Just a minute
Credit:
Brian de Salvo has long conducted a campaign to revise the way match events are timed.
No journalist has produced a coherent argument to dispute his logic. More than one referee
has privately agreed with him. What do you think?
If you have an anorak in your closet slip it on. This is dedicated to you.
We’re talking goals, pinning down to the minute the time in which a goal is recorded for posterity. I am in dispute with colleagues in the soccer press in this matter. They would attribute a goal scored after fourteen minutes and fifty seconds to the fifteenth minute. I contend it has taken place during the fourteenth. Pay attention, this could be more important than you think. Particularly if you ever take part in one of those fundraisers that give a hefty cash prize to the holder of the ticket that predicts the precise minute in which the first goal will be scored.
Zip up that anorak and draw closer, we’re talking statistics here and stats normally deal in absolutes. In the case of soccer matches they deal in approximate absolutes. If you see what I mean. Unlike athletics or swimming, the nature of a soccer match makes attribution by the split second impracticable. So we’re talking whole minutes here.
You might be under the illusion that a figure after a scorer’s name in the results section indicates that the goal in question was registered “after” the number of minutes quoted. Thus “Byrne 15” means that Byrne scored after fifteen minutes have passed and before the sixteenth minute has occurred. But, if you’re reading an Irish paper the goal will probably have happened during the fourteenth minute of play. I’ll try to explain.
The confusion occurs because journalistic custom and practice attributes events during the sixty seconds after the fourteenth minute registers as taking place “within the fifteenth minute”. This is an error of logic. The game is not fifteen minutes old until the whole of the fourteenth minute has elapsed thus events taking place within that duration are correctly attributed to the fourteenth minute, that is the sixty seconds after the fourteenth minute has begun. This is true even though the event may have occurred one second before the fifteenth minute. The fifteenth minute is still upcoming not present time.
Need an aspirin? Maybe this’ll help. Supposing goals were recorded by the minute and second, which is indeed how they happen. A goal scored by Byrne after 14 minutes and 50 seconds could be entered as “Byrne – fourteen point fifty”. It would hardly be defined in print as “Byrne – fifteen minus ten”. You know it makes sense.
OK smart Alec, so that means that a goal scored before one minute has elapsed should be followed by a nought. Of course not. The goal has simply been scored “during” the first minute rather than “after” it. For such an unusual event an attribution by the second is not only correct but relevant because we need to know whether it was a potential entry for the record books scored straight from the kick off, or dragged on into the fiftieth second of play.
While we’re at it, events in time added on by the referee to the first half’s authorised forty five minutes should be recorded as forty five plus one or whatever since the second period must commence with the forty sixth minute even if the previous half has been extended to fifty. Geddit? It’s useful to treat time added on to the end of the match in the same manner even though the same opportunity for duplication doesn’t exist.
When a player is substituted during the interval this should be recorded as half time not forty five minutes as some reporters do. Although it is unlikely that a player would be substituted in the forty fifth minute, it does happen in the case of serious injury and this is a way of indicating the event was not part of some tactical reshuffle during the break.
Accurate clear stats is just a way of communicating information efficiently. But don’t have nightmares. When his team scores a last gasp winner your average manager doesn’t care whether it’s timed at the eighty ninth or ninetieth minute. All he knows is that his team is running out of time.
If you have an anorak in your closet slip it on. This is dedicated to you.
We’re talking goals, pinning down to the minute the time in which a goal is recorded for posterity. I am in dispute with colleagues in the soccer press in this matter. They would attribute a goal scored after fourteen minutes and fifty seconds to the fifteenth minute. I contend it has taken place during the fourteenth. Pay attention, this could be more important than you think. Particularly if you ever take part in one of those fundraisers that give a hefty cash prize to the holder of the ticket that predicts the precise minute in which the first goal will be scored.
Zip up that anorak and draw closer, we’re talking statistics here and stats normally deal in absolutes. In the case of soccer matches they deal in approximate absolutes. If you see what I mean. Unlike athletics or swimming, the nature of a soccer match makes attribution by the split second impracticable. So we’re talking whole minutes here.
You might be under the illusion that a figure after a scorer’s name in the results section indicates that the goal in question was registered “after” the number of minutes quoted. Thus “Byrne 15” means that Byrne scored after fifteen minutes have passed and before the sixteenth minute has occurred. But, if you’re reading an Irish paper the goal will probably have happened during the fourteenth minute of play. I’ll try to explain.
The confusion occurs because journalistic custom and practice attributes events during the sixty seconds after the fourteenth minute registers as taking place “within the fifteenth minute”. This is an error of logic. The game is not fifteen minutes old until the whole of the fourteenth minute has elapsed thus events taking place within that duration are correctly attributed to the fourteenth minute, that is the sixty seconds after the fourteenth minute has begun. This is true even though the event may have occurred one second before the fifteenth minute. The fifteenth minute is still upcoming not present time.
Need an aspirin? Maybe this’ll help. Supposing goals were recorded by the minute and second, which is indeed how they happen. A goal scored by Byrne after 14 minutes and 50 seconds could be entered as “Byrne – fourteen point fifty”. It would hardly be defined in print as “Byrne – fifteen minus ten”. You know it makes sense.
OK smart Alec, so that means that a goal scored before one minute has elapsed should be followed by a nought. Of course not. The goal has simply been scored “during” the first minute rather than “after” it. For such an unusual event an attribution by the second is not only correct but relevant because we need to know whether it was a potential entry for the record books scored straight from the kick off, or dragged on into the fiftieth second of play.
While we’re at it, events in time added on by the referee to the first half’s authorised forty five minutes should be recorded as forty five plus one or whatever since the second period must commence with the forty sixth minute even if the previous half has been extended to fifty. Geddit? It’s useful to treat time added on to the end of the match in the same manner even though the same opportunity for duplication doesn’t exist.
When a player is substituted during the interval this should be recorded as half time not forty five minutes as some reporters do. Although it is unlikely that a player would be substituted in the forty fifth minute, it does happen in the case of serious injury and this is a way of indicating the event was not part of some tactical reshuffle during the break.
Accurate clear stats is just a way of communicating information efficiently. But don’t have nightmares. When his team scores a last gasp winner your average manager doesn’t care whether it’s timed at the eighty ninth or ninetieth minute. All he knows is that his team is running out of time.
