Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Happy Holidays
Everyone, it has been a great 2015 and hope you have enjoyed the posts. I hope to have more of that in 2016. Keep the comments coming and wish everyone a very happy holiday season and a great start to 2016.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Younger age groups
This weekend, I worked with my daughter, who is 13 and has been reffing little this season due to her regular soccer demands. She has a big trip to Arizona in the winter and she is trying to get a couple of matches in so she has some spending money for Arizona.
So we picked up a couple of matches of the U10 rec variety. I guess I have become too used to older age groups and to travel age groups. I had an issue with one player in my match who was clearly better than everyone else but he used a lot of grabbing and pushing.
At the start of the second half, he does an elbow to the ribs of an attacker right after I called a foul. So I have a quiet word with him, no pushing, elbowing, etc. I knew that this was rec and so my foul tolerance was very low. On top of it, it was slippery because of the mud and rain. In the second half, he has a mini breakaway and dribbles the ball a little too far ahead of him. The last defender collects the ball and he slides right into him. I blow the whistle hard and do the referee based "come here", not pointing at him but with both palms to me asking him to come. I say you must be careful, it is slippery and someone can get hurt.
Two minutes later, he slides into the keeper when the keeper collected the ball. I blow the whistle hard again, and say that this is the third time we are talking and show him the yellow card. He almost started crying and then seemed to calm down. He ended up scoring three goals after that but my daughter said she was somewhat appalled at how I handled the situation. She said that the U10 player should not have received the card and that I was treating him like a travel player. I can see her point. I have been doing mostly U14 and above. And I know I take it seriously, so the rec games are more about just making sure no one gets hurt as they are not trying to win the game at all costs sometimes.
Lesson learned, I am going to try and stay away from my youth matches for a while where it involves rec and U10 or below. I would have to do a bunch of games to get back into the rec groove. Unfortunately that means I won't be reffing with my daughter as much.
So we picked up a couple of matches of the U10 rec variety. I guess I have become too used to older age groups and to travel age groups. I had an issue with one player in my match who was clearly better than everyone else but he used a lot of grabbing and pushing.
At the start of the second half, he does an elbow to the ribs of an attacker right after I called a foul. So I have a quiet word with him, no pushing, elbowing, etc. I knew that this was rec and so my foul tolerance was very low. On top of it, it was slippery because of the mud and rain. In the second half, he has a mini breakaway and dribbles the ball a little too far ahead of him. The last defender collects the ball and he slides right into him. I blow the whistle hard and do the referee based "come here", not pointing at him but with both palms to me asking him to come. I say you must be careful, it is slippery and someone can get hurt.
Two minutes later, he slides into the keeper when the keeper collected the ball. I blow the whistle hard again, and say that this is the third time we are talking and show him the yellow card. He almost started crying and then seemed to calm down. He ended up scoring three goals after that but my daughter said she was somewhat appalled at how I handled the situation. She said that the U10 player should not have received the card and that I was treating him like a travel player. I can see her point. I have been doing mostly U14 and above. And I know I take it seriously, so the rec games are more about just making sure no one gets hurt as they are not trying to win the game at all costs sometimes.
Lesson learned, I am going to try and stay away from my youth matches for a while where it involves rec and U10 or below. I would have to do a bunch of games to get back into the rec groove. Unfortunately that means I won't be reffing with my daughter as much.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Assessment Match Tie in with DOGSO degree
As promised in the comments, I stated that I had a scenario in my assessment match this past weekend that shed some light as to my previous post and the question of DOGSO and is it is sliding scale.
Before we get too deep, I will have a separate post regarding the assessment match itself, what was said and all of that jazz. I will say that I passed (barely) and that it was not my best match. I felt like I was second guessing myself. And at times, it felt like I was standing beside myself on certain calls thinking, I wouldn't have called that when I just did. But alas, don't want to steal too much thunder from a future post.
