After serious thinking Paul Epstein wrote :
> On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 3:58:34 PM UTC,
lionele...@gmail.com wrote:
>> On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 3:46:01 PM UTC, Ken Blake wrote:
>>> On Sat, 26 Nov 2022 05:28:06 -0800 (PST), Paul Epstein
>>> <
peps...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've just finished watching some highlights from the Wales -- Iran World
>>>> Cup game. After Iran's first goal, the BBC commentator said "Iran have
>>>> won it. Iran have won this game!" Surely, that was nonsense. Since Iran
>>>> had time for another goal to make it 2-0, it would have been equally
>>>> likely for Wales to score the second goal and make it 1-1.
>>> Leaving aside whether or not what he said is correct, is it common in
>>> BrE to say things like "Iran have won it"? I would say "Iran has won
>>> it."
>> "Iran" can be singular or plural in BrE, so either are normal.
>>
>> If they (you are suggesting that Iran is an "it"?) score in the 8th minute
>> of 9 minutes of extra time, saying "Iran has won" would also seem
>> proportionate.
>
> Iran scored the second goal after 11 minutes of extra time -- sometimes more
> time is added on than was originally planned, so this doesn't contradict you.
>
> I suppose my point is that the fact of the second goal does render the "won
> it" statements premature, in my opinion, because if there was time for a
> second goal, there was also time for an equaliser.
But a good analyst would be jugdging not just the time remaining, but
also the likelyhood that the team behind was playing well enough to
have a good chance of scoring.
For instance, if Wales had a hard time getting the ball past midfield,
or was playing desperate defense and appearing to be off-balance, their
chances might appear slim, and the analyst should be on top of that.
Likewise, if the team to score first is showing mastery of not just the
moment but of all the game to that point, then the analyst should have
confidence that the team will prevail.
Of course, the game isn't over until its over, and sometimes the win
probability charts shown on
fivethirtyeight.com show dramatic reversals
on occasion. As well as teams that start slow but warm up after
getting into the action. There's also the phrase "Bonneville didn't
win the game, Rochester lost it."
/dps
--
Maybe C282Y is simply one of the hangers-on, a groupie following a
future guitar god of the human genome: an allele with undiscovered
virtuosity, currently soloing in obscurity in Mom's garage.
Bradley Wertheim, theAtlantic.com, Jan 10 2013