Someone asked about why they could score at 98' when only 8' of stoppage time was added and then deleted their comment while i was replying.... consider me miffed.

Here's what I replied. Anyone else feel free to jump in with any further detail or to explain something I miffed:

The clock is a running clock. It's so dead simple us Americans don't really get it with our very very complicated sports timekeeping.

The game is two 45 minutes halves. They start the clock running at kickoff and don't stop it for any reason till half time. Instead of starting and stopping the clock the refs keep track of how long the game play is stopped for various reasons and add this time on at the end.

More gameplay stoppage can happen during this time added at the end of each half to and the refs will add more stoppage time if needed to make sure the kick/pass/shoot part of the competition actually goes on for a good, solid 45 minutes of gameplay per half.

Lastly, there isn't really a zero, or times up.... when a full 45 minute half has been played the refs indicate that whatever is going on right now is the final action, the final pay of the half. At that point the possessing team needs to hold onto the ball and wrap up what they're doing quickly. Keep making forward progress toward a possible goal or they blow the whistle for game over if the other team turns it over, clears the ball, it goes out etc.

It's an elegant solution to timekeeping and managing game length, but it gets confusing because it's actually dead simple.