Had an escape from the norm this past weekend. My daughter played in a tournament that was about 200 miles from home and I arranged to do a couple of games for the tournament. One as a center and one as an AR. Nothing high level, but good to run around and get some of the summer rust off.
In my center, I met with a couple of guys that were to be my ARs and we discussed what I expected in my pregame and to feel free to give me feedback should it be warranted. Game starts and the yellow team dumps the ball into the opposing team's box. Defender and attacker jostle and the defender does a very evident push. Not 30 seconds in and I call a PK. Probably my fastest PK call ever.
Blue eventually ties and takes the lead before yellow ties it again on a silly shot right before halftime. At halftime my AR tells me that I should not have called the PK at the beginning. Why I ask. Because I coach at this age group and I know that the PK could discourage the team that got the PK. Interesting, so you want me to not call a foul because it was too close to the start of the game and could be damaging to the team that committed the foul? I had to tell him that I did not agree with that logic and that fortunately for this game, they had me in center instead of him. Come on, so a PK can't be called even though I saw a foul (and the AR who questioned my strategy also said it was a foul) because it was too early in the game. Hadn't heard that one before.
