There comes a moment in time when, as a parent, you make a realization about your kids. It hits you like a brick on the head. It comes to you and you are so proud, or so amazed or whatever realization happens, it is a rush of emotions. This weekend was like that.
As you know, my daughter has kept the reffing flame going for the next generation. This weekend, we were doing a U14 game that was high level. I am AR1 and in the center, a 6. The play was the ball was rolling towards the keeper and the defender decides to play the keeper the ball ever so faintly to "hurry up" the ball going to the keeper. If there had been a touch, it was faint. The center didn't blow his whistle, though from my angle, it sort of looked like the defender had passed it back slightly to the keeper. When he didn't call it immediately, the coach on my side started talking to his assistant and wondering if that was a passback. At that moment, my daughter's flag shoots up, gives the waggle and direction to indicate that she had seen the passback and wanted it called.
I swear that at that moment, it hit me. She was a "referee". She was interpreting the laws, she saw the play, she gave the center the time to make the call himself and then when she saw that he was not going to make it, she made it for him. At halftime, he stated that he thought there was a touch, but was not sure and was relieved to see her flag go up.
As a father, it was a proud moment for sure. For those of you that are parents, you have these moments where feelings come rushing in when you realize the milestone you have just witnessed. Here was one that I was thrilled to be a part of.
Now the following day, my daughter perhaps got a little too confident. I will tell you about that in the next post.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Resetting offside
Had an interesting call to make in an Open Cup game I did about 10 days ago. It was a highly competitive match where yellow was up 1-0 when the play happened.
Blue is pushing for the equalizer, about 12 minutes before the end of the game. Player heading towards goal, about 10 yards away from the top of the 18, threads a chest high pass to a streaking attacker, ball takes a slight deflection off of the chicken wing arm of a defender and to the attacker who scores. As I am about to validate the tying goal, I see my AR with his flag up for offside.
Tough one here, because you have the offside happening after the deflection, so I had to think, was the deflection really deflection as in "no intention whatsoever" or deflection as in making himself bigger or intentionally played.
The three scenarios here are this:
1. If it is just an innocent deflection, no reset of the offside, so no goal and indirect free kick coming out.
2. If it is a "making yourself bigger" but not intentionally playing the ball, then it is handling but no advantage as offside still would count as it was a deflection in terms of intentionally playing the ball but not for resetting offside. So free kick for the attacking team.
3. Intentionally playing the ball interpretation would mean wave down the AR and say that it is a valid goal as the intentionally played handling would reset the offside, no offside, good goal.
It took me a minute by myself to figure all this out, then I went to the AR and we discussed and decided on #2. What I need to determine from those that know more than I do, is whether #2 is even an option here to select. It was a match critical choice, and I almost wish I was being assessed, because I would have loved an answer to this question on the spot.
Still, when I do get a chance to pose this question to someone who knows more, I will post their reply. Until then, let me know what you think would be the correct interpretation. Thanks!
Blue is pushing for the equalizer, about 12 minutes before the end of the game. Player heading towards goal, about 10 yards away from the top of the 18, threads a chest high pass to a streaking attacker, ball takes a slight deflection off of the chicken wing arm of a defender and to the attacker who scores. As I am about to validate the tying goal, I see my AR with his flag up for offside.
Tough one here, because you have the offside happening after the deflection, so I had to think, was the deflection really deflection as in "no intention whatsoever" or deflection as in making himself bigger or intentionally played.
The three scenarios here are this:
1. If it is just an innocent deflection, no reset of the offside, so no goal and indirect free kick coming out.
2. If it is a "making yourself bigger" but not intentionally playing the ball, then it is handling but no advantage as offside still would count as it was a deflection in terms of intentionally playing the ball but not for resetting offside. So free kick for the attacking team.
3. Intentionally playing the ball interpretation would mean wave down the AR and say that it is a valid goal as the intentionally played handling would reset the offside, no offside, good goal.
It took me a minute by myself to figure all this out, then I went to the AR and we discussed and decided on #2. What I need to determine from those that know more than I do, is whether #2 is even an option here to select. It was a match critical choice, and I almost wish I was being assessed, because I would have loved an answer to this question on the spot.
Still, when I do get a chance to pose this question to someone who knows more, I will post their reply. Until then, let me know what you think would be the correct interpretation. Thanks!
