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.