The Clock is the Clock
The running clock in professional soccer is a strange aberration. Where most other sports share the game-time with their players and fans, in soccer, both are left to guess when a match really ends. In the collegiate game, the game clock shows the actual time and counts down to zero. College officials can and do stop the field clock for nine specific situations.
The unique college clock-stopping situations include a television timeout, a player instructed to leave the field for an equipment violation, and various situations that deal with the last five minutes of the game. The referee has the power to stop the clock and suspend the game to direct administrators or game management personnel to “remove whistles, air horns, electronic amplifiers and any other restricted items that are not permitted from the spectators’ areas.” The more obvious stopping of the clock includes: assessing a player’s injury, when a goal is scored, when a penalty kick is awarded, and a player is carded.
When a referee issues a disciplinary caution, a yellow or red card or player ejection, the clock is stopped.
Tired of watching teams in the lead stall during substitutions? College Rule 3.7.2 instructs referees “During the final five minutes of the second period the referee will stop the clock and beckon the substitute (of the leading team) onto the field.” This stops the stalling and time-wasting as players exit the field at a glacial pace to run out the clock.
The Best Players Play
NCAA soccer has an unlimited substitution rule with a few restrictions. Teams can substitute as much as they want but there is no reentry for a player in the first half, one re-entry in the second half and no re-entry if there is an overtime (NCAA Tournament only). No more watching exhausted players finish out a game with no gas in the tank.
Most professional leagues allow five substitutions but no reentry. As a result, the best players are often not on the field at the end of a tight game when they are needed the most.
What we don’t like…
No More OT in the NCAA season
Unlike the pros who play extra time, during the NCAA regular season games that are tied will end at 90 minutes end as a tie. No more regular-season golden goals in OT – one of the most exciting plays in soccer. Who likes a tie? Just ask DU women’s soccer which has accumulated four ties in their first four matches this season.
Even in NCAA post-season play, a full two ten-minute periods must be played. If a team scores, they still must complete the full 20 minutes. So, the excitement of a single game-ending Golden Goal is washed away in both the regular season and post-season. If the teams are still tied after the two ten-minute overtimes in an NCAA Tournament match, goal kicks will decide a game-winner.
Bonus suggestions for the pros and collegiate soccer:
- Sure, this idea is a bit radical but Americans don’t appreciate nil-nil soccer games. The current soccer goal is 8′ high and 24′ wide. Adding one foot of width might let a few more of the shots that ‘hit the post’ find the back of the net.
- Diving, faking, or exaggerating fouls and/or injuries should send players to the penalty box for 5-10 minutes. While college has much less of this than their professional counterparts, a short-handed penalty to offending players, like hockey, would limit much of the nonsense.
What do you think about these rule changes?
DU women’s soccer faces at Pioneer Field at 7:00 pm MT against Colgate and travels to Oregon for a match Sunday. Denver men’s soccer finishes up their homestand with a pair of matches. Friday, the men face UC San Diego at 7:00 pm MT and Sunday at 7:00 pm MT against Central Arkansas.
Photo: Courtesy of Preston North end.
Maybe the dumbest sports article you’ve done (there are plenty of dumb non-sports ones)
Let’s make ‘American’ (US) soccer different from rest of world – brilliant, that will help us catch up
You did ask 😀
I live in Ecuador, so … futbol is the only game in town for me to see live. I’m two blocks from the stadium for our pro team, was at the game last Sunday.
Yes, the clock thing needs to change. Ecuadorian fans hate that “secret” clock as much as you do. I can’t agree with free swapping players in and out. It adds a ton of strategy to the game. In Baseball you can’t take a pitcher out then add him back in, why should futbol be any different? And “embelishment” or diving is also equally hated in South America. My friend’s son is in a pro development program and she told me he is being taught to take a dive to draw a penalty. She hates that. Hockey has a penalty for that, and I agree futbol would be better with that rule. I think a 2 minute penalty would be plenty to discourage that. And I can’t agree with changing the size of the goal, is what it is. Want to score more? Be a better player.
Chase
If the USA wants to compete internationally with soccer greats they need to play like soccer greats.
Get your head out of your ass and get with the rest of the world, unfortunately it’s unlikely to happen.
American sports fans will never tolerate flopping and invisible time clocks. These two things will keep soccer as a 3rd tier sport in the US, despite what you think. Now, I’ll put my head back in my ass.
Wrong. The NCAA substitution rule is RUINING college soccer. Unlimited subs means teams play run-and gun direct soccer with no possession; hence, big/fast players with no emphasis on foot skills. That puts smaller, highly skilled players at a disadvantage, and is holding back development of soccer in the US as a result. If Argentina played US college soccer, you might never have seen Messi (if he even had the opportunity to develop in the first place)… and a long list of other hugely talented small midfielders. That’s the main reason that I, my kids, and everyone else on their team watches the EPL instead of the MLS. In a word, it comes down to Quality.
If you want college players to not be gassed at the end of a game (much less your proposed sudden death OT, which I would support), the substitution rule is the wrong solution.
Instead, the NCAA needs to get IT’S head out of it’s ass and change to a European, year-round schedule. One game a week and year-round playing/training = less fatigue, fewer injuries (playing your best players isn’t possible when your starters are injured or you need to manage their minutes), players that stay fit, and a longer season for the fans, coaches, and players.
Just who are you proposing we are developing in college soccer? For the VAST MAJORITY of players, college soccer is a terminal experience. A small minority of D1 players go on to have meaningful pro careers. At the D2 level even fewer. And in NCAA’s largest soccer division by far, D3 meaningful pro careers are virtually nonexistent.
Changing the goals would require to change every goal frame everywhere in the world. Just not worth it. Watching some college games I see that a stopping clock is a neat concept but I don’t like the game to end exactly as the clock hits 0:00. It’s very anticlimatic to stop a nice play in the making. I would make it that when time is up, play continues until the team in possession loses the ball. Temporary dismissal already exists in the rulebook as an option, but governing bodies seem not to be excited about it, for now. Re-enters may be good for kids but big boys are supposed to play the full 90 minutes, this is just how the game works.
This article is beyond stupid.
First, professional teams do NOT play extra time in the regular season! Even MLS abolished regular season shootouts beginning in 2000. There has never been extra time in the Premier League, Bundesliga, Ligue One, Serie A, La Liga and nearly all other professional leagues around the world, EXCEPT the NASL and the MLS for its first four years.
Second, a clock which counts UP is part of football’s charm and differentiates it. We don’t need a countdown clock, because it would make football just like American football, basketball and hockey. It’s the same as baseball not having a clock (except the asinine pitch clock).
A bigger net? A penalty box? Now you’ve gone off your rocker. You need help. Serious help.
Sorry to hurt your feelings.
Hurt my feelings? Wow. I laughed my ass off at your drivel, sir. It was hilariously stupid.
Another thing–why do you think FIFA abolished the golden goal after trying it in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups (and the 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cups)? Because it was terrible for football. Sudden death overtime might be wonderful for hockey, but football, again, is different. Being able to recover from giving up a goal in extra time makes it great. The NFL adopted a modified form of FIFA’s extra time rules to keep a scored-upon team’s hope alive.
I guess you are satisfied with following the 8th or 9th most popular sport in America – Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Golf, Tennis, Pickleball, Cornhole and then, Soccer. Keep enjoying a sport that fails to adjust to the times.