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Stats on that Mental Picture
I am going to attach some of the stats that the Garmin device lets me see instead of the running map. It was 90 degrees at kick off and it was certainly a somewhat humid day, so I am sure I burned a lot of calories. But impressive was the amount of info that the Garmin device collects. I am sure others collect similar info, so perhaps it is time to look for one of these now that the cost is down to around $100.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Mental Picture
Let me describe the mental picture that I took the other day at one of my games. It was last week and I had the center of a WPSL match in the area. I am running down the field, slightly to the left and behind an attacker trying to close the gap and score a goal that would put her team back into contention. In front of her was two defenders and then in the background, the scoreboard. It read the score and the time was 87:19. At that moment, after running over 5 miles in the center, on a sweltering day in early July, it hit me.
I made it to where I wanted to be. It was the perfect snapshot. High level match, 75-100 people in the stands, a 4th official on the sidelines, announcers, an international walk out before the game and I was the center for all of that. It was a great feeling.
Did I have the perfect game, no. Not at all. I caught a lot of flak from the home team for a handling call when they had the game in hand that lead to a PK and my lead AR said that she wouldn't have called it. There were other little things that I could have done better. But at that moment, at 87:19, it was perfect.
And we were wearing the new powder blue uniforms that I doubt I will wear often, so that was a plus. Anyway, had a lot of fun and thought that it was a great snapshot. Too bad I could only capture the moment visually and not in a more permanent way as it would be great to frame it for posterity.
I made it to where I wanted to be. It was the perfect snapshot. High level match, 75-100 people in the stands, a 4th official on the sidelines, announcers, an international walk out before the game and I was the center for all of that. It was a great feeling.
Did I have the perfect game, no. Not at all. I caught a lot of flak from the home team for a handling call when they had the game in hand that lead to a PK and my lead AR said that she wouldn't have called it. There were other little things that I could have done better. But at that moment, at 87:19, it was perfect.
And we were wearing the new powder blue uniforms that I doubt I will wear often, so that was a plus. Anyway, had a lot of fun and thought that it was a great snapshot. Too bad I could only capture the moment visually and not in a more permanent way as it would be great to frame it for posterity.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Great local article in the Washington Post
The Washington Post had a great article regarding the decrease of referees in soccer and other sports and what is causing the issue. The conclusion is that most of it can be attributed to abuse from parents, coaches, etc.
The full article can be found here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/verbal-abuse-from-parents-coaches-is-causing-a-referee-shortage-in-youth-and-high-school-sports/2017/06/16/cf02a016-499a-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html?utm_term=.4f107205c738
It is something that I had said was one of my reasons for ceasing to referee high school, it was the loss of decorum and the hypocritical aspect of high school that stated that the soccer field (or any other sports' field for that matter) was an extension of the classroom.
Anyway, it was good to see the Post having a say, being accurate and measured in the piece and also it was great to read some names of people that I admire being referenced in the article. Take a look and hopefully in your area things are a bit better.
The full article can be found here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/verbal-abuse-from-parents-coaches-is-causing-a-referee-shortage-in-youth-and-high-school-sports/2017/06/16/cf02a016-499a-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html?utm_term=.4f107205c738
It is something that I had said was one of my reasons for ceasing to referee high school, it was the loss of decorum and the hypocritical aspect of high school that stated that the soccer field (or any other sports' field for that matter) was an extension of the classroom.
Anyway, it was good to see the Post having a say, being accurate and measured in the piece and also it was great to read some names of people that I admire being referenced in the article. Take a look and hopefully in your area things are a bit better.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Assessment
The assessor rated it difficult and I thought I had failed. There was so much talk and in the end, I was not aware of all the back and forth that the two teams had for each other.
It started at the end of my partner's assessment which was the first of the two matches. The center for the first assessment match, where I was an AR had a relative benign match until the very end when he had to card the goalkeeper of the team hanging on to a 2-1 lead for holding the ball well beyond the 6 seconds. After that match, the goalkeeper that would turn out to be the main antagonist says that our yellow card was not correct because the goalkeeper was moving. To which I replied, "Try that in my match and see how quickly you get a yellow card." Yeah, it didn't get any better.
I later found out (a couple of days later) that this goalkeeper is always running his mouth and is well known in the league. Another reason to do more games, to be exposed to, and be able to deal with, those complicated players that seem to try and feast on a referee that they don't know.
