Take on extra time

We really get into soccer once every four years and truly believe the
World Cup is one of the greatest sporting events in the world. Unlike
the Olympics which also wraps itself up with national pride, this is
an event where you are captivated by one great game and not getting
sucked into some crazy game like shooting a gun after skiing or
playing shuffleboard on ice. In futbal the action is great, the
stars are not manufactured by NBC, the intrigue is real and the
competition is fantastic

What we don't particularly like are some of the soccerisms. The
entire FIFA is corrupt, the flopping is lame, the superstars are prima
donnas and the seedings seem to have been picked out of a hat at
random. But what really irks us about the beautiful game is his
concept of extra time. We get that with a running clock there has to
be some ability for the referee to add time to makeup for injuries,
substitutions and purposeful slow play but the concept of adding a
seemingly random amount of time -at the discretion of one person- to
the end of a game seems a bit 19th century but it's execution is
ludicrous

I can even wrap my head around the concept but what I can't fathom why
they don't let anybody know how much actual time they are adding. At
the end if the US-Portugal game the TV announcers said that the ref
added five minutes but that only means that it will be somewhere
between 5 and 6 minutes that is like telling an NBA team they have
about 4 minutes of overtime but the ref can blow the whistle any time
between four minutes and four minutes and 59 second. How the hell
would Phil Jackson or Pat Riley draw up a play??
In a tournament run by such a corrupt league, this can only lead to
accusations of cheating and you know this isn't beyond them.

The next time some American lawyer is in Rio in one of their renowned
FIFA fanfests and he steps into a brothel, he should ask for extra
time but not indicate how much he needs. If he's not done and if there
are complaint then they take it up with Sepp Blatter.