>Typical- the US soccer team achieved a draw against Portugal after conceding a goal just before end of play. What sort of game allows itself to end in a draw? Thanks, Obama.

To me, and no doubt many others, the most bizarre thing about soccer is stoppage time. There is no official clock and the accumulated time to be added at the end of each half for stoppages in play (substitutions, injuries, etc.) is at the sole discretion of the referee. Not only that, when they display the time that will be added it is in minutes. 4 minutes could be 4:01 or 4:59. One of the TV commentators said the other day that these games are watched by a billion people and only one of them knows how much time is left.

I guess stopping the stadium clock as you go, as is done in all other sports with timed periods, would be too simple. Personally I think stoppage time is another sly English joke. In fact it has the whiff of a Monty Python skit. "How much time is left?" "Oh, not too much. The ref will blow his whistle before long."