Before I go off on my soccer related incursion, I wanted to comment that I am writing this entry on a machine I put together that is running the beta version of Windows 7. It is really cool, fast and basically everything Vista should have been.
Ok, back to soccer. I had wanted to write up after the last match of the regular season and that final weekend where I had 5 matches, but I could not find the time with work being just unreal, so I am going to have to write about the two last weeks together and basically one specific thing, penalty kicks. In my two seasons, I had never had a game where I was reffing go to PKs and I wanted to get that out of the way.
On Saturday of the regular season, in the rec league, the U14 girls that I was reffing as an AR went to PKs on a 1-1 match. It was the postseason so they had to have a winner. In this contest, I was asked to work the center circle, so basically, I would coordinate the kickers and make sure that they were taking their turns, at the ready and backup for the scoring, just in case. It was fun, but little did I know that the following week would be more still.
This past weekend, I did a father's day tournament and when I got my assignments, it was a doozy, U19 Boys. I was thrilled as it meant that they would be good and there would be some decent action. I did six matches for the tournament, two centers and four ARs, but boy did I have an awesome experience at the center on Sunday.
Before arriving at the field, I knew that I had one of the finals for the U19 boys. As it turned out, I had the D1 final, and the teams knew each other well, had played twice already in the regular season and there was no love lost between the teams.
To make matters worse, I was still trying to overcome the experience from a couple of weeks ago when all the parents wanted to eat me up. One thing about this tournament was that many players at this age group were already men and they were playing in the U19 boys rec championship because it was much more financially viable than playing travel (or so I was told by a couple of people at the tournament). So in essence, these kids were probably just as good as the kids that did travel, but just did not have the means to pay for travel soccer.
Anyway, the game went well. I called it a little tighter than I would have (on Saturday I had one center say that at this age group he called practically nothing, and on Sunday, I had another center say that at this age group she called practically everything, so I went with something in the middle). And the orange team was far more physical than the Blue team. But the other thing that I did for them was to say out loud when I was not going to call a foul or call handling. I would yell "No foul, play on" or "No hands, play on" so that they would immediately focus back on the match and not at trying to get my attention to see if I had seen what they would be complaining about. This lowered their whining a bit (I got a lot more whining on my Saturday center and thought this would help, it did).
Blue scored first with 4 minutes left in the first half on a free kick and then Orange tied it up 4 minutes in to the second half. It truly was a great match. In the end they went to PKs and I froze when I was going to do the coin toss. I could not remember the procedure, so what I did was give Orange the chance to call it and they won the toss, so I let them choose to either kick first or second. Orange had the better goalie and they thought that they were better when it came to taking the PKs but Blue only had one stopped by the keeper while Orange missed two that hit the goalposts and out.
And finally, in my last center of my second season I had my PKs as a center. I am sure that I will rue most of those next however many PK shootouts I will have as a ref, but I certainly enjoyed this one. It was a great match played by two great teams and I was smack dab in the middle of it, so I got that going for me.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Funny note
One thing I forgot from yesterday's rant, and that was that just for the second time in my reffing career (truly not that long), I was hit with the ball. The first time was back in January when the ladies league was in play and the ball basically grazed me.
This time, it was a full on clearance from one of the defenders in last match of the day that hit me halfway in the chest, shoulder and upper right arm area. One of the boys made a funny comment, "Handball ref!" He wasn't kidding!
This time, it was a full on clearance from one of the defenders in last match of the day that hit me halfway in the chest, shoulder and upper right arm area. One of the boys made a funny comment, "Handball ref!" He wasn't kidding!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Questioning my performance
A tale of two days. Saturday was great from a complements standpoint and terrible from a physical standpoint. Sunday was just the opposite.
Saturday I did a couple of hard U14 centers and an AR as well. It was great, the first match was a good one between the two leading U14 teams. The first goal was scored 60 seconds in, where my AR was in the perfect position to see the ball trickle in to the goal. From my angle it did not look like it went all the way in, but he had the perfect angle, so that was good. Then with 3 minutes left and the teams tied at 1, we get a clear trip in the box and the home team slammed it home for a 2-1 win. I got a lot of compliments from both teams.
Second match was a 3-2 where I had the chance to call a goal on the line as an AR, and then with maybe 30 seconds left in the match, the team down 3-2 ties it up but the player was offside by half a step, if the one who had created the play had shot it himself, it would have been legit, but he passed it to the wide open (and in the offside position) attacker and that invalidated the goal. Not too happy from the players or fans, but the center thanked me for making the right call.
