Soccer scoring

June 18, 2006 7:56 PM

What does the second, parenthetical pair of numbers in a soccer score signify?

I'm sorry to ask such a dull, fact-based question, but I have asked friends, Googled hopelessly--and this American is still clueless. On FIFA's World Cup website the scores are given as two pairs of numbers, the second pair in parentheses. I am humiliated to admit that after two whole weeks of educated guesses and searching high and low, I have no idea what the second numbers mean. I even downloaded the PDFs that FIFA provides for each game and have come up with nothing.

Related question: why has this information, which I can guarantee you will be crushingly obvious when someone answers, been so difficult to find?

posted by j.s.f. to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

Score at halftime
posted by kookoobirdz at 7:59 PM on June 18, 2006

It can also mean the score in the penalty shootout or the aggregate score if a match had two legs.

But the ones you linked to are half time scores.
posted by cillit bang at 8:18 PM on June 18, 2006

Why are half-time scores important to know?
posted by pealco at 8:45 PM on June 18, 2006

Why are half-time scores important to know?

Soccer fans love a good comeback, this generally shows if such a comeback occured (such as the Aus/Japan game). Simmilarly, AFL scores are often shown with the score at each quarter.
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 9:05 PM on June 18, 2006

Half time scores are only important if you're gambling - you can bet on the combination of who will be winning at half-time and full-time.

Otherwise this is just a pointless statistic, like 'hits' and 'errors' in the baseball on-screen graphic.
posted by nowonmai at 9:06 PM on June 18, 2006

On should-have-previewed, only a subset of comebacks would be revealed in this way, but this subset does include the most dramatic comebacks I can immediately think of (Liverpool in Istanbul; Man Utd at Tottenham)
posted by nowonmai at 9:09 PM on June 18, 2006

Half-time scores are only importantif you're gambling

..or if you're trying to work out whether or not it's worth watching a replay when you've missed the game live. They're not important, exactly, but they give you some (admittedly very vague) indication of what the game was like. Like the stats (often also in parentheses after the scores are listed) saying who scored and when and who was carded and when, half-time scores tell you something more about the game.
posted by bunglin jones at 9:11 PM on June 18, 2006

Half time scores are only important if you're gambling

On the other hand, football fans love stats, and often read much into them. For example, England didn't score in the second half of a competitve game for ages (until the recent victory over Trinidad and Tabago), which was noted with alarm by pundits. At the very least, it gives the commentators and newspapers something more to talk about.

And as a football fan myself, the half time score does seem important - its a large dividing line between halves, and this is indeed often reflected in the teams' performance.
posted by MetaMonkey at 9:30 PM on June 18, 2006

Half time scores are only important if you're gambling - you can bet on the combination of who will be winning at half-time and full-time.

Otherwise this is just a pointless statistic, like 'hits' and 'errors' in the baseball on-screen graphic.

Well no, its more like the row of 9 single-inning scores which add up to the final score of a baseball game, only even less anal.
posted by Rumple at 10:54 PM on June 18, 2006

Thanks for asking this. I've been following World Cup pretty closely, and had been bothered by the fact that I couldn't figure this out.
posted by Who_Am_I at 1:49 PM on June 19, 2006