So, more cards, eh?

I had a slate of decent games this past Sunday, a top level U17 match, followed by another top level U16 match and then a U14 match to wind things down. In preparing for the matches, I mentioned to some fellow referees that I thought games required more cards. For the most part, if people were given cards more often, they would not go all crazy when they happen to receive one. At least that is my thought process on it. And sure enough, I figured that these matches would get a lot of that since they were high level, and the stakes were high.

Turns out that I certainly had more PKs in those 3 matches than cards. It is the level and the demeanor of the kids that determine when cards get shown, not some predisposition as to number of fouls or the level of play. In the first match, in 90 minutes, all I saw were 22 girls (and the subs as well) who wanted to play soccer. Did they foul? Yes. Did they go hard? Yes. Did any one go over that line that constituted something more than a talking to? Nope.

What was funny was that the only times when I thought about pulling a card was during the second match, when two players collided when jumping to head the ball and it seemed like one went more into the opponent than straight up. And I thought that while it was hard, it was foul but nothing more. 15 minutes later, a similar foul happened but the other way. At that moment, I thought it might be time for a card, but it was so similar to the first that I felt like I was betraying the bar I had set when I called the first one. It wasn't retaliation since the two players involved in the first foul were nowhere near the pair of participants in the second.

Finally, the third game, had the biggest chance for a card. 2nd minute of the match, blue breaks away from defenders and as she goes into the penalty area, she is taken down from behind by a defender. I quickly sprint to spot and my brain immediately ponders the thought of a red card. But this is what went through my head (and if you need to chime in, please do so):

- Blue is going to get a PK and probably convert.
-White does not have subs and would now be playing the rest of the game with 10.
-While is going to lose anyway as the skill level is not on par with Blue.
-White players drove at least 50-60 miles to come to this field. How much would it suck to get thrown out in the second minute of a game that you drove so far to get to?
-White defender did not really aim to foul, it was more clumsy than anything else.

I have to admit that regardless, I probably should have shown the red card to the defender, but my intuition was right. They did convert, they went on to win 5-0 and there was little that the red card would have achieved on top of what was happening. Sometimes you just get it right for the game at hand without know if you really will at the time of the decision.

So in the end, while I might pontificate that soccer needs more cards, all that is needed is to show them when they are needed. Everyone of us has a threshold and when it is crossed, do what needs to be done, when it does not get crossed or when the game or players don't need it, keep them in your pocket. You shouldn't use them for the sake of using them, you should use them when you need to get something out of the game or the players. At least that is my story this week. Next week I might change my mind.

A question of levels

In this area, you have your garden variety rec leagues, your travel leagues and in the middle, exists SFL. This league, as I think I have mentioned before, mixes kids from rec and travel caliber kids. It is popular because it mixes in the travel part (teams travel a bit out of their home area) and still have rec prices in terms of registration and practices, etc.

With that said, the bad part is you get kids who can barely kick the ball playing with kids who should be playing travel but can't afford to. I have mentioned that this mix is not a good one because the different levels leads to things like the situation from yesterday I had in my game. This was a u13 game, to fully set the stage. 

White team up 1-0 late in the game. Yellow pressing up and they lose the ball on attack. Yellow player tries to recover the ball from white's defender by executing a two footed tackle from the side that the defender could not see. While the tackle was good in terms of dispossessing the ball from the defender, I felt it was really a dangerous tackle. Had the defender's ankle been 2 inches closer to the tackler's two footed lunge, he would be spending the rest of the weekend at the hospital. So I blew the whistle and the coach went ballistic because all he saw was the result of the play. I saw the potential of tackles like that. I told him that a tackle like this is fine in a World Cup but not in a u13 semi rec match. I showed him (the player) the yellow card and that sent the parents over the edge. But at the end of the game, no one came by asking me to explain myself. It was one where I was going to show a yellow or a red card depending on whether there was contact with the ankle. I am not sure if coach or player fully understood what I was trying to convey. It all depends if they take a step back and reflect on the play or just brush it off as the ref being unreasonable. Time will tell if that player eventually gets it or not. Hopefully he will. 