In my scenario from the assessment, the game was 1-1 going late into the game, probably about 3-4 minutes left. Really tight, contested match, both teams trying hard to win and pushing up. White team gets a good chance that the keeper saves well and immediately creates a great counter attack for the yellow team. The midfielder traps the ball, brings his head up and sees a yellow attacker streaking down the opposite line and lofts a wonderful pass to him. Attacker gathers it, beats his defender and shoots far post where it hits the post and goes in. Wonderful goal, class play and definition to win the match essentially. No problems thus far. White goes to get the ball and yellow goes to celebrate with his teammates. In that, a sub from yellow comes on to the field to celebrate. This happens all the time in pro soccer. But this guy didn't come on 5 feet. He came out a lot more, celebrating and hugging the goalscorer. As I am running up the field close to my AR1, I ask him if he thinks the sub should get a yellow. He says no, not worth it. Let it be if he comes off fairly quickly. And he does, so I don't book him.
After the match (it ended 2-1 for yellow), the assessor comments on my discussion with my AR and asked me what I would get with showing a yellow to the sub that came on the field. I said that I probably wouldn't get anything but that he did come on to the field fairly quickly. He said that given the situation, the time left and everything else, the coming onto the field was trifling and should just be addressed with a quiet word instead of outright yellow card.
So it got me thinking of the whole degree of DOGSOs. I think that given the DOGSO situation from a week ago, there are degrees. There is nothing to gain from a red card if the game is already in hand. Now, do you still give it if you are being assessed? I still don't have an answer to that. I think the answer is this, if you are wavering between a red and a yellow and the game is a blow out already, no need to give a red, you won't get much of anything out of that. However, if you are in a blow out and there is an offence that requires a red because of SFP or VC, it is still a red. If it is always a red, it remains a red. If it could be a yellow, the go with the yellow. That is of course, unless you have more information, like say, the white team won the first game 4-0 and now is down 3-0 and they commit a possible DOGSO. In this case, the game is a blowout, but the winner of the matchup is not and probably could justify the red. Still a lot to think about when you have a couple of seconds to make up your mind. Perhaps that is something that you can cover during the pregame in case you actually have to face it during your game.
Before we get too deep, I will have a separate post regarding the assessment match itself, what was said and all of that jazz. I will say that I passed (barely) and that it was not my best match. I felt like I was second guessing myself. And at times, it felt like I was standing beside myself on certain calls thinking, I wouldn't have called that when I just did. But alas, don't want to steal too much thunder from a future post.
In my scenario from the assessment, the game was 1-1 going late into the game, probably about 3-4 minutes left. Really tight, contested match, both teams trying hard to win and pushing up. White team gets a good chance that the keeper saves well and immediately creates a great counter attack for the yellow team. The midfielder traps the ball, brings his head up and sees a yellow attacker streaking down the opposite line and lofts a wonderful pass to him. Attacker gathers it, beats his defender and shoots far post where it hits the post and goes in. Wonderful goal, class play and definition to win the match essentially. No problems thus far. White goes to get the ball and yellow goes to celebrate with his teammates. In that, a sub from yellow comes on to the field to celebrate. This happens all the time in pro soccer. But this guy didn't come on 5 feet. He came out a lot more, celebrating and hugging the goalscorer. As I am running up the field close to my AR1, I ask him if he thinks the sub should get a yellow. He says no, not worth it. Let it be if he comes off fairly quickly. And he does, so I don't book him.
After the match (it ended 2-1 for yellow), the assessor comments on my discussion with my AR and asked me what I would get with showing a yellow to the sub that came on the field. I said that I probably wouldn't get anything but that he did come on to the field fairly quickly. He said that given the situation, the time left and everything else, the coming onto the field was trifling and should just be addressed with a quiet word instead of outright yellow card.
So it got me thinking of the whole degree of DOGSOs. I think that given the DOGSO situation from a week ago, there are degrees. There is nothing to gain from a red card if the game is already in hand. Now, do you still give it if you are being assessed? I still don't have an answer to that. I think the answer is this, if you are wavering between a red and a yellow and the game is a blow out already, no need to give a red, you won't get much of anything out of that. However, if you are in a blow out and there is an offence that requires a red because of SFP or VC, it is still a red. If it is always a red, it remains a red. If it could be a yellow, the go with the yellow. That is of course, unless you have more information, like say, the white team won the first game 4-0 and now is down 3-0 and they commit a possible DOGSO. In this case, the game is a blowout, but the winner of the matchup is not and probably could justify the red. Still a lot to think about when you have a couple of seconds to make up your mind. Perhaps that is something that you can cover during the pregame in case you actually have to face it during your game.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Degrees of DOGSO
I promised it yesterday, so here it is.
