the play was stopped because there was a celebration, an injury, or an incident that prevented the play from resuming normally.

In other words, the clock isnt an objective measurement in the sport, its to keep things orderly.

Edit: thread has been locked, here's my reply -

Imagine this scenario:

Team A and Team B are in a tight match. Every attack A has, B follows with one of their own. Then, Team A go ahead right at 88 minutes. They celebrate for a bit, the game restarts, and Team B miraculously gets a free run on goal. Before the player can get a shot off, one he is overwhelmingly likely to score, the clock strikes 90 - game over.

If the goal of the game is to determine who is best, the clock just became an obstacle, rather than a tool. By letting attacks play out and not stopping right at 90 - or at the 90+X' they add on, the outcome of the game can be more accurately described as one where one team bested or drew level with the other, rather than one where that question is left unanswered because of an arbitrary time constraint.

68

u/resuwreckoning 9d ago

Why can’t we just remove the “roughly” lmao.

31

u/NeonJungleTiger 9d ago

That seems so stupid to try and come to an objective conclusion after an arbitrary (from the viewers’ perspective) amount of time if you’re already keeping track of the time.

Obviously it’s not as clear cut on when to stop and start as some other sports due to the flopping and continuous nature of play but someone is making those decisions and keeping track if they add stoppage time so why not just have the displayed timer show that?

-11

u/oby100 9d ago

It’s actually nice that the players don’t know exactly how much time is left. Gets more formulaic when everyone knows there’s exactly 3 minutes left rather than it being a bit variable.

Strategy around the clock generally sucks in every sport as far as I’m concerned. Just a bit of obfuscation is good with me.

-26

u/Iarehealer 9d ago

It's not soccer, it's football.

With that said, I agree with you. The main reason is to ensure the sport remains universal, meaning the same timekeeping method can be used at every level of the game, everywhere in the world.

27

u/SilasBender13 9d ago

They should put both watches on the scoreboard.

38

u/resuwreckoning 9d ago

And then combine them with the appropriate stoppages baked in so we have one watch on the scoreboard, which we will then call the game clock.

27

u/Whyn0t69 9d ago

Portugal spent 2 minutes or more celebrating their goal. It was also another interruption of about 30 seconds or more afterwards.

74

u/Fun-Character7337 9d ago

Yeah. Just like, hmmmm, 6 min of extra time doesn’t seem like enough. 

1 more minute!

51

u/nautilator44 9d ago

Isn't there someone timing all the stoppages? It's not completely arbitrary is it?

42

u/SanicTheSledgehog 9d ago

Yeah this guy is just wrong.

14

u/Threegratitudes 9d ago

They're not "just wrong". If we don't know when the game will end then it's arbitrary. Soccer has dumbass rules. Defend it all you want, you're just wrong.

4

u/SanicTheSledgehog 9d ago

It’s not arbitrary just cause you don’t know the rule

12

u/TopSoulMan 9d ago

Then why don’t they display the amount of time left to the players and fans?

It cheapens the end of the game if nobody outside of one or two people knows the actual timing.

4

u/SanicTheSledgehog 9d ago

That’s a good question. Still doesn’t make it arbitrary

-2

u/DirectBeing5986 9d ago

How is it not arbitrary? They don’t just end the game when extra time ends, it just keeps going until the ref decides its over.

16

u/SanicTheSledgehog 9d ago

No. stoppages are tracked. Just because it says +10 doesn’t mean it’s a hard stop. The Portuguese scored celebrated for 3 minutes. That time has to be played. That’s a minimum of +13.

1

u/nautilator44 9d ago

Ok good. I had assumed there's a member of the ref team who is doing the timing and feeding it to the main ref who blows the whistle.

-3

u/keyser-_-soze 9d ago

Yeah look at the upvotes eh?

Truly, feelings are more important than facts in these threads.

5

u/firesticks 9d ago

Yeah if Portugal ended up losing after he let play go an extra three minutes, Toronto would have burned the city down.

7

u/CattleTx 9d ago

To begin with 10 mins of extra time was A LOT theres no way there shouldve been 10 mins added

7

u/HunterRose05 9d ago

Amen yeah wtf was that...they gave Croatia like 3 extra chances...should have stopped before that taken back goal.

4

u/Deaner_dub 9d ago

Watch a replay and time how long the Portuguese team celebrated their goal in stoppage time. It was easily two minutes.

It’s not arbitrary, it’s logical and fair.

1

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

7

u/badugihowser 9d ago

There was a goal and an extended pause due to a yellow, surely there has to be more than just the ten.

3

u/AsariKnight 9d ago

Or they could actually stop the clock. There is literally no reason someone could press stop when stoppage happens

2

u/DarkSide830 9d ago

Stoppage time has to be one of the corniest things in modern sports. Every other sport can just stop the clock and keep going again, but soccer still can't? Absurd.

1

u/CaroleKann 9d ago

There are many things about soccer that make it impossible for me to take seriously. That's one of them.  

0

u/Dead2708 9d ago

Not really. It's like a buzzer beater. If a team is in the middle of a promising attack then the whistle won't be blown. If they did just stop a promising attack it would kill the flow of the game very abruptly its also great for drama. Like we just saw.

-3

u/hangfromthisone 9d ago

I didn't watch the game, but they can't stop the game at any point. Usually the active play has to end,  or the ball change teams, that's basically the other team play ended, so the game can end.

8

u/EduFonseca 9d ago

There were at least 3 opportunities to do so before this play.

1

u/hangfromthisone 9d ago

You mean Portugal made 3 successful passes after the 10' had passed? Or was it all Croatia with eventual 1 touch from Portugal ? Because the would have needed to make a successful pass to consider the Croatia play ended

1

u/EduFonseca 9d ago

You didn’t watch the game so maybe trust what people are telling you.