Watches

This past week, as I was preparing for my matches this weekend, I discovered that I could not locate my regular watch (and still have not been able to). I had bought my watch about 2 years ago at Walmart and had been happy with the purchase. It had something that I know some refs do not use, and that is a countdown function. That watch had cost me $15 or so and had a velcro strap, which made it easy to adjust. And though I know that I will find it at some moment, I realized Friday afternoon, that I was going to have to make an investment in getting another.

Some of the places online, make it a big deal that they have soccer referee specific watches, and I am sure that they are better than the standard ones I use. I know that there are ones that countdown and then count up once the time has been consumed so you know how much additional time you have added. There are others that look almost like those athletic stop watches that track and field people use and have huge numbers so that it is easy to read.

For me, I decided on going with 2 watches (I heard someone tell me that it is recommended to go with two just in case one goes bad and you do not have ARs that can back you up). So I trotted to Kmart and ended up buying two Casio watches. Not both the same because that would have been silly in case the design had a problem that I did not like. The two models I bought were a Casio W-752 and a Casio W-93H. Total cost was around $35 for both (they were running a special of sorts, regular price is more like $45 for both).

The W-752 has a long life battery (it said 10 years, but I am sure it is not that long) and had larger numbers, so I wear that one on my right (I am a lefty and use a wrist strap whistle on my left hand). I normally wear my watch on my right so that is where I go most of the time to consult how much is left. It has a countdown timer but no bells and whistles with regards to that countdown timer. Here is a picture of the watch:

The second watch is smaller (the W-93H) but I fell in love with it almost instantly. And why you ask? Because its countdown timer has a couple of features that I was not expecting (not for $15 at least). There is one to immediately restart, so that when it hits 0:00, it begins at 40, or 35 minutes, or whatever you were at. I can see this option working if you want to add time, and you say, ok, I am going to add two minuites, so we go to 33:00. I have not used that function yet (I did 4 matches this weekend, 2 in center and two as an AR). The other feature it has is awesome to tell you the truth. You can have it beep when the countdown timer hits 10 minutes remaining, 5 minutes and then every minute until 1, then every 10 seconds until 5 seconds, and then every second until it is done.

I find this feature to be very useful as I do not need to be looking. Today, when it beeped for 10 minutes, I already knew that was the 10 minute beep, the second one told me we had 5 remaining and I did not look at my watch until it started doing the 10 second chirps. To be truthful, I find the 10 second (at 50 seconds, 40 seconds, etc) to be overkill, but otherwise an awesome watch. The numbers are smaller, but still a great buy for $15 at Kmart. I might go get another one for when this one dies or cannot be located. I certainly hope that doesn't happen soon!

The strange final - my daughter's

In this tournament that I have been able to string out for 4 posts up to this point, I had my son and daughter playing as well. Though my son's matches were great, there was nothing referee related that was worth mentioning. He played on a field that was terrible (the outfield of a softball field, where one side of the field (about 25-30% of the left midfield area was actually the infield of the softball field) and since it was wet in the mornings, it made for some ugly play but other than that, nothing worth mentioning here.

My daughter's team, a U9 team, shouldn't have anything significant either because, they are 8 or 9 years old and do not really have the command of soccer that a U12 and up might have. Regardless, I have to mention them in this because what happened in their final match. To set it up, both teams reached the final by winning their corresponding groups. My daughter's team with wins of 5-1, 2-0 and 5-1. The other team with wins of 2-0, 1-0 and 3-1, so the stage was set.

I had noticed the referees working the two fields prior to my daughter's final were both young, asian and quite proper with the interpretations, paying attention and not sleepwalking (it is U9 after all, and many of you know how slow some of these matches are). Anyway, the final gets under way just as the other field finishes their last match. The ref on that field stuck around to see the final that had just started. The match itself was close, but nothing to knock on the ref in the first half. The half ends 0-0 and at halftime, I see both refs changing their shirts to match and they both come on to the field.

