Can someone point me in the direction to a read up on all of the rules of Soccer? They are a lot different it seems then when I played as a kid, but I get a bit confused with the Extra time and the down a man etc etc. Just need a quick refresher so I understand it a little better. Becoming more and more of a fan here in the US, especially after a visit over to Europe, I just want to be sure I understand it completely, especially since the only channel that has soccer right now in AZ is in Spanish and I cant understand what they are saying Thanks for the help in advance. Maldran
The Laws of the game are available at fifa.com in English, Espanol, Deutsch, and Francais. See: http://www.fifa.com/en/regulations/regulation/0,1584,3,00.html#
Ok, so from reading those, that means that the only time Extra time comes in to effect is if some time was taken for an injury, or for substitutions etc, and they take the time that it took for those instances, and add it to the 45 minutes of the second half and that is why you sometimes see games go past the 90 minute mark?
Extra time is a "guesstimate" by the ref of the time lost through various factors like injuries and substitutions. It's used both at the half and the end of the game. And I guess we shouldn't mention the fact that some officials don't like to end the game while a team still has an offensive opportunity?
Which I guess is why you see so many "I HATE REFS" threads, they can have a huge effect on determining the outcome of a game, is their anyway to know how much time is left or does the ref just keep that inside his little head and end it when he sees fit?
The referee keeps track of this time with a stopwatch. He'll indicate to the fourth official on the sidelines approximately how much time he'll be adding on, and the 4th will hold up a signboard to indicate to the crowd. Each ref manages time differently, tho I imagine there are guidelines they follow. When I used to officiate youth games when I was in high school, I'd stop my stopwatch when a team scored, and start it again at the kickoff. Similar for substitutions. Never dealt with injuries. Didn't worry about other restarts.
The center ref gives some sort of signal to the 4th official who then holds up his sign so everyone can see the extra time. But this is often not an exact time. If the ref feels that one of the teams has been doing time wasting, he can add even more time onto the game. Sometimes there's injuries after the 90 minutes etc. By the way, although this extra time is tracked on most TV broadcasts, the clock in MLS stadiums ends at 90 minutes and then it's up to everyone to guess when the game is going to end. Sometimes 4 minutes can seem like half an hour.
Ahhhh ok, excellent, at least the official lets someone else know, thats great. Thank you guys so much for the help, sorry for the Noob questions hehe.
Also, on average, the standard practice seems to be to add 2 minutes extra time due to injuries or time wasting that was easily remedied.
Just a couple of things, and I'm going to come across really pedantic here. I used to work with a ref' and he always insisted that the game followed laws not rules. Extra-time is the period of play which is used to settle a knockout 'mostly cup' match after it finishes as a tie after 90 minutes. What you were refering to is known as injury-time or added time or, as my local stadium announcer has started to say, time allowed. Sorry to be such a pain.
And you may notice that the first half often has less added time. Often just a minute or less. Just the nature of the game I guess - as more rough play, more stalling, injuries, and substitution are more likely to occur in the second half.
that, and they like to keep the first half consistent so sponsors know when their halftime ads will air.
I think it's very rare that injury time added is the issue of why many have the "I HATE REFS" threads... It's not too often that fans seriously dispute the time the ref adds. USUALLY fans hate refs when they significantly influence a game enough to alter the outcome because of poor calls or no calls during the game. If you're going to hate them - you must learn to hate them for the right reasons!
Fox Soccer Channel is available on Cox Digital Cable, as is ESPN2 which carries weekly MLS telecasts.
Sweet Fiddle, I have Cable America out here in Queen Creek (johnson ranch) and just signed up for the Digital Basic plus, includes ESPN2 and Fox Soccor Channel!!! Freakin sweet. How often does ESPN2 have their games, and on what days?
MLS games are usually every Saturday on ESPN2. FSC usually has a game or two on Saturday nights after the ESPN2 match. This weeks ESPN2 match is a bit later than usual - 6pm eastern, and the FSC game is at 8:30. I see you listed RSL as your team. They're not on National TV again until July 23, against Dallas on FSC. TV schedule is here: http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/mls/schedule/
...but don't fret. MLSnet.com has live streaming video feeds of most of the games, so if you have a decent Internet connection, you can catch most of the RSL games between now and the 23rd (and beyond) for free. ...Kinda makes you wonder why they even bother to have the DirectKick package now anymore, doesn't it?