New Stuff

It has been a while and for that I apologize. I have not been as diligent in writing, not because I don't have material, but rather, life seems to get in the way. One child is a senior, another a freshman and one starting Kindergarten so things were hectic these last couple of months.

So all this new stuff is hitting us since we last talked. Kickoffs can go backwards, new uniforms and you can't score on yourself off of a corner anymore. Where is the fun in all of this? Seriously, the things that matter most are the new uniforms. They look better, but the change in logo means we have to change EVERYTHING? I have 10 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, countless pairs of socks (that initially don't change, thankfully) and a myriad of other USSF logoed things. I calculated the cost of my entire wardrobe change will be in the $350-$400 range. And being a grade 6, you kind of are expected to have Official Sports, and only Official Sports gear. Gee thanks. At least we can use the old stuff for another couple of years, but again, as a 6, I will be expected to buy the new gear sooner rather than later. Not cool.

Moving on to the new rules, I have read a couple of posts on the new rules and have the new IFAB document that has the new rules incorporated. The link is here: http://www.theifab.com/#!/document. The new rules have a lot of common sense in them. Everyone used to tap the ball forward on kickoffs to have the second touch go backwards towards their midfielders 90% of the time, so why not eliminate the silly rule that the kick off had to go forward? It makes sense. I like it. There are a number of other rule changes as well. Fouls outside the field of play are now not a dropped ball if the ball was in play at the time. Just like that, there are a bunch of others. I do want to focus on the one that does affect us the most in terms of determining the outcome of a game, and that is the new DOGSO-F interpretation.

Before I go any further, I have NOT attended a new rules class (mostly because I was out of town the week that it was offered before the season started) so please understand that this is my possibly misguided interpretation of what the rules are. Don't take this as fact but rather as my initial interpretation.

With regards to DOGSO-F, the way I interpret it now is that the law makers decided to remove the so called triple whammy. That is, foul as last defender that denies obvious goal scoring opportunity inside the penalty area used to cause the following:

- Penalty kick called against the team committing the foul which as a high chance of being converted
- Red card for the defender
- Next game sit out for the defender

Now if there is a foul where the defender meets the criteria of committing a DOGSO-F foul and is genuinely trying to play the ball (not shoving, pulling the shirt, etc.) and the foul is committed inside the penalty area, then the card to show is a yellow. If it is outside of the penalty area, then it is still a red. This changes things quite a bit, in terms of considerations for the referee as now there is a change in thought process until we all get used to the new laws.

In my next article, I will speak to the last two centers where I had to apply DOGSO-F in each of them.