They both worked the second half of the final match, one of them on one side and the other on the far side. I was taken for a loop, as I did not know what the heck was going on. Has anyone ever had something like this happen? I know people switch the ref due to injury, etc. but I had never seen anything like this, where the only ref of the match suddenly goes to a two-man system mid match. And if you are going to do that, fine, but be aware that you cannot do that for half of the match and that you have to do it with a real 2-man system like I have done before, not this is my half and that is your half. In the end, the original ref called a PK with 40 seconds left in regulation (I guess they did not want to go to overtime) and my daughter's teammate scored to win the championship.

In all of this, I don't disagree with the calls made during the match, before or after the two-man system was implemented, but this is not how you ref matches. I should have said something to them but the end of the match was frantic, with the girls hugging and running up and down the pitch in celebration and I wanted to soak that in instead of going to educate the refs. I did not see them after that, so the opportunity was lost, but it was still a strange series of events. Since we are so close to Halloween, does anyone else have some of these weird referee horror stories?

Time Management and frantic final

The first match of the tournament weekend had a team winning 1-0 thanks to an own goal. The tournament had a rule that specifically said there was no added time. This is typical of tournaments so that they do not fall behind with added time. So with literally 15 seconds, the team losing 1-0 gets a cross in and one of the defenders knocks the ball down with her hand. I wave my flag as an AR, once I have the center's attention, I hold the flag across my hip to indicate it was in the box for the attacking team. It took the center a second or two to figure out what had happened but we were ok except that we were already 2-3 minutes behind because even though there is no added time, you have to extend the match for a PK. Talk about a oxymoron.

The girl taking the PK winds up and takes a good shot to the right of the keeper who makes a wonderful one handed save, and the rebound goes directly back to the kicker who now has the goal wide open, but alas, the center ref (abiding by the rules, mind you) calls for the end of the match because we were 3 minutes past the end without there being any additional time allowed. The coach for the losing team came out ready to rip our heads off, but we stood our ground, explained that the rules were clear, no additional time, and walked off the field. Interesting to say the least when you have so much happen in so little time. The other 57 minutes of the match were much less exciting than the final 3 minutes were for sure.

More on the tournament weekend - The Injury

As promised last time, I was going to go over what happened during the match where I had my first major injury (not to me but rather a player). The match itself was supposed to be a preliminary match between two teams from the same club but since they both were in the final as well (as they finished first in each of their respective brackets with one game left, they were going to play each other again regardless of the outcome of my match). The coach (who was the coach for both teams as well) asked me if it was ok for them to just play the final now and record the score twice, one for the round robin match and one for the final. I could not see a problem with that.

The game started and it was clear who the A team was and who the B team was. The blue team attacked the whole first half but the closest chance was for the yellow team. Still at the half they were 0-0. At the start of the second half, the star attacker of the blue team tried to force a corner and was nudged as he was turning his body to kick the ball off the defender and he landed on his wrist awkwardly. I was close to the play and heard a faint pop and knew that something was not well. His wrist was in a weird angle and fortunately, two doctors were at the field and were able to stabilize him enough so when the EMTs arrived, it was not a dire thing. Off to the hospital he went.

Meanwhile, the boys still wanted to finish the match, but the coach having lost his 4th player in 2 weeks (I found out later) asked me if I had any problem going straight to PKs. I did not, as long as everyone was in agreement. In the meantime, they also decided to not have the PKs actually determine the winner, as they would both share the championship. So instead of having an actual 5 PKs per team, they all got to shoot once, regardless of the score. In the end, it did take 10 PKs per side to determine the winner, with the keepers being the kickers. The B team keeper missing and the A team keeper scoring to 'win' it.

Finally, I later found out that the player had suffered a fractured wrist. I really hope he gets better quickly as he is a fantastic player and fun to watch.

A lot to talk about

Man it was an interesting weekend of soccer. I do not have the time to write it all out, but just so I can remember all the talking points, I will list them out here...

• The first major injury on my watch
• Frantic final on the first match of the weekend tournament and clock management
• The weird final (which happened to be my daughter's)
• A new fan dangled technology for refs

I do not have the time to write each of these out right now but I wanted to at least list them while they are fresh in my head so that when the time comes and I can add to each of these stories I will. There is a lot to talk about and some of these posts, I want to get your opinion as there is no clear answer, in my book.