I was pondering after one my matches this past weekend, where I was the center and my son the lead AR on this one incident that made me think of degree of DOGSO (denying obvious goal scoring opportunity). It was late in a match between while and red. White is up 5-0 with about a minute left to go in the match. Red has a rare attack going and the attacker makes a great move to split the last two defenders and as he is going to a one on one with the keeper, he is taken out by one of the split defenders.
To take into consideration outside of the foul itself, is that this was a tournament and that the white team with that result (a win was required) was in the final.
So as I call the foul, I look at my AR (again, my son) and pat my patch and my rear to see what he was thinking, yellow or red. He looks at me like I am crazy and pats his patch so I issue a yellow. After the game, he shared his reasoning:
- The game had been decided long ago, 5-0 or 5-1 was not going to change anything towards the game, the standings, or anything else.
- While it could have been DOGSO, the level of the play was probably a hard sell to justify a red.
What impressed me most about my son's reasoning was the fact that he had, at 15 years of age, thought through not only the situation at hand, but the overarching situation of the tournament and the needs of the game as well. Nothing would be gained for issuing a red and it would not change the result of that game. It was not a foul that by itself would get anything more than a yellow had it happened at midfield and that it was not needed, plain and simple.
In all of that, I was leaning towards red, but then after talking to my son, it made most sense to issue a yellow. In the end that white team lost the final 6-0 so it wasn't like the red or yellow would have had made a difference, but I was impressed by the level of higher level thinking of my son. Kudos to him and I am thankful I had him on the line to help me reason out a difficult situation.
So in conclusion, if the game had been a close one, 1-0 either way or tied, I probably would have issued a red card, because it was strategic and could directly have an influence of the outcome of the match and tournament, but in that situation, the threshold (here is that word again!) was higher to be a red, just because it wouldn't have made a difference in the winner of the match.
I was pondering after one my matches this past weekend, where I was the center and my son the lead AR on this one incident that made me think of degree of DOGSO (denying obvious goal scoring opportunity). It was late in a match between while and red. White is up 5-0 with about a minute left to go in the match. Red has a rare attack going and the attacker makes a great move to split the last two defenders and as he is going to a one on one with the keeper, he is taken out by one of the split defenders.
To take into consideration outside of the foul itself, is that this was a tournament and that the white team with that result (a win was required) was in the final.
So as I call the foul, I look at my AR (again, my son) and pat my patch and my rear to see what he was thinking, yellow or red. He looks at me like I am crazy and pats his patch so I issue a yellow. After the game, he shared his reasoning:
- The game had been decided long ago, 5-0 or 5-1 was not going to change anything towards the game, the standings, or anything else.
- While it could have been DOGSO, the level of the play was probably a hard sell to justify a red.
What impressed me most about my son's reasoning was the fact that he had, at 15 years of age, thought through not only the situation at hand, but the overarching situation of the tournament and the needs of the game as well. Nothing would be gained for issuing a red and it would not change the result of that game. It was not a foul that by itself would get anything more than a yellow had it happened at midfield and that it was not needed, plain and simple.
In all of that, I was leaning towards red, but then after talking to my son, it made most sense to issue a yellow. In the end that white team lost the final 6-0 so it wasn't like the red or yellow would have had made a difference, but I was impressed by the level of higher level thinking of my son. Kudos to him and I am thankful I had him on the line to help me reason out a difficult situation.
So in conclusion, if the game had been a close one, 1-0 either way or tied, I probably would have issued a red card, because it was strategic and could directly have an influence of the outcome of the match and tournament, but in that situation, the threshold (here is that word again!) was higher to be a red, just because it wouldn't have made a difference in the winner of the match.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Two topics for today
This past weekend, it was a lot of soccer, both my daughter's games and my own games that I want to discuss.
