Picking the side to play after the toss

meditraitor

I was watching the football ;-( lastnight, at the start of the match the referee tossed the coin and Gerrard picked which side he wanted to play from in the first half. The misses asked me (trying to look interested) what are the deciding factors for the team who wins the toss when choosing a goal to play in for the first half?????
Anyone out there know? maybe its different for some teams ,tradition etc but I dont know.....

Xavi6

Think Liverpool always like to attack the Kop End in the second half when at home?

When I captain a team I always like to play with the wind in the second half. Defend well in the first and keep a clean sheet then hit them hard with the wind in the second as they start to tire.

Eirebear

meditraitor wrote: »

I was watching the football ;-( lastnight, at the start of the match the referee tossed the coin and Gerrard picked which side he wanted to play from in the first half. The misses asked me (trying to look interested) what are the deciding factors for the team who wins the toss when choosing a goal to play in for the first half?????
Anyone out there know? maybe its different for some teams ,tradition etc but I dont know.....

For a lot of teams its tradition, Rangers always aim to play towards the Copland Road end in the second half as that is traditionally the "Home end" (although that is changing slightly now due to our bizzare policies on fan groups)

Only one team regularly tries to change that around if they win the toss, and thats Aberdeen. Although Falkirk tried it earlier in the season and they got rewarded with a 7-2 humping

Spud83

Xavi6 wrote: »

When I captain a team I always like to play with the wind in the second half. Defend well in the first and keep a clean sheet then hit them hard with the wind in the second as they start to tire.

I remember being told that you should always play with the wind in the first half as the weather can change in 45-60 mins and it might not be there or be going in the same direction the second half.

Most teams its tradition especially when playing at home, when you are playing away and win the toss most teams I think like to reverse what the home side normally do. i.e have liverpool play into the Kop end during the first half.

ziggy

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Mad_Max

Yeah I take the wind first half too if it's there. Attack and take advantage and get a good score. Better to have the goals in the bag rather than trying to hold out and hope the wind stays.

Id say at professional level the only thing would be tradition, or in rare cases the sun. Usually wind and sun aren't major factors with the size of the stadiums.

gucci

In the words of Ger Lougnane "The wind never won the game for nobody!"

On last nights game, just looked to me like John Terry was actually questioning the legality of the Refs coin toss??? Seemed to make a sign with his hand to indicate the coin was sideways in the grass or something.

spockety

gucci wrote: »

In the words of Ger Lougnane "The wind never won the game for nobody!"

On last nights game, just looked to me like John Terry was actually questioning the legality of the Refs coin toss??? Seemed to make a sign with his hand to indicate the coin was sideways in the grass or something.

Nah I think John Terry was saying "are you serious?" and pissed off with Gerrard for wanting to swap around.. which I would imagine was the whole point of the exercise..

BaZmO*

I thought it was confusion over which was heads and which was tails, i.e. it wasn't a normal coin and Terry thought he had picked the right side. I thought I heard him say "are you sure that's the one?", or something like that.

gucci

BaZmO* wrote: »

I thought it was confusion over which was heads and which was tails, i.e. it wasn't a normal coin and Terry thought he had picked the right side. I thought I heard him say "are you sure that's the one?", or something like that.

Must have been the ould classic liverpool 2 headed coin Stevie slipped in there

iregk

In the liverpool chelsea game I think JT was trying to say that wasn't a toss as he motioned a normal coin toss with his hand. In fairness I've no idea how the ref done that as he asked Gerrard what side he wanted, dropped the coin, picked it up, flipped it a few times and eventually settled on what ever side Gerrard picked. I think that was Terry's point!

In any case the whole changing ends depends on personal or traditional choice. Chelsea always warm up in front of the harding end and in the second half thats where they were shotting into. Now that end is a full season ticket stand so no pool fans there. Down in the shed however there were pool fans so not sure whey they didn't want to shoot into that end seeing as how they like the kop in the 2nd half.