Nuggets of wisdom

What a beautiful weekend. Weather was great on Saturday for my start of the regular season. In the morning I worked a U12 boys match that was not particularly interesting except two nuggets. They happened one right after another. To lay the scenario down, it was one of the local teams versus a team that was heavily latino. In my past experience, the heavy latino presence tends to favor that team as they play more of a control/individual style as opposed to the boom and run that most anglo teams like to play. In this match, it did not work out for that team. It was perhaps that they did not have enough players (9 suited with 8 on the field) as well as U12 being 35 minute halves instead of 30. So they basically ran out of gas after going up 1-0 early in the match.

In the second half with the match pretty much decided for the other team (they were up 3-1 and pounding heavily for more), I call a free kick close to the top left corner of the penalty box. On the run up to the kick, the defending team's wall, instead of holding their position, run up to try to block the kick. One boy moved up a foot or so, but the other had charged about 5 yards of the 10 he had. I stopped the play, carded the player and then I hear the other boy tell his now carded teammate, "No te preocupes, el es un maricón". I grew up around Spanish speaking parents and grandparents enough to know what that means (something akin to "The ref is gay"). So I looked up, and proceed to tell him in spanish that I knew what he meant and he'd better not say it again. He turned pale to say the least.

In the end, I should have gone over to the coach and explained what happened, I should have carded the boy as well but well, I guess I got flustered. I certainly think he will think twice before uttering such an opinion.

So the nugget is more for the players, but for us, it is how we deal with it. I could have (should have?) carded the player, but the mere fact that he was so surprised might be enough for him to not do it again. I will not ref them again this season, but perhaps we cross paths again. If we do, I wonder what will happen...

Oh it hurts...

Who said you needed to prep for 7 matches in two days? I will be the first to admit that I did fairly little in terms of physical preparation this summer. I ate poorly, and did not do much in terms of exercise, but this weekend's 7 matches did something for me that I was not expecting, and that was to reinvigorate my desire to get back in shape. So I plan on running some during the week and see if I cannot get back into the form I was prior to the last season ending (and then staying there at least during the long winter off season).

Regarding the actual matches, there was little to throw in. They were good, I had a great time and was happy to be back. Saturday was four U12 matches and Sunday was a bit more challenging in the U14 Boys and U14 Girls brackets of a local tournament.

Sidebar here - During this tournament, they used a system of bonus points to determine seeding into the semifinal round, so in one bracket, Team A and Team B both beat Team C. Team A won 12-0 and Team B won 3-0. When Team A and Team B played each other, they tied 2-2, so who should be the team that goes as the first seed and who is the second seed? Well, due to the weird bonus points that they had for this tournament, both Team A and Team B were deadlocked and went to a PK shootout instead of looking at overall goals scored. Just thought it strange, since 12-0 and 3-0 are two very different results.

Back to the matches, I know my center where I had a full set of ARs was not difficult, but I am also sure that my diagonals were atrocious. I was all over the place, still, it worked out well as I was able to get the offsides calls ok and the fouls seemed to be decent as well. All in all, just glad to be back, but man are my muscles sore today.

Aftermath of the World Cup

Interesting WC, wasn't it? Congrats to Spain who won it but also to the great moments of the World Cup. The US and the dramatic matches against Slovenia, Algeria and Ghana. To Uruguay for being the surprise team (and for scoring some of the most beautiful goals)and to Ghana for playing the best and most exciting, unscripted match against Uruguay in the quarter finals.

As for the officiating, well, there was a lot to point out. Good and bad. Let's start off with the good. The final: I know most people think that the reds should have come out earlier for the Dutch, but I disagree. I think Mr. Webb did his best to control the match without losing anyone. Should have the chest high challenge been greeted with a red instead of a yellow? Perhaps, but it was early enough to merit a yellow. If that challenge comes with 5 minutes left to play, sure, send him off, but with 70 or so, not so sure in such a high profile match (the highest, actually).