Finally the third match was a 6-0 blowout, but I got compliments because it was still a competitive game and because there was one player on the purple team that lost that did not have all his marbles. He was somewhat of a loose cannon. He would go in late, run his mouth and just generally make it a sour event for those around him. I spoke to him and the defender from the other team that were jawing it out to cut it out or get a card each. They shut up after that.
At the end of that match my knees were absolutely killing me, so I thought that Sunday was going to be bad, but I got up and felt fine Sunday. However, it was another story in terms of the matches.
The first one was an 8-1 blow out but the team losing had a coach that out of nowhere started yelling that his boys were getting fouled every time they ran to the ball. They were getting outplayed actually. And on top of it, #12 on Blue kept flopping, so the one time he does get fouled, I hesitated and the coach was on me. So I had to tell him that the reason I hesitated was that he had flopped the first couple of times and that it was difficult for me to determine if it was a foul or not given the history. He did not like that at all. Lesson #1, keep those opinions to yourself. I gained nothing by telling the coach and others that I thought #12 was flopping. Tell them that you were waiting to see if there was an advantage or something else.
The second match I had been warned was going to be a doozy and it was. An undefeated team going against another good team. The U11 boys had me on my toes. The first two goals were for the gold team that was undefeated. Then they scored again, and the purple team wanted an offside call that I just didn't see. I was not in the best position and from my angle the attacker came from behind the defender, but boy oh boy did the coach and parents from that side yell and scream bloody murder.
In the second half, the purple team gets one goal back and then with 10 minutes left, they get another. With the score 3-2, gold is attacking and there is a possible foul inside the box, I did not see a foul but because I was not in the best position. I was running down the middle and that angle did not give a clear view. I cannot call a foul if I do not see it. The problem was that there was one purple defender shielding me from the actual contact. So I did not call it. Lesson #2: Try and go wider, that way you have better angles across the field of play and can help with offsides as well to boot. Something that would have certainly helped with this match.
Then with a minute left, purple corner, it floats in and purple and gold jump for the ball. Purple had a striaght jump while gold defender came at an angle. Gold gets his head on the ball but also makes contact with purple. I did not see a foul but the parents of purple sure did (and btw, where was the team liason that each team is supposed to have to calm parents down? I hate having to tell parents to shut up.)
In the counter attack, gold scores again and they win 4-2 but I just did not know what to make of my performance. I want to improve, but at the same time, it was almost like I did not want to do it anymore, it was not worth it...
Saturday I did a couple of hard U14 centers and an AR as well. It was great, the first match was a good one between the two leading U14 teams. The first goal was scored 60 seconds in, where my AR was in the perfect position to see the ball trickle in to the goal. From my angle it did not look like it went all the way in, but he had the perfect angle, so that was good. Then with 3 minutes left and the teams tied at 1, we get a clear trip in the box and the home team slammed it home for a 2-1 win. I got a lot of compliments from both teams.
Second match was a 3-2 where I had the chance to call a goal on the line as an AR, and then with maybe 30 seconds left in the match, the team down 3-2 ties it up but the player was offside by half a step, if the one who had created the play had shot it himself, it would have been legit, but he passed it to the wide open (and in the offside position) attacker and that invalidated the goal. Not too happy from the players or fans, but the center thanked me for making the right call.
Finally the third match was a 6-0 blowout, but I got compliments because it was still a competitive game and because there was one player on the purple team that lost that did not have all his marbles. He was somewhat of a loose cannon. He would go in late, run his mouth and just generally make it a sour event for those around him. I spoke to him and the defender from the other team that were jawing it out to cut it out or get a card each. They shut up after that.
At the end of that match my knees were absolutely killing me, so I thought that Sunday was going to be bad, but I got up and felt fine Sunday. However, it was another story in terms of the matches.
The first one was an 8-1 blow out but the team losing had a coach that out of nowhere started yelling that his boys were getting fouled every time they ran to the ball. They were getting outplayed actually. And on top of it, #12 on Blue kept flopping, so the one time he does get fouled, I hesitated and the coach was on me. So I had to tell him that the reason I hesitated was that he had flopped the first couple of times and that it was difficult for me to determine if it was a foul or not given the history. He did not like that at all. Lesson #1, keep those opinions to yourself. I gained nothing by telling the coach and others that I thought #12 was flopping. Tell them that you were waiting to see if there was an advantage or something else.