First, my daughter's game. In her game, some interesting things happening for a U14 match of relatively low level travel soccer. The topic I want to discuss is the concept of threshold. For a referee, establishing a threshold is important, because as the game goes on, you are measuring what is not a foul or trifling, what is a foul, what is a yellow and what is a red. And just like you kind of know what one thing is in your head, you are also going to be measured on that on the field.
Case in point, the center of my daughter's match calls a foul early in the first half where he then cards a player. The play was in midfield, attacker gets by the defender and then appears to trip on the ball. The referee calls for a foul, coach yells that the player tripped on the ball and the referee goes on to explain that the defender that had been beat nudged the attacker in the back, which caused her to trip on the ball and so she fell and therefore it is a yellow card. Fine, I disagreed with the call, but fine, 5 minutes into the game, that is your threshold, ok, let's play with that.
15th minute of the match, my daughter receives the ball, makes a nice move on the defender and send the ball forward for a pass. With the ball long gone on the pass, she receives a knee in the hip/back area and crumples down like a sack of potatoes. Referee stops play, admonishes the defender and does not issue a card. I know, it is my daughter, so I am not seeing it objectively, so there could be that.
I am not sure if I would have carded that foul had it been my center. But then I probably wouldn't have called a foul at all at the ball trip, even with a slight nudge that I did not see. But if your threshold is what we saw in the first play, then this play was at least a yellow, given the level of contact, the location and the position of the ball in relation to the contact.
Then comes the moment of truth, corner kick comes in and all of a sudden one girl holding her wrist, it was limp and looked off. She had tangled with the keeper somehow and video later showed that the keeper struck her in the wrist and ended snapping the wrist. The referee saw it because he blew the whistle and conferred with his AR to determine if the ball was still in play.
So he has his conference, comes back and points to the spot and then issues a yellow card to the keeper. My threshold meter just went crazy. I know there are times when you call something that the exact same fouls can either get a simple foul called, a foul with a conversation, a foul with a yellow or a foul with a red, but this was kind of off the charts. My only explanation is that his first yellow was an outlier, he didn't really mean to give the yellow or decided he had been too harsh after the fact. And yes, you sometimes have to do that, but it is hard to sell a call if you are constantly readjusting your foul meter. So be careful out there.
The other topic is degrees of DOGSO. I ran out of time to cover it today so I hope to be able to cover it tomorrow or in the next couple of days.
First, my daughter's game. In her game, some interesting things happening for a U14 match of relatively low level travel soccer. The topic I want to discuss is the concept of threshold. For a referee, establishing a threshold is important, because as the game goes on, you are measuring what is not a foul or trifling, what is a foul, what is a yellow and what is a red. And just like you kind of know what one thing is in your head, you are also going to be measured on that on the field.
Case in point, the center of my daughter's match calls a foul early in the first half where he then cards a player. The play was in midfield, attacker gets by the defender and then appears to trip on the ball. The referee calls for a foul, coach yells that the player tripped on the ball and the referee goes on to explain that the defender that had been beat nudged the attacker in the back, which caused her to trip on the ball and so she fell and therefore it is a yellow card. Fine, I disagreed with the call, but fine, 5 minutes into the game, that is your threshold, ok, let's play with that.
15th minute of the match, my daughter receives the ball, makes a nice move on the defender and send the ball forward for a pass. With the ball long gone on the pass, she receives a knee in the hip/back area and crumples down like a sack of potatoes. Referee stops play, admonishes the defender and does not issue a card. I know, it is my daughter, so I am not seeing it objectively, so there could be that.
I am not sure if I would have carded that foul had it been my center. But then I probably wouldn't have called a foul at all at the ball trip, even with a slight nudge that I did not see. But if your threshold is what we saw in the first play, then this play was at least a yellow, given the level of contact, the location and the position of the ball in relation to the contact.
Then comes the moment of truth, corner kick comes in and all of a sudden one girl holding her wrist, it was limp and looked off. She had tangled with the keeper somehow and video later showed that the keeper struck her in the wrist and ended snapping the wrist. The referee saw it because he blew the whistle and conferred with his AR to determine if the ball was still in play.