Other good things I liked, the carding early. I really thought that the teams were not expecting it (just like they were not expecting the ball to behave like a beach ball). Uruguay's Lodeiro was carded twice in a span of 10 minutes for two challenges in the first match against France, Germany's Klose was carded twice against Serbia, the second one was for a relatively tame tackle but from behind. After the first couple of matches, the players got it. The negative side to this was the inconsistency between the refs could have been curtailed. Still, it allowed the real game changers (Xabi, Iniesta, Forlan, Messi -sorta- and others) to do what they did best, make the matches entertaining.

The bad was really bad, especially that weekend where they messed up the bracket entirely with the Argentina-Mexico screw-up and the Germany-England mess. First Larrionda's crew fails to award the tying goal to England and then Rosetti's crew awards a goal when Tevez was clearly offside. So my take on this is as follows:

Of the two miscues, the worst is the one with Argentina and Mexico, because offside is the NUMBER ONE priority of the AR. Yes, it was a quick play, but he was a couple of feet offside. I cut the AR in the England match a little (very little) bit of slack because he was where he is trained to be, with the second to last defender. He was a good 12-15 feet off of the goal line and the shot was fast so that he did not get a good glimpse of that is basically a referee blind spot, kind of like the problem with France and Ireland and Mr. Henry's handling, it happened in the center's corner with many people in between the center and the infraction.

So how to fix this? Simple, you have a 4th and 5th official in these types of matches and there is technology available to everyone but the center and the ARs. Well, in the case of the England/Germany match, keep playing and allow the 4th/5th officials to review the play (allow some 30 seconds or so) and the right call would have been made. If there are any infractions/yellow/red cards that occur between the time the goal is being reviewed and the time it is officially a goal, they stand, but so does the goal. It is more important to get it right than to ensure game flow. So allow the game to flow until a decision has been made. Again, it should not take more than 30 seconds to see something like that. Especially at the World Cup or other large event where there are 20 camera angles.

FIFA does not want this because that would mean sacrificing game flow, but it is simple, it is already implemented in these high level matches as the cameras are already there and does not require chip-in-ball technology or the addition of any extra ARs for goal line decisions.

So the naysayers would argue what happens in the case of a goal being scored in the 30 seconds that it takes to make the decision. If it is by the team that scored already but their goal was not counted and was being reviewed, count one of them, the first if it was indeed a goal and if not the second. If in the 30 seconds it takes the other team scores, well, we have a problem. I would hope decisions can be made prior to that happening but that would be something that needs to be addressed. Frankly, it might happen once or twice in the whole history of World Cups. To me, the goal should stand as well and kick off to the team that got scored on second.

Finally, the last thing I want to address is the diving. Do an after the match suspension of the floppers. Ronaldo, the Ivory Coast player that bumped into Kaka, Joan Capdevilla and the entire Italian team (or at least, this guy: http://www.caughtoffside.com/2010/06/15/the-worst-dive-of-the-2010-world-cup-video/) should be suspended after the fact for one match, since they dove and no one did anything to them. Second time, 2 matches, then 4. Eventually, the diving will stop.

Hope to hear your comments and I am looking forward to getting back into the saddle for this coming season.

Another season in the books

It's that time again to count up the numbers and figure out what and where all of it went. The season was a busy one, with some weeknight matches with the high-school kids and all the weekend work. In total I did 60 matches this season, the most I have done so far. I do not see myself getting to this number any time soon due to the fact that Sunday is when most of the matches are played and now both of my children are in travel, my son playing U11 and my daughter U9. Finding time to ref in between all that is going to be a challenge for me and for my assignor(s). My estimates are that my weekend work is going to come down dramatically, especially when both of my kids are playing away games.

Still, for this season there were 35 centers and 25 ARs. I include the two-man centers in the regular centers (there were three of those). I recall handing out about 10 yellow cards, and I recall 2 red cards (both in the same match, more on that in my next post as it was in the last match of the season). I should have had more matches but I was forced to miss this past weekend's tournament due to travel for my regular job. Still, 60 matches is not something to scoff at and it will be my personal best for some time to come given the reduced time that I will have for the foreseeable future.

I have been asked by a couple of you out there that are thinking about turning this into something more than just an occasional thing, and the possibility is there. You have to be willing to take some of the junk assignments at the beginning or come to the aid of a desperate assignor even when it is not convenient for you, just to get your foot in the door. I did that at the beginning of this season, where I traveled 45 miles out of my way, just to do one match as an AR. Normally, I would have not taken such as assignment, but I guessed that the assignor would notice, realize and be appreciative of the such a sacrifice. I believe it paid off because I was offered more high school matches than I would have thought were normally given to first year refs.

