By plano 
So yesterday my buddy asked me about that Chelsea vs West Ham game, wanted to know exactly when goals happened, cards came out, all that good stuff. Honestly, I figured finding a simple timeline would be super easy. Boy, was I wrong at first.
The Annoying Search Begins
My first thought? Just punch it into a search engine. Typed something like “Chelsea West Ham timeline” expecting a neat list right there. Nope. Got flooded with news articles talking about the game, previews for next matches, even some betting sites. Zero actual minute-by-minute updates. Took me forever to scroll past all that junk.
Hitting Up the Big Football Sites
Alright, Plan B. Headed straight to those major football websites everyone knows. Found the match page eventually, usually buried under menus. Clicked around looking for “Match Centre” or “Commentary”. Saw the final score, maybe the lineups… but the detailed events? Sometimes hidden under a tiny “Events” tab or buried in a massive live text commentary feed I had to scroll through forever. One site even made me click each event individually to see the minute! Seriously? Who has time for that?
What Finally Worked
I got annoyed enough to dig deeper. Remembered some sites offer direct data feeds, kinda behind the scenes. Used that right-click trick in my browser (“Inspect” thingy) to peek at the network traffic while loading the match page on one of the big sites. Sounds complicated, but it’s just looking for files named stuff like “*” or “*” in that messy list.
Here’s the simple steps that clicked for me:
- Open the match page on a major football site.
- Right-click anywhere on the page, pick “Inspect”.
- Click the “Network” tab inside that new window.
- Look for files with names containing “event”, “timeline”, or “matchData”.
- Click on one that looks promising. Check the “Preview” tab.
Boom! Found one. Inside, pure gold: a clean list showing everything!
- Minute 23: Goal! Scorer’s name right there.
- Minute 37: Yellow card, player name clear.
- Minute 65: Substitution, who came on, who went off.
No ads, no fluff, just the raw timeline data I needed. Copied it straight out into my notes. Took maybe 2 minutes once I knew where to look.
Wrapping It Up
Turns out, the easiest way isn’t always the obvious search or the fancy homepage. Sometimes you gotta peek under the hood where the sites keep their actual match data feeds. Found that JSON treasure trove, and now grabbing any game’s timeline is dead simple. Next time my buddy asks, I know exactly where to go!