OT - World Cup

[Peter]

Freaking killer tie. Dammit!!!!!

[admin]

Why don't they have a clock that actually keeps track of the exact time to be played as stoppage time so everyone knows exactly when the game ends? Seems like a simple enough thing to do.

[HoosierPal]

There is a lot of discretion on stoppage time, and to try and keep it on a live scoreboard, while doable, would/could lead to chaos. The referee is charged with stoppage time, yet it is the fourth official that displays the time on the board. The biggest controversy likely would be at the end of stoppage time. If a team has the ball in a close game and is advancing towards the goal, the referee can allow the play to continue even after the stoppage time is up. So a time on a scoreboard could read 0, but the match still continues. [Butler down by one with the basketball on a breakaway, time runs out, but the ref allows the play to continue and the Dawg's score to win the game....not a pretty picture.]

Substitutions in stoppage time, such as Gonzales in the Portugal match, also add onto the original time. That was THE critical event in the match. Usually 30 seconds is added, but more can be added if the referee thinks the substitution is taking too long. So the countdown clock would have to have time added onto it. [Can you imagine a BB game where time was added in OT?]

All of this certainly could be but onto a live visible clock, but I doubt if the tradition of the game will be altered to do so.

[Barley]