In the end, it all comes down to how much dedication and time you can give. The more you give, the more you get. And even if you do not know your assignor from Adam, it is possible that they notice and reward you for helping them out, or hanging in there, or for being that last gasp help that they so desperately need.

More on my last match and the World Cup in some of my future postings, since there is a break on the local stuff for a couple of months. Till the next time.

How much running does a ref do?

I read an interesting article stating that a referee doing a 90 minute match is capable of running up to 12 miles in a match, on average. And that is about 5 miles more than what the average field player does in the same amount of time. That is certainly fascinating.

Here is the article:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/04/world.cup.referees.fitness/index.html?hpt=C1

Regardless, if you were to tell me that I had to run 5 miles, I would look at you like you had two heads. I do not think I would enjoy it at all, but if you think of it in reffing terms, I am sure that I run that much during some of my 80 minute matches, or at least I am close to that. I do not realize I have run that much because of the fact that my mind is not pondering that, it is preoccupied about where the play is going, how much time is left, can the blue team sub on a corner, is that kid hurt, what is my AR trying to tell me, is that a studs up tackle and many other questions to preoccupy my mind.

I had never thought I covered that much ground. I plan to make it official though at some moment. I want to buy one of those Garmin GPS devices that runners use to track my field coverage and to determine how much running I actually do. If I find one that can double as a countdown watch, then I think we will be in business. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Redemption Match

I worked a tournament here over the Memorial Day weekend and it was a good time, with many matches. In all I worked 8 matches, with the two most interesting ones going to the U16 boys that I had on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, it was an interesting match because it started out with problems and just never let up. Before the match started, both teams were in white, and the team required to change did not have enough red shirts as some of their players forgot them. I spoke with the other coach who offered to go to blue instead. Ok, so that worked.

But that nice coach that offered to move then turned into Mr. Hyde and was just a beast. He immediately started working me and not liking any call. While his team was more aggressive, if you heard him, their boys were being slaughtered instead of them being the aggressors. On top of it, they were dominating and were just having a hard time punching it in. The keeper kept the other team in for longer than they could be. Finally, they got their first goal with 10 minutes left in the first half on a PK (handling in the box). The play itself was funny because it was a soft lob that floated to a defender who did the worst clearance and it ricocheted off of a couple of body before rolling down the arm of another defender. Ironically, I was one of the only people that saw it (fortunately!).

Two minutes later, an interesting play where white is attacking and there is a pass to a streaking attacker and a defender in hot pursuit. The defender makes a challenge on the attacking player but the ball is 2-3 feet ahead of the challenge. The attacker stumbles but tries to continue, so I allow a play on (but in my head, it was a yellow card because of it being a professional foul). When the keeper scoops the ball up a second later, I call back to the point of the foul, and issue a card to the defender. The coach goes ape nuts over this (and on top of it, all of their parents do too). I guess it is contagious when a coach gets away with it. I went over and explained it to him since he did not seem to grasp the advantage concept too well but then in the second half we had a ton more issues. And it was so hot, I actually started thinking to myself, am I getting it all wrong? Is this guy right and my calls stink? The two ARs backed me up but it shook my confidence. And the team ended up winning by 6, so it was mostly him just being nasty for nastiness sake.

Then on Sunday, I had another U16 boys match that was a potential for a title, if the white team won (not the same white team as Saturday) they would go to the a tiebreaker with another team. One of the ARs after that match asked me if I was a 6 or a 7 because I had done so well with my foul recognition. When I told him I was an 8 he immediately said that I should be looking to upgrade. It certainly helped boost my confidence. Even before the match I was thinking to myself if I was way over my head. Glad to be able to now say that the coach from Saturday was just full of it.

