Stoppage Time is different now that we basically know how much there is. I say basically because despite being a timed game no one ever really knows how much time there is on the clock.
Attempts have been made to make the scoreboard clock official. In the early years of MLS the clock counted down, was official, and the referee would indicate when it should stop and start again due to things like goals, cards, or injuries. Essentially, everyone would know exactly how much stoppage time there was in a game because we could watch and keep track of the stoppages. However, to soccer purists and wannabe purists who believe everything about soccer must be done the way the English League does things this was a terrible and embarrassing concept and American soccer could not possibly be taken taken seriously and the USA will never win the World Cup because of it. College soccer still counts down and keeps the official clock on the scoreboard and faces scorn and ridicule to this day by those same fans in part for having the audacity to maintain such an obviously horrible and bizarre practice.
In recent years the 4th official now holds up a sign with a number indicating the stoppage time to come. It's closer to telling us the actual time, cuts down on the sort of shenanigans some teams or refs might try to pull, has seemingly eliminated the mysterious 96th minute home PK, and led to the discovery that there is a 4th official in existence in the first place.
Coaches are much less likely to stand on the sidelines pointing at their watches in the 91st minute because anyone with a watch can look at it when the 4th official holds up a 3 and know when the whistle will likely come. Players are more likely to be booked (I guess we don't use the word carded any more) for obvious stalling when we all know that there are three minutes left.
I still cannot understand why knowing when a timed event is going to end is actually a bad thing, but at least the 4th official notification has become a real positive for the game.
Imagine if football did not disclose the time? It would be suicide for a coach to call for the QB to take a knee.
Imagine if the shot clock in basketball was a mystery? If the game clock was a mystery in hoops would teams still foul down the stretch for an advantage if they could not know for certain they were helping themselves? Bear in mind basketball breaks down its clock to tenths of a second.
Imagine all the people living life in peace.
Food for thought.
Still, we don't actually have a Stoppage Time clock at the stadium, it just sort of stops at 90:00 ... weird. It is better than the old method where it would just stop counting down at 2:00 or at 0:00 and the game would keep going and the announcer would say something like, "Official time is now being kept on the field by the referee." As if official time wasn't really always being kept there in the first place.
So, the new era of known Stoppage Time has also brought with it an improvement in the fan experience. When your team is leading and has possession and the opponent is chasing frantically, it is one of those great moments in sports. You know your team is winning and you can taunt. When the other team has possession you can know that it really could be their last chance to tie it up and vice versa ... It is like in football when you get that last first down and know your QB can now call the Victory Play (taking a knee), or in hoops when the opponent keeps fouling but your shooters keep hitting their free throws, or in baseball when your closer has two strikes and two outs and a heck of an Out Pitch ...
Me, I love to watch the other team chase and their collective body language when they know that they are wasting their time ...
