[Grammar] We gave up a goal, although we were playing well or...

[Gunner1999]

Hi. I want to ask you a question about the past tenses. I know that there are 4 narrative tenses and I can often see the difference between them. However I've been thinking of an example, which might be relative in my opinion. Here it is.

,,We gave up a goal, although we were playing better than the opposite team." Here I think that the team lost a goal at the same time of playing well.
,,We gave up a goal, although we had been playing well." In my opinion it looks like the action of playing well might've occurred before losing a goal. It was rather temporary.
Should I use other tenses?

 

[J&K Tutoring]

Should you? I don't know, but you could use any of the past tenses. Your examples are two of them:

1. We gave up a goal, although we were playing (past progressive) better than the opposite team.
2. We gave up a goal, although we had been playing (past perfect progressive) well.

a. You could keep it in the simple past: We gave up a goal, although we played well.
b. You could use the past perfect: We gave up a goal, although we had played well.

The meaning is slightly different in each case, which is why English has these different verb forms.

 

[Rover_KE]

I wouldn't start the sentence like that.

'We gave away/conceded a goal ...'

 

[Gunner1999]

All right. But which tense would you use?

 

[Lynxear]

Both sentences are correct but as mentioned they have slightly different meaning

We gave up a goal, although we were playing better than the opposite team.

This means the goal was conceded in the past at a time when you were outplaying the opposition.

We gave up a goal, although we had been playing better than the opposite team.

In this sentence, the team was outplaying the opposition throughout the game but the opposition scored a goal just the same.

The difference is subtle.