So he has his conference, comes back and points to the spot and then issues a yellow card to the keeper. My threshold meter just went crazy. I know there are times when you call something that the exact same fouls can either get a simple foul called, a foul with a conversation, a foul with a yellow or a foul with a red, but this was kind of off the charts. My only explanation is that his first yellow was an outlier, he didn't really mean to give the yellow or decided he had been too harsh after the fact. And yes, you sometimes have to do that, but it is hard to sell a call if you are constantly readjusting your foul meter. So be careful out there.
The other topic is degrees of DOGSO. I ran out of time to cover it today so I hope to be able to cover it tomorrow or in the next couple of days.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Almost a 6
I am one event away from achieving my Grade 6 State badge. This past weekend I worked in an Adult league match that was being assessed for the center and I was able to get my assessment added on to the match as an AR. So I have completed my training, my upgrade class, physical and two assessments (youth center and adult AR). The last thing remaining is my adult center. And I have to say that I am not really looking forward to it. It is the one thing I am least confident about, because I second guess myself all the time. And the speed at which the game was played is a little faster than what I do in a day to day scenario, but hope that the game I get is good and the men behave.
Haven't gotten it scheduled yet, but I am already nervous.
Haven't gotten it scheduled yet, but I am already nervous.
Monday, October 5, 2015
School of Excellece exercises
Today I am going to focus on a couple of exercises that were run at School of Excellence that made me think about how to better educate and motivate referees, especially those that were reluctant to learn a few new things.
The exercises that stuck with me were these:
-Left Hand/Right hand
-Sprint/color
-The diagonal
These are my names as I don't recall what they really were. Someone who has been to a national camp or somewhere else where these were run can probably give the real names, but I will describe them.
Left hand/Right hand was an exercise run on half a field, where lead AR and center ref have to work together to communicate what exactly the restart needs to be. Essentially the ball is played into an area close to the goal and some "players" try to screen the center and the AR from what is going on. What the center and the AR have to pay attention to is with what hand does the ball get bounced with by the person holding the ball (while the other players are trying to screen your view, by huddling close to the person holding the ball, or by getting in the line of sight). If the ball is bounced with the left hand, then it is a foul in favor of the attacking team. If it is bounced with the right hand, it is a foul in favor of the defending team.
Quite complicated because you have to look at many criteria, like where the ball was bounced with the left and right hand, as a left hand bounce inside the box is a PK and outside is a free kick. You have to be able to quickly look at your AR to see if they have any info that you don't have and pass that info along. It took me a couple of tries before I understood what the instructors were looking for but it was a fun exercise.
The second one was another disassociation type drill. You had to concentrate on doing jogs, sidesteps and other criteria until a color was shown, then you had to sprint to the corner of the color shown. You essentially jogged and sidestepped back and forth and when the time to sprint came, you were shown a color (yellow, black, green and pink) and that determined what corner of the sprint area you ran to. Again, you are focusing on one thing until you must focus on another.
Finally the diagonal is something that I touched on last time I had my SOE class and that was to mirror your two ARs and try to set up that triangle as best you can. So if AR1 ran up the Y axis if you will, you had to run alongside with him and still try to maintain your visual with your X axis AR. One minute of that running back and forth was brutal and my legs were on fire when I ran it. For starters, I would recommend 30 seconds instead of a minute.
And then train for your running test. I had to run the State 6 test with a time of 35 seconds for the run and a walk of 40 seconds. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I passed fortunately. And it got me to thinking (again) on how much easier things would be if I also ran more during the week instead of mostly on weekends. Ah well, someday, right?
The exercises that stuck with me were these:
-Left Hand/Right hand
-Sprint/color
-The diagonal
These are my names as I don't recall what they really were. Someone who has been to a national camp or somewhere else where these were run can probably give the real names, but I will describe them.
