re: Should timeouts be allowed in soccer?

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Yea except for the fact that they are stopping the games for water breaks now...

Hell, make the timeouts 1 minute with the clock still running, since Soccer is so obsessed with not stopping the clock

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Water breaks are not "official," it depends on the ref of the game. The only game today with water breaks was NED vs. Mex.


Also, soccers "obsession" with not stoping the clock, is because those are the rules. The rules are what make a game up and what has shaped the game. Just because you don't understand it doesn't make it wrong or inferior to sports the stop the clock.

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Also, soccers "obsession" with not stoping the clock, is because those are the rules. The rules are what make a game up and what has shaped the game. Just because you don't understand it doesn't make it wrong or inferior to sports the stop the clock.

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I understand it, the clock always runs, pretty easy concept.

And where did I say it was wrong or inferior? Inferiority complex much?

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Your use of "obsession" had a negative connotation. As if to say, a running clock is an "obsession", and a stopped clock is "normal" or "right"

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Ummmmmm okay?
Maybe it's more likely you are too sensitive for some reason about this subject

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I am just trying to understand why a running clock is an "obsession" that soccer has. Does that make a stopping clock an "obsession" of basketball, football, and hockey? Do you see the parallel?

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Yea okay I guess I see that, how about this.
The way soccer keeps the clock (counting up instead of down, never stopping the clock, adding time at the end), is odd and irregular when compared to most other sports

Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you aren't trolling, which your somewhat pointed word choice makes me think you are, the difference in a time out and an official water break is quite large. With the official "cooling break", both teams know when it will happen. Much like the TV timeouts in basketball, they are done in a way as not to give one team an advantage (or at least to not do so intentionally). If teams had say 1 timeout per half, even if said to be used as a "cooling break", managers would use them at opportune times either to break the other team's momentum or to address some tactical aspect of the match. At its very basis, soccer is set apart from nearly every other sport in that coaches cannot directly interact with their teams during the run of play. This forces players to do most of the thinking for themselves. Yes, changes in tactics can be yelled from the sidelines and passed along, but it is much different to have everyone huddle up while the coach explains clearly and concisely what will happen.

Also, it is a case of "why fix what isn't broken?" If you add a timeout to act as team-decided water break, then you have to establish the criteria when they should be allowed. It would be a slippery slope to eventually just having a timeout or two for purely tactical reasons. As of now, the "cooling break" rules are contingency plan that allow the game to go on while protecting players from heat levels which may prove dangerous to an athlete running 7+ miles in 45 minutes at stop-start intervals including very high intensity sprints.

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shut up grass fairy.

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and people wonder why soccer fans/players get defensive

go back to your nascar