Anyway, the game went well for a while until the second half when one team tried to make up the difference as they were down 3-1. They scored to get within a goal and from then on, it was a show. The team that was leading started complaining about everything, diving and going in hard. Being an assessment match, I tried to handle things without cards initially. Bad mistake.
The most interesting interaction was at about the 80th minute, the team down 3-2 has one of their big guys go into a challenge for the ball right in front of the assessor on the other side of the benches. I was right there and didn't see much in terms of the challenge. He comes out yelling that the opponent kicked him and tried to throw a punch. The assessor was right in front of it all and yells out, "Cut it out, he did none of that." My guess is that he was trying to help me by giving me info that he had since it happened right in front of him. Since the two players scuffled before I got there, I ended up giving a yellow to both but told the one claiming murder to tone it down as no one saw anything.
In the end, there was more, and I frankly thought I had failed. I felt like it was one of my worst games ever. But the assessor said it was truly a difficult match and while I had not passed with flying colors, I had passed. I thank the assessor for the assist. As I said in the previous post, either I have to learn to like the adult game and not fear it, or I can just go back to being an 8 or 7 and doing the games I like.
It started at the end of my partner's assessment which was the first of the two matches. The center for the first assessment match, where I was an AR had a relative benign match until the very end when he had to card the goalkeeper of the team hanging on to a 2-1 lead for holding the ball well beyond the 6 seconds. After that match, the goalkeeper that would turn out to be the main antagonist says that our yellow card was not correct because the goalkeeper was moving. To which I replied, "Try that in my match and see how quickly you get a yellow card." Yeah, it didn't get any better.
I later found out (a couple of days later) that this goalkeeper is always running his mouth and is well known in the league. Another reason to do more games, to be exposed to, and be able to deal with, those complicated players that seem to try and feast on a referee that they don't know.
Anyway, the game went well for a while until the second half when one team tried to make up the difference as they were down 3-1. They scored to get within a goal and from then on, it was a show. The team that was leading started complaining about everything, diving and going in hard. Being an assessment match, I tried to handle things without cards initially. Bad mistake.
The most interesting interaction was at about the 80th minute, the team down 3-2 has one of their big guys go into a challenge for the ball right in front of the assessor on the other side of the benches. I was right there and didn't see much in terms of the challenge. He comes out yelling that the opponent kicked him and tried to throw a punch. The assessor was right in front of it all and yells out, "Cut it out, he did none of that." My guess is that he was trying to help me by giving me info that he had since it happened right in front of him. Since the two players scuffled before I got there, I ended up giving a yellow to both but told the one claiming murder to tone it down as no one saw anything.
In the end, there was more, and I frankly thought I had failed. I felt like it was one of my worst games ever. But the assessor said it was truly a difficult match and while I had not passed with flying colors, I had passed. I thank the assessor for the assist. As I said in the previous post, either I have to learn to like the adult game and not fear it, or I can just go back to being an 8 or 7 and doing the games I like.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Assessment Match stats
I will write about my assessment match from hell tomorrow most probably. I don't have the time or the mental state to write about how much I loathe working some of these leagues, but I did come to the conclusion that I will try and double down on these matches to see if I can eventually remove myself of the hatred I currently have for the adult game. If by the end of 2017 or early 2018, I still despise them as much as I do now, I will just go back to being a 7 or an 8 and do games that I like to do at the older youth level and leave it at that. Why do it if you don't like it? But I am giving myself a chance to get used to doing adult matches that are competitive and that pose a challenge.
Anyway, two takeaways to quickly point out. First is that I passed the assessment, even though I thought it was a failure for sure. Second, I ran 5 miles in between the first and second half. I like the Garmin, it does a good job. Here is a clip from the Garmin Connect website:
Anyway, two takeaways to quickly point out. First is that I passed the assessment, even though I thought it was a failure for sure. Second, I ran 5 miles in between the first and second half. I like the Garmin, it does a good job. Here is a clip from the Garmin Connect website:
Stats for my 1st half run
There are a lot of other stats that are included, like elevation change, or fastest sprints and pace, etc. The way I use it is to set a Run, and use my Garmin as a count up timer. Then I use the other watch to count down. So the Garmin counts up as well as grabbing all the extra info and the other watch counts towards zero. So far it seems to be working.
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