How Do Soccer Players Know How Much Time is Left?

If you are viewing a soccer match from home, you’ll most probably be able to tell how much time left until the game ends by just looking somewhere on the screen. Almost all of the TV channels that broadcast soccer matches will display the game’s clock as well as the game’s score.

But what about the players themselves? How can the players tell how much time left while they are on the soccer field?

Soccer players can tell how much time left by looking at the giant clock that most professional soccer stadiums have. Soccer players also develop a sense of time while they are playing a soccer game and this helps them estimate how much time left without looking at any clocks.

So that’s your answer. But here are some more detailed explanations of what you have just read:

There are many ways a soccer player can tell how much time left for the game that they are playing at, and here are a few of these ways:

1- The giant clocks in the soccer stadium.

Most of the professional soccer stadiums include at least 2 giant clocks, one on each side of the field. This way, both teams can just look up at the clock in order to know how much time left till the game ends.

stadium clock

Next time you watch a soccer match, try to notice where the players are looking when the game is stopped, you’ll most probably notice some players looking up multiple times at where the clock is positioned.

Also, you’ll find them looking at the clock more often when they are losing the game and they are trying to make a comeback, or when they are winning the game but their opponent is pressing a lot and is attempting to have a comeback.

In other words, the players will be looking at the giant stadium’s clocks a lot when there isn’t so much time left till the game ends and when each of the next few minutes is extremely important for one of the teams to win the game.

2- The assistant referee holding the extra time sign.

At the end of each half in a soccer match, the referee adds a few extra minutes to the game just to compensate for some of the minutes lost during that half. If you want to learn more about how the extra time works, you can check this article here.

Basically, when one of the halves is about to end, an assistant referee stands on the middle of one of the sidelines of the soccer field and raises a digital sign that displays how much extra time will be added to the current half of the game.

When the players see the sign, they will be able to tell how much time left for the game or the half to end.

3- Player’s sense of time.

When you do the same thing repeatedly for hundreds of times, you start to develop a set of skills revolving around it. In the case of soccer, when you repeatedly play soccer games of the same duration, your predictions of how much time is left till a soccer match ends become more and more accurate.

Professional soccer players play hundreds of soccer matches during their career. The more soccer games they play, the better accuracy they gain when they predict how much time left till the game ends.

There are other ways a soccer player can tell how much time is left in case none of the above options are possible. After all, not all soccer games are of a high budget, some are just for fun, and others are played in leagues that are rarely known.

The way the players in these matches can tell how much time left till the match ends is simply by asking the referee of the match, or by asking their coach or any other person who is sitting outside the field as a spectator.

With that said, I’ll end my article here. Here’s a summary of what you have just read

SUMMARY

Soccer players can tell how much time left during a game by looking at the giant clocks that are installed in the professional soccer stadiums that they play at. They can also tell how much time left when the assistant referee raises their digital sign to inform the players how many extra minutes will be added to the current half of the game.

Players can also just ask the referee, their coach, or any spectator outside the field about how much time is left till the game ends.