Another assessment

This past weekend, after my Saturday with the young kids, I had my assessment match to maintain my Grade 7 certification. I received good marks for staying close to the play, but not too close. The other thing that the assessor said was that I called 7 fouls in the first 15 minutes and then had only 11 more through the rest of the game. He said that it worked for that game though my AR said that the coach was questioning if I was going to call all contact at the beginning. However, the kids never complained and then I did not have to worry too much about the frustration level.

The only thing that was a problem was an exchange with one of the coaches. He complained that during one of those screening plays where a player accompanies a ball that is rolling out of bounds, that the player veered too far away from the ball to play the player. I did not think so, but he complained very publicly. I replied "Thanks coach. I ref, you coach." The assessor stated that I should have left it at Thanks Coach. That way you do not invite a reply.

Other than that, another year of me being a 7. He did state that he wanted me to try to upgrade to a 6 given what he saw that day. Some day maybe.

Dark Arts

Very interesting U11 match I had this past Saturday. I have not had a younger age group in a while and was happy to have what seemed to be a easier time for the game at hand. U11 boys, how hard can that be right?

Things started easily enough, during the check ins though, the local team (the Blue team) had many latino players, a latino coach and he made a comment that surprised me. When I was checking in the boys, I mentioned that to me, the most important thing was for them to be able to go to school on Monday and to make sure that they were safe, so if they felt weird or dizzy, etc. to please let me know. The coach interrupted and said that the boys were here to win and that they would come out when he said so. Okay coach, remember this is U11.

The game started and Blue started off well. The hispanic players had a different level of play, they moved the ball with grace and while there were some non-hispanic players on that team, most of the play flowed through these more gifted players. All fine and dandy for the first 10-15 minutes. Blue took an early lead and was up 3-1 I believe when I called a foul on Blue at midfield. Immediately Blue #49 gets in front of the ball, within 3-4 feet and prevents a quick restart. I hold up the game and publicly state that he has to move back and that I would be ok if he was 6-7 yards away and had to be moved back, but I said, even you know that 3-4 feet is not 10 yards. #49 moved back without a problem.

3 minutes later, #49 has a breakaway and when he makes a move on the keeper, he dribbles too hard and the ball is going out for a goal kick. As he passes the goalkeeper (before the ball goes out) he takes a spectacular sprawl. And then he turns around and holds up his hands like we see on TV every weekend from the Ronaldo's and Messi's of the world. Hmm, me not liking this #49 too much. And the coach piles on, "Referee, the keeper tripped my player, that should be a red card!". Again, U11. I just ignored them.

Later in the half, still 3-1 Blue when I called a foul close to the goal for white. Again, Blue gets in front of the ball, not a foot away. And sure enough, it was #49 again. I tell the kid, "Look, you have to move back. You can't stand there." To which he responds, "I can stand wherever I want. My coach said so." Ok, your coach just earned you a yellow for persistent attempts at trying to trick your way through a soccer match. Actually the yellow was for failing to respect the distance, but man o man, he was more complicated than some 15 year old kids I have had to work with. At this point, everyone knew that I was not going to tolerate getting to close to the ball on free kicks. And the coach yells at me "Don't yell at my players!". I don't think I was yelling, but rather talking firmly after having to explain myself on where not to stand for free kicks, but I apologized to the coach and the player and just said to him, "Look, you have to give them 10 yards. I don't need to get involved." Coach got it, kid got it. So we are good supposedly.

To make things worse, they line up for the free kick and right before they take the kick, Blue #10, who was one of the boys forming the wall, takes two giant steps forward and jumps just as they take the kick. I stop the play, reset the ball, whip out another yellow card and loudly proclaim to everyone "I hope we are clear that today we are going to respect the distance on free kicks." White scores on the free kick retake to make it 3-2.

Final score was 6-2 Blue as they really were the better side. At halftime, a fellow referee was sitting watching my game and he said that Blue had been taught the dark arts of soccer. And it was true, they did many of the things we see the pros do, go down easily, yell and grab their ankles at the slightest of contacts, pull shirts and of course, stand in front of the ball on free kicks. Hopefully they got a little wake up call when it comes time to play in tougher games that many referees will not put up with those shennanigans. And maybe I was too hard on them, but I feel that they brought it onto themselves when they try to bend the rules. Sometimes when you bend the rules, they hit you back when it snaps back into place. So be it.