Baseball, we’re told, is a game of inches. Right, and soccer is a game of feet. Ha ha, hilarious joke. But hold the knee-slapping if you will, for soccer can, much more seriously, be measured on another scale. That of time. Soccer is a game of seconds. A game in which results hang upon what happens in a fraction of a second.

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Paul Gardner is a contributing writer and columnist for Soccer America Magazine's "Soccer Talk" column and blog on www.SoccerAmerica.com.