Question:
What does the phrase, “home-and-away tie has been drawn” mean? And what is the “Away goals rule?”
Answer (October 9, 2007):
1. The word “tie” is what is confusing you. In British English, the word “tie,” as used in soccer, means a match between teams, while the word “draw” means that a game has ended up “tied” in the American English sense of both teams having the same score. A “home-and–away tie” is an arrangement whereby one game is played at the home of Team A and the second game in the “tie” is played at the home of Team B. If this tie is “drawn,” then the rules of the competition may call for a tie-breaker procedure. That is where kicks from the penalty mark come in.
2. “Away goals” are those scored when the team is playing at the opponents’ field. Many competitions that require a winner of the game (or two games) count one away goal as worth two if the teams are tied/drawn in the sum of the scores of the “home-and-away tie.
