Soccer, known as football, is the single most popular sport globally. We have all witnessed the soaring mania that sweeps across the globe every four years with the start of the world cup. However, there is no denying that soccer is as fun to watch as it is to play.

The game has a simple objective, i.e., kick the ball into the goalpost to score a goal. The techniques and strategies involved in scoring a goal are nothing short of an art form. The short and long passes, the various dodging techniques, and the teamwork required to win are like clockwork.

So you are interested in college soccer and want to know about the timing and other aspects of the game? Let’s go over some basics, including time duration, below.

How Long is a College Soccer Game?

A college soccer game runs 90 minutes from start to finish, the same as an official match. A half-time break is observed at the 45-min mark, which lasts for 15 minutes. Remember that while 90 minutes is the total time, there might be particular circumstances that may prolong the time by a few minutes.

What Can Prompt additional time in a Soccer game?

As mentioned above, a soccer game might get prolonged. For example, two common situations where a game may be prolonged are:

• If the referee adds stoppage time at the end of either half
• If the game ends in a draw

What is Stoppage Time in College Soccer?

A soccer game uses a running clock which means that the time starts when the ball is touched for the first time. Once the clock starts running, it doesn’t stop until the referee calls an end to the half.

This means that no matter what, the clock doesn’t stop even if a player is injured or substitution is called. A downside to this system is that valuable time is lost when the game is paused for any reason.

In this context, stoppage time is when the referee adds additional time at the end of a half to make up for the lost time, as discussed above. The referee keeps track of when the game is paused and how much time is lost, which he then adds at the end of the half. However, the added time is not always an exact amount and can vary from 1 to 10 minutes.

What Happens When College Soccer Ends in a Draw?

Another scenario where additional time might be added to a game is when it ends in a draw. For example, overtime is granted if both teams have an exact number of goals and the game ends. Normally, 20 minutes are added to the game in case of a draw with a 2-min half-time break.

Here is a bit of a twist. College Soccer rules call for “Sudden victory overtime,” which means that whichever team scores the first goal wins the game. Hence, the 20-min overtime may end in a minute if that is how long it took one of the teams to score the first goal. This is also known as the “Golden Goal.”

What Happens if Overtime Ends in a Tie?

If, say, the 20-mins go by, and none of the teams score a goal, what then? This happens all the time. If the teams are still in a tie at the end of the overtime, a penalty shootout is called. In a penalty shootout, each team has five shots. Whichever team scores the most goals at the end is declared the winner.

However, a common rule that applies here is that a different player on the team must take each shot.

If the game is still a tie after a penalty shootout on the rarest of occasions, the game goes into a sudden-death shootout. During the sudden-death shootout, each team takes one penalty shot and the team who misses the penalty shot while the other team scores are the team that loses the game.

A sudden death shootout is the last tie-breaker in soccer which ultimately ends the game as players are exhausted by this point, and a team is bound to miss a shot while the other one makes it.

Hence, even though the initial time of a soccer game is 90 minutes, it can be prolonged quite a bit, depending on the situation.