The four longest periods of stoppage time for a single half
of soccer at any World Cup were all played Monday, according to statistics
analysis site Opta Joe.
England and Iran went into the 15th minute of stoppage time
in the first half Monday and the referee added 14 minutes in the second half. A
head injury for Iran’s goalkeeper explained the first, but the second raised
more eyebrows.
Even more surprising were the Netherlands-Senegal and the
United States-Wales games each entering the 11th minute of time added at the
end for the myriad types of stoppages in modern soccer. The U.S. game that
started at 10 p.m. on Monday in Doha ticked over into Tuesday when the final
whistle blew.
The pattern carried on Tuesday as Argentina-Saudi Arabia
went into a seventh minute of time added on at the end of the first half.
“The purpose is to offer more show to those watching the
World Cup,” the chairman of FIFA’s referees committee Pierluigi Collina said in
Qatar ahead of the tournament.
Collina insisted the directive to referees “is something not
new.” FIFA officials have long been agitated about the dwindling amount of
effective playing time in the regulation 90 minutes.
In 2017, a 60-minute, stop-start game clock as in basketball
was suggested as an idea to explore by Marco van Basten when the Netherlands
great was then FIFA technical director.
At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the ball was typically in
play for about 60 minutes. That was down to between 52 and 58 minutes at the
2018 tournament in Russia, according to one statistical analysis.
“What we want to avoid is to have a match lasting 42, 43,
44, 45 minutes of active play. This is not acceptable,” said Collina, widely
seen as the best ref of his generation when he worked at the 1998 and 2002
World Cups.
Video review that was first used at the World Cup four years
ago has caused some of the modern delays, with stoppages often of around two
minutes to check on game-changing incidents.
Goal celebrations that now go on and on have also tested
FIFA’s patience.
“Celebrations may last one, one and a half minutes,” Collina
said last Friday at a briefing about FIFA’s instructions to their match
officials in Qatar. “It’s easy to lose three, four, five minutes only for goal
celebrations and this has to be considered and compensated at the end.”
Five second-half goals in England’s 6-2 win over Iran shows
that, plus there was a VAR review to award Iran a penalty at the end of the 10
minutes of stoppage time that were initially indicated.
It helped England complete 716 passes — the second most in
any World Cup game that did not include extra time.
Still, there was only one second-half goal in the 1-1 draw
between the U.S. and Wales.
While fans are getting used to the new norm of longer games
— and broadcasters perhaps adjust their running times of programs — the current
solution is arguably than those proposed five years ago.
Van Basten’s team also suggested research into combating
late-game timewasting by letting referees stop their watch as play paused
toward the end of each half.
Both ideas were soon shelved.