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...