How would you compare football NOW versus Then?

How often do comebacks happen in soccer? How does this compare to American football or basketball?

  • Answer:

    I like to think that comebacks in soccer are relatively more common than they are in basketball or American football. The subjectiveness and ultimate authority of center referees in soccer means that they can single-handedly influence the game in one team's favor (sending off a player). The same bad call that can start a comeback would be reviewed through video replays and corrected by officials in basketball & football. The number of substitutions are limited to 3, which means that more tired players are going to be on the field and risk making defensive errors or being outpaced as the game goes on. What constitutes "a comeback" in soccer is more broad than in other sports due to the low scoring nature in the game. Even a 1-1 draw can be considered a comeback if the team is a goal down three minutes before the game ends (portugal/USA game anybody?)

Robert Kalomiris at Quora Visit the source

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Although I've no hard facts to back up what I'm saying, I think both American football and soccer are very similar when it comes to the frequency of comebacks in each sport. Basketball on the other hand, seems to encounter more comebacks, albeit overcoming something like a 10-point deficit earlier in the game.

Kevin Duffy

Let me first define a comeback. Whether football has more comebacks or not will be based on this definition. A comeback in football should be defined as one in which there is a two goal lead. One goal isn't really a comeback.Similarly, a comeback in American football should be atleast two scores -14 points and basketball should  be around 10 points. There is also a time element. In football , a two goal lead is as good as a win. This is because goals are rarer in football. Average per game is around 3. Therefore, even if a team takes 80 minutes to come back from a two goal lead, it should be considered a comeback. As compared to that American football and basketball have more goals and baskets. Recovering from 10 points down after the first quarter for example isn't really a comeback.  For these two sports we should only consider the last quarter. Based on these definitions, I would say that basketball and American football have more comebacks. I do not have comprehensive data to support this. If I take the example if the current World Cup which is a sample size of almost 60 games already there have been a zero comebacks. But if I look at the NBA playoffs which would be a sample of around 80 odd games there would be around a half dozen games which have seen a "comeback". I think the NFL playoffs would have also seen a higher percentage of comebacks. Would be great if someone could actually crunch the numbers.

Avnish Anand

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