Left hand/Right hand was an exercise run on half a field, where lead AR and center ref have to work together to communicate what exactly the restart needs to be. Essentially the ball is played into an area close to the goal and some "players" try to screen the center and the AR from what is going on. What the center and the AR have to pay attention to is with what hand does the ball get bounced with by the person holding the ball (while the other players are trying to screen your view, by huddling close to the person holding the ball, or by getting in the line of sight). If the ball is bounced with the left hand, then it is a foul in favor of the attacking team. If it is bounced with the right hand, it is a foul in favor of the defending team.
Quite complicated because you have to look at many criteria, like where the ball was bounced with the left and right hand, as a left hand bounce inside the box is a PK and outside is a free kick. You have to be able to quickly look at your AR to see if they have any info that you don't have and pass that info along. It took me a couple of tries before I understood what the instructors were looking for but it was a fun exercise.
The second one was another disassociation type drill. You had to concentrate on doing jogs, sidesteps and other criteria until a color was shown, then you had to sprint to the corner of the color shown. You essentially jogged and sidestepped back and forth and when the time to sprint came, you were shown a color (yellow, black, green and pink) and that determined what corner of the sprint area you ran to. Again, you are focusing on one thing until you must focus on another.
Finally the diagonal is something that I touched on last time I had my SOE class and that was to mirror your two ARs and try to set up that triangle as best you can. So if AR1 ran up the Y axis if you will, you had to run alongside with him and still try to maintain your visual with your X axis AR. One minute of that running back and forth was brutal and my legs were on fire when I ran it. For starters, I would recommend 30 seconds instead of a minute.
And then train for your running test. I had to run the State 6 test with a time of 35 seconds for the run and a walk of 40 seconds. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I passed fortunately. And it got me to thinking (again) on how much easier things would be if I also ran more during the week instead of mostly on weekends. Ah well, someday, right?
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Was: More School of Excellence but now is Silly Parent
I watch some senseless TV and movies and one show that I got hooked on had a series of rules that one should follow in order to ensure things went well. One of the rules of the show was to never open the package, another was to never mention any names and so on.
This got me to thinking of some of the unwritten rules for referees. The first one should be "Always have your gear". As I come up with more of these universal referee truths, I will add them to my list, but always have your gear is pretty much up there.
I was going to start the post talking more about the School of Excellence and some of the exercises we had to run, I will probably do that tomorrow since I feel that what I am going to write about is more timely and a better story.
The story I want to share with you today was about the behavior of a parent in a game where I was not originally supposed to ref. I arrived early at the field where my daughter was supposed to play and on the adjacent field, I see a referee I knew and admired. So when I greeted him, he asked if I was available as the AR2 was nowhere to be found. So, following one of those referee rules (always have your gear), I went ahead and worked the game with him (in jeans as there was nowhere to change and no time to change anyway). I am sure I was quite a sight.
The center was the referee I admired and this was a fun and entertaining small sided game. Halfway through the second half, a parent disagreed with a call, quite vehemently. The center told him to calm down. Things escalated rather quickly and then the parent gets tossed. I won't go into details about the tossing because I try to keep things somewhat anonymous and would rather not have this incident easily identifiable.
What I do want to put on display here though is the fact that the parent appeared to do something that I don't think was very smart. I was the AR on the side of the parents and after the man got tossed, there was another person that showed up on the sidelines that looked very similar but with a different shirt and a different hat. Not sure if it was truly him or not as he was far away from me but it kind of looked like him. When the play took me to midfield (which of course was as far as I would normally go) I turned to one of the other parents of that team and asked if the parent was back. This team had traveled over 3 hours to play this one match and they were on the verge of losing the game (which they were winning handily) because a parent came back to the field after being tossed.
I watched while the parent I spoke with went to the alleged tossed parent and spoke to him and then escorted him to the parking lot. I don't know if what I did was wrong or if I should have informed the center at that moment, because I wasn't sure. At the same time, it seemed that the team dealt with the issue without having to inform the center. Not sure here if we should have stopped the game, inspected the situation to ensure if it was the parent or not initially (obviously, after the fact, it was the parent, otherwise they wouldn't have walked him to the parking lot) and then possibly abandoned the match. That has not happened yet and hope that is one first I never have to cross off my list.
Next time, more on the School of Excellence.