The second match I had been warned was going to be a doozy and it was. An undefeated team going against another good team. The U11 boys had me on my toes. The first two goals were for the gold team that was undefeated. Then they scored again, and the purple team wanted an offside call that I just didn't see. I was not in the best position and from my angle the attacker came from behind the defender, but boy oh boy did the coach and parents from that side yell and scream bloody murder.
In the second half, the purple team gets one goal back and then with 10 minutes left, they get another. With the score 3-2, gold is attacking and there is a possible foul inside the box, I did not see a foul but because I was not in the best position. I was running down the middle and that angle did not give a clear view. I cannot call a foul if I do not see it. The problem was that there was one purple defender shielding me from the actual contact. So I did not call it. Lesson #2: Try and go wider, that way you have better angles across the field of play and can help with offsides as well to boot. Something that would have certainly helped with this match.
Then with a minute left, purple corner, it floats in and purple and gold jump for the ball. Purple had a striaght jump while gold defender came at an angle. Gold gets his head on the ball but also makes contact with purple. I did not see a foul but the parents of purple sure did (and btw, where was the team liason that each team is supposed to have to calm parents down? I hate having to tell parents to shut up.)
In the counter attack, gold scores again and they win 4-2 but I just did not know what to make of my performance. I want to improve, but at the same time, it was almost like I did not want to do it anymore, it was not worth it...
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Much ado about nothing
No idea if the title is spelled correctly, so my apologies if it is. On to the fun stuff from this weekend, oh wait, there was not much as my three matches for Satuday were cancelled out. And I did not have anything lined up for Sunday as I had a prior commitment. I found out that the league I was supposed to ref in does not have any rain days built in (at least for this season) so those games are lost completely. Oh well.
I did get a chance to see my son play and it is funny that I almost reffed the game as the actual ref showed up 5 minutes to kick off. It was in a weird place, not your typical park and it was out of the way for us as the visiting team (over an hour away from home) but the fact that he did not show up until right before kick off really indicated that he was also having trouble finding the place. Regardless, it turned out ok. He did not have the proper equipment, but it was good enough. At least he did figure out to change his shirt color when he saw that one team was wearing yellow. The one thing that really kills me about my fellow refs is situations like this, but this person switched to blue when he saw yellow on red (and one goalie was black while the other was green, so it turned out to be perfect).
In the other field, in a U11 match that was much more intense, the ref also had yellow playing white and he was wearing yellow. He stopped play about 5 minutes into his match and went to his bag. I thought to myself, well, better late than never, but when he returned to the field, he was carrying flags for volunteer ARs and still the same yellow jersey. Not professional at all. I have to insist, bring at least 2 colors (yellow and black) so at least you have the possibility of not screwing it up, with 3 you can play without any issue and only conflict with goalkeepers. At a certain point, you have to realize that you are no longer reffing rec leagues anymore and that you either should take it seriously or not do it at all. Maybe some day, I will become uncaring, but still, it is about doing a job right.
So have at least 3 shirts (yellow and black for sure, and if you do not have any other, get green as there are few teams that use that color). Most teams are Blue, Red or White (in that order, from my experience. And have some fun out there, but with the proper attire.
I did get a chance to see my son play and it is funny that I almost reffed the game as the actual ref showed up 5 minutes to kick off. It was in a weird place, not your typical park and it was out of the way for us as the visiting team (over an hour away from home) but the fact that he did not show up until right before kick off really indicated that he was also having trouble finding the place. Regardless, it turned out ok. He did not have the proper equipment, but it was good enough. At least he did figure out to change his shirt color when he saw that one team was wearing yellow. The one thing that really kills me about my fellow refs is situations like this, but this person switched to blue when he saw yellow on red (and one goalie was black while the other was green, so it turned out to be perfect).
In the other field, in a U11 match that was much more intense, the ref also had yellow playing white and he was wearing yellow. He stopped play about 5 minutes into his match and went to his bag. I thought to myself, well, better late than never, but when he returned to the field, he was carrying flags for volunteer ARs and still the same yellow jersey. Not professional at all. I have to insist, bring at least 2 colors (yellow and black) so at least you have the possibility of not screwing it up, with 3 you can play without any issue and only conflict with goalkeepers. At a certain point, you have to realize that you are no longer reffing rec leagues anymore and that you either should take it seriously or not do it at all. Maybe some day, I will become uncaring, but still, it is about doing a job right.
So have at least 3 shirts (yellow and black for sure, and if you do not have any other, get green as there are few teams that use that color). Most teams are Blue, Red or White (in that order, from my experience. And have some fun out there, but with the proper attire.
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