The idea

A match is more than its result

Ninety minutes can hold a header off the crossbar, a run of corners that pin a side back, a penalty saved, a player sent off, one team keeping the ball for most of the afternoon. A 1–0 or a 0–0 keeps almost none of it. Parallel Scoring keeps it. Every real match is scored again from what actually happened in it, and the more that happened, the more points there are to share.

So the parallel score is a record of how much a game gave, and who gave it: a team that attacked, created and finished scores heavily, and a side that sat on a lead with nothing to show but the lead scores little. It rewards the football people pay to watch.

What earns points

Goals carry most weight, and how they're scored matters: 5 for a header, 4 with the foot, 3 from the spot, since a penalty is a gift as much as a goal. The pass that made it earns 2 (3 for a headed knock-down, 1 from a corner). A corner that leads to a shot is worth 1, hitting the woodwork 1, a penalty save 2, and dominating the ball 1 for every full 10% of possession more than the opponent. Cards count against: -1 for a yellow, -2 for a red. An own goal in your favour counts like a goal, without an assist, because nobody on your side made it. The full scoring →

Draws all but disappear

Win, draw and lose describe a scoreline, and they throw most of the game away: two sides level on goals can have played completely different matches. With points for every chance made, corner forced and card shown, two teams finishing on exactly the same total is a coincidence, not a habit. The real goalless draw where one side hit the post twice and forced eight corners isn't level any more.

The most eventful match so far: Man City 5–3 Sunderland, which finished 28–17 in parallel points - 45 between them.

Projection, not prediction

There's nothing to call here: no win, no draw, no defeat to guess. You project inspiration into a team's next match - your reading of how much that side will put into it - and what comes back depends on how far its parallel score outruns the opponent's: stake × (their points ÷ the opponent's) ÷ 10.

300 on a side that wins its match 10–3 in parallel points brings back 100 capability. The same 300 on the other side still returns 9. A close game returns close to a tenth of the stake either way; a one-sided one rewards the reading that saw it coming.

Inspiration comes a little each day you visit and stops at 200 held, so there is always a decision about where to put it. Capability has no ceiling: it's the record of how well you read the game.