This got me to thinking of some of the unwritten rules for referees. The first one should be "Always have your gear". As I come up with more of these universal referee truths, I will add them to my list, but always have your gear is pretty much up there.
I was going to start the post talking more about the School of Excellence and some of the exercises we had to run, I will probably do that tomorrow since I feel that what I am going to write about is more timely and a better story.
The story I want to share with you today was about the behavior of a parent in a game where I was not originally supposed to ref. I arrived early at the field where my daughter was supposed to play and on the adjacent field, I see a referee I knew and admired. So when I greeted him, he asked if I was available as the AR2 was nowhere to be found. So, following one of those referee rules (always have your gear), I went ahead and worked the game with him (in jeans as there was nowhere to change and no time to change anyway). I am sure I was quite a sight.
The center was the referee I admired and this was a fun and entertaining small sided game. Halfway through the second half, a parent disagreed with a call, quite vehemently. The center told him to calm down. Things escalated rather quickly and then the parent gets tossed. I won't go into details about the tossing because I try to keep things somewhat anonymous and would rather not have this incident easily identifiable.
What I do want to put on display here though is the fact that the parent appeared to do something that I don't think was very smart. I was the AR on the side of the parents and after the man got tossed, there was another person that showed up on the sidelines that looked very similar but with a different shirt and a different hat. Not sure if it was truly him or not as he was far away from me but it kind of looked like him. When the play took me to midfield (which of course was as far as I would normally go) I turned to one of the other parents of that team and asked if the parent was back. This team had traveled over 3 hours to play this one match and they were on the verge of losing the game (which they were winning handily) because a parent came back to the field after being tossed.
I watched while the parent I spoke with went to the alleged tossed parent and spoke to him and then escorted him to the parking lot. I don't know if what I did was wrong or if I should have informed the center at that moment, because I wasn't sure. At the same time, it seemed that the team dealt with the issue without having to inform the center. Not sure here if we should have stopped the game, inspected the situation to ensure if it was the parent or not initially (obviously, after the fact, it was the parent, otherwise they wouldn't have walked him to the parking lot) and then possibly abandoned the match. That has not happened yet and hope that is one first I never have to cross off my list.
Next time, more on the School of Excellence.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
End of the skirt
Another thing that came out of this School of Excellence was that we are no longer supposed to do a skirt to signal a foul that the AR saw that leads to a PK for the attacking team. We are now supposed to run to the corner flag, and if we want to sell it, come in on the end line a bit to indicate that.
I have to admit, I must be getting old. I don't really know why we would change the skirt (unless we were the only ones doing it) because this seems to me like something that makes sense until it doesn't. And there is one scenario that comes to mind where I would rather have my AR give me a skirt instead of sprinting down 10-15 yards to the corner flag to tell me that they want a PK. That scenario is when I don't want one. If I as the center, think I have a better view of the play and it is not a PK what my AR is telling me, with the skirt, I can wave them down. If, however, she is sprinting to the corner flag and I want to wave her down, I have to wait until they get there and then tell them to get back into position because play has continued quite possibly since they decided to take off for the corner flag.
I also think it might generate a bit of confusion, because if it is not a clear cut penalty in my book, then it could be that a defender behind me is racing towards the goal line and therefore my AR is just keeping up with the second to last defender. In other words, the procedure by which you come to the conclusion that it is a PK has to be good because if I miss the flag indicating the need for my attention, and I see the AR only running towards the corner flag, I could think that there is a defender or something that requires my AR to be there. However, if I miss the flag trying to get my attention but see the skirt, I still know that the AR wants to call a PK, because the skirt was only used in two occasions, the PK and the encroachment of the keeper on a PK.
Finally, the fact that my AR is so out of position, kind of forces me to comply with their request to call the PK, because otherwise, they may be seriously out of position and cannot help me with an offside or some other call. So yeah, I am not in favor of the new method of signaling for a PK from the AR. I will try and get clarification from those that know more than I do as to why this change in philosophy.
I have to admit, I must be getting old. I don't really know why we would change the skirt (unless we were the only ones doing it) because this seems to me like something that makes