Dear Sports Fan,
What does advantage mean in soccer? I hear things like “the referee is playing advantage” or “has called advantage” but I don’t know what that means.
Thanks,
Gilbert
Dear Gilbert,
Soccer refs are the most powerful officials in any sport. Many important elements of the game, including the official game clock, are completely at the discretion of the ref. Advantage is one of those powerful elements of responsibility that require discretion on the part of the ref. When a foul is committed, the ref can decide to stop the game immediately or allow the game to continue interrupted if doing so would be better for the team that has just been fouled than stopping the game and giving them a free kick. This makes sense but it does ask a lot from the referee. He or she has to make a snap decision after each foul. Which team has the ball? If it’s the team that just got fouled, are they on the attack? How good of a chance do they have to score? Where was the foul committed? Would a free kick from that spot be likely to create a good scoring chance? How good of a scoring chance would it be? Would the team that just got fouled have a better chance to score by letting play continue or by stopping it and giving them a free kick? All of that calculation must be done in an instant. If the ref decides to call the foul, he will blow his whistle and stop the game. If not, she will straighten her arms out in front of her in what I would call a robot-giving-a-hug position to signal that there was a foul but the teams should continue to play. To add to the complexity of the decision, a good ref will also take into consideration whether or not the foul was worth giving a yellow or red card for and the general level of hostility between the two teams. If the ref decides to discipline the offending player with a card, he can still call advantage but must give the player the card as soon as the next time play stops. If a game is getting out of hand though, and the foul was a rough one, a ref may decide to stop the game and give the card immediately to avoid escalating violence.
Soccer is not the only sport that cooks the idea of advantage into their rules. Ice hockey has what they call a delayed penalty rule. Fouls are not called against a team until they gain control of the puck. This way, a team that is about to be advantaged by a foul call can keep trying to score until they lose control of the puck. This is why, when there is a delayed foul call coming, the team with the puck will quickly try to sub their goalie for another attacking player. They can’t be scored against (unless they make the terrible mistake of passing the puck back into their own net) because as soon as the other team touches the puck, play will be stopped and a penalty will be called. In American football, most penalties are announced after a play is over. A team that has been fouled has the choice of whether to accept the penalty or decline it and allow the result of the play to stand. In other words, a team that scores a touchdown despite being fouled does not have to wipe the touchdown off the scoreboard and take the smaller advantage of a five yard penalty.
All three of the rules help reduce the chances of a player intentionally fouling another to prevent her or her team from scoring. If a player were able to immediately nullify the play by committing even the most minor infraction, intentional fouls would happen all the time in these sports. Advantage is soccer’s best attempt to provide the maximum possible deterrent against fouling, whether that’s by blowing a whistle to stop the game or allowing the game to continue uninterrupted.
Thanks for reading,
Ezra Fischer