World Cup

One of the biggest sporting events is almost upon us. It is the month long celebration of the sport we love (or tolerate, at least) and I plan to miss very little of it. I apologize for doing another off-topic post but I promise to add some referee content to make it more kosher. It is just that it is one of those things that happens once in a blue moon and it is an event that the whole world hinges on every play, every goal and in the end, one of the big countries will come out the winners, but I hope against hope that someone unexpected will take the title (not your typical Brazil, Germany or Italy).

What are your expectations for this event? I know I will be looking at the refereeing teams early on to see if I can figure out who is doing a good job. 4 years ago, Horacio Elizondo of Argentina did the first and last matches of the World Cup. My guess is that we will see someone who has one of those impeccable runs just like the teams do and they will have a good final. For some reason I remember the names of two other refs of World Cup finals without having to look them up, Codesal from Mexico did the 1990 World Cup final, and Arphi Filo (sp?) did the 1986 final both featuring Argentina and Germany.

Not that I ever aspire to get to that level, but it is nice to see how the pros do it to then take those techniques and try to apply them (normally unsuccessfully) to the younger games. Let me know what you all see and hopefully we will be talking about a small country (in terms of soccer prowess) taking home the cup. I would love to the US go deep and countries like Uruguay, Paraguay, Ivory Coast or the Swiss make an impact and leave out one or more of the giants in the group phase.

Personally, I think Spain will win as they are just too good, but it is 90 minutes and you have to play great soccer in the knockout phase or you go home. Hope everyone enjoys it. I know I will.

The Acadamy Approach

For those of you new to the world of travel soccer and reffing in general, there is one thing that seems to have caught on that I would rather not see proliferate as much as it has recently and that is the concept of acadamy travel soccer and the next level of team sponsored soccer.

Let me delve into what exactly I am talking about and then we can go into why I do not like it as much. To begin defining the concept of acadamy soccer and its effects on the reffing world, we start with the local club's requirement starting this last season that all new teams formed would have to use a coach from the only authorized provider of said coaches for the club. This basically means that if you have a group of kids that play well enough where they are a little better than their rec counterparts, they get moved up into travel soccer. The local club has roughly two teams per age group, with some age groups having three or even four teams. That is a lot of kids playing travel soccer.

We have been lucky that my son's team was established before the establishment of "acadamy coaches only" policy so we have a grandfather policy that allows us to remain independant for now. But any other team formed after their age group or any one formed from now on are required to use these coaches (who are for the most part, very knowledgeable and have a keen interest in making sure the kids get better). This rant is not against any one coach or acadamy program because it is the concept and what it breeds that is the problem here, not the coaches themselves.

So what does this have to do with reffing you ask? Well, case in point was this past weekend. I was the center ref on a match between a U13 girls team from the local club and one from somewhere else in the area that was a critical match. It was important to the local club to come out a winner, because they are an acadamy team and have been for quite some time. Truth be told, for U13 girls, they play well, but evidently this season, the results have not gone their way. I looked at their standings after doing my Saturday and Sunday matches (I centered them on Saturday and on Sunday I did an AR) and the truth was in the pudding. Before the weekend they had played 4 matches and had drawn 4 matches, 0-0 and three 1-1 results. Since they are an acadamy team, they are expected to be atop of their division. It was suggested and hinted to me that this team deserved some results to come their way. It was not a clear cut request to assist the team with my calls, it was more of a shadow of a doubt that it would be something helpful.

It certainly did not work out for them because they were playing the top team in the division and were soundly beat out by them 4-0 (hey, at least they did not tie). I am at odds as to whether I should report this as I am not sure it was all that clear if it was a passing comment stating they would love a win or if it was more of a comment that required action on my behalf. Obviously there was no helping the girls even if I wanted to because I could not erase 4 goals with creative reffing. One or two goals perhaps, just ask the Spanish and Italian teams in the 2002 World Cup against South Korea. That was creative reffing and evidence of an agenda to aid the local country into a part of the World Cup that they had no business being in, but 4 goals is too much.

Anyway, this all boils down to the fact that Acadamy soccer is focused on results, much more so than development of the players. At the U10-U14 level, I think that while there should be some consisntancy on having your starters play the same position, every once in a while, shake things up because it is still developmental and it helps the kids adapt to a different scenario. Also, focus on making them better players, not on the results of the match at hand. Everything I have seen about Acadamy soccer is all about the result, and it makes sense if the parents are shelling out a ton of money to pay these coaches but the kids do not deserve it to be this way. Not sure if there is a solution or if it makes sense to restructure the leagues to refocus somehow on other things than just the result of the match.

So to wrap it up, it sucks because all of this in the background leads to having one of the parents and the acadamy coach (who I do not care for too much) to come and hint/suggest/attempt to influence/etc. my decisions on the field because of their needs for results. Sorry, guys, but I don't dance like that.

High School experience

I was so worked up about doing a dual. I was jittery, nervous, and did not know how to react. But it is done with and in the end, there is nothing that terrible about it. It really boils down to this, you call your quadrant and the other one calls his/her quadrant. Stay within the offside lines of the team, act more like an AR than a center and basically stuff in the middle of the field either does not get called or gets called twice.

But here are the specifics. I arrived at 5:25 for a 6pm JV kickoff. I got to the field and it was everything that the guy at refblog.com always harps about. Hard barely grassy field, long and narrow, like football fields are. The other ref had emailed me earlier stating that he had a 4pm match somewhere else and was not going to show up until right at kickoff. I did not know the JV procedure, but I did collect the rosters from each team and then checked the girls in.

I started the game and about 4-5 minutes into the match, I see the other guy on the field. I yell to the ladies that there were now two whistles on the field and to play on. I had started my watch, but since there was a high school scoreboard, I let it guide me only to find out that at 2 minutes remaining, they did not count it down anymore because it is the ref's determination of when it ends, so in the first half, they probably played another minute or two because I did not know if it would end by itself when the 2 minutes were up or if I had to end it. When we got to at least 3 minutes after, I blew the whistle for the first half to end.

I got to meet the other ref, we chatted and I admitted that I had not done any matches before under this regime but he said that it just takes a little adapting and that most JV games are not really competitive, that the games everyone comes to watch is that actual high school matches and not the younger kids.

The game itself was interesting, more contact than I would have liked, but the other ref basically called nothing. I called 3 fouls in the second half and 2 in the first. I did not attempt to make all the hand signals but I did call out what I saw, for the sake of the coaches. But in the second match where I was an AR, the center only made the 'stop the clock' gesture after each goal was scored, other than that there is no stopping of the clock they said.

Back to the matches, both were very similar, the JV game was won by the local side who played more controlled soccer and started the second half by getting scored on in the first couple of minutes of the second half and then turned it around for a 2-1 win. In the second match, the home team scored in the first minute of the second half and then went on to lose 4-2.

The last impression I had was the fact that we had the whole camaraderie thing going on, with the starters getting their names called out, the whole national anthem, it really did feel like a world cup match, at least this first time. Interesting since I had never done it quite like this before.

So all in all, it is still soccer, just a little quirkier than I am used to, a little rougher than I expected and more people in the stands than just parents. Next week I do the same school but on the boys side, and I have been warned to buckle up for even a bigger ride. We'll see about that.

It has been a while

And I want to apologize to everyone, I had not realized the length of time that had elapsed since my last post. I know I always promise to bring up the seminar and more details around it and I might, but it really was not that thick enough.

This past weekend, I opened the season for spring with an invitation tournament. In all, I did 8 matches, 3 centers and 5 AR positions. They were for U13 and U14 boys. Decent level of competition since only halfway decent teams get in. My son's team got invited in their U10 category and were promptly blown out of the first two matches. They did manage to tie their last match, but not the start of the season they were expecting.

As for me, I have been getting myself in shape with exercising in the morning for about 30 minutes or so. But no running and that is something I am going to have to change. I was VERY tired after match #4 on Saturday. Sunday was a bit better, but still, I needed a healthy dose of Advil when I was done.

There was not much to tell about the matches in general, except that on Saturday, as an AR, there was a situation where a player got hurt. Ball was close to my position so the center told me to do the drop ball instead of him. Never had that happen before, and if I am the center, I would handle a drop ball, not the AR, who has a more important function, offside. Anyone ever have that? What do you think?

On Sunday, I arrived at my field 30 minutes before kick off and so did the other AR. Our center arrived 3 minutes before kick off and was angry at me for doing the coin flip. I did not want to start an argument with the center since we were going to be a crew for the 4 matches, but I really wanted to tell him to be a little bit earlier next time. Everything after that went fine. We even had one of those, we both saw the same thing from different angles and complemented each other on the non-call, but it irked me at the beginning to get slapped on the wrist for something that I should not have.

These next 3 weekends include more tournaments, so there will be a lot of soccer and a lot of material for the blog. If I ever get to post it, well, that is a different story!

Shirt pulling

This is my number one pet peeve now. I saw this during a tournament where my son played this past weekend. It was up in Maryland and there was a mix of teams from Maryland, DC and Virginia. It seemed that most of the teams from Maryland used this tactic to balance out the lack of speed in terms of defenders keeping up with attackers. I saw one breakaway that the attacker basically got dragged back by a well employed shirt pull and it just reminded me how unfair and hard to detect some of that is. This is my first resolution for 2010, to catch and card more of that. And I want to make sure that my ARs see that. Easier said than done, but at least I am going to give it a try.

High School vs. USSF Rules

I plan to delve deeper in this category as I was in training this past weekend to begin doing high school soccer. I received the rule book and the first thing that jumps out at me is the fact that you can see the philosophy of one vs. the other. USSF is written with a certain audience in mind whereas the NFHS rulebook is geared towards the same people but with details galore, covering many more minute details that the USSF book leaves to common sense for the most part (or lack thereof).

My idea is to give it a more profound breakdown of some of the interesting things that contrast between the two, but I wanted to throw it out there that things just were so different between the two that it does not seem like it was the same sport.

Cool Runnings

Oy it's cold in the Northern Virginia area! To think that I was able to take a vacation where I could lie on the beach and laugh at the snow people were enduring here only to return and the day after I am back, I was called into action thanks to the O40 women's league I reffed a couple of matches for last year.

But this time, I was not prepared for it. My match started at 3pm. I arrived at 2:30 and saw that the ladies were putting up the nets on the goals. It was cold, around 34 F and it was ok until the wind started swirling up. The field was a turf field on top of a hill of sorts, and how the wind blew.

The match started 10 minutes late because all the players were basically in their cars with the motors running in the parking lot until enough people got out to start the match. It is funny to see how some women, like those closer to 60 years old were out and warming up while those closer to 40 were in their cars and thinking "What am I doing here?"

We did 2 40 minute halves and by the end of the match, I was frozen to the bone. I mean I was cold. It was almost 5pm, dark, and the temperature had dropped to about 29 F or so. It had been a decent match, where white scored 2 first half goals, and with 15 minutes to play, blue pulled one back and then attacked to get the equalizer but failed to so. Kudos to the ladies, it was a decent match, but they did not really need me as I called three fouls tops.

However, as I was about to leave, the second match did not have their ref yet. Even though this league pays well, I was in no desire to stay and do another match. I do have a policy though that unless I have to be somewhere else after a match, I hang around until the ref for the next match shows up. Of course, they always do but it is the right thing to do in case they do. Well, he didn't this time.

So I did the second match. We did 30 minutes because it was bitterly cold with the wind. Not sure what the wind chill was or how to calculate it but it was a good 15-20 miles and hour and gusts every so often made it worse. To tell you that in the first half, I did it with my coat on. Side note: I was wearing a t-shirt, an Under Armor compression shirt and my blue, red, black and yellow jerseys on for the first match.

When one of the ladies said that they were confused and almost passed me the ball thinking I was one of their teammates, I replied "Don't worry, I will take it off soon" and she replied "You have no idea how long I have waited to hear you say that!" It was certainly funny.

Anyway, in the second match, I did have a lot more work, there were two ladies, one on each side that were somewhat enforcers and no one really got by them. So I had to call some more fouls and there were a couple of complaints with the balls going out of touch, but it seemed they were gaming me instead of actually thinking I had missed the call.

And I called a penalty, the keeper diving for the ball, took out the attacker, so it was all in all a better game. The final there was 2-2 but good stuff indeed because their level of play was more than decent given the fact that it was the first games of the season for each team and that it was in such demaning weather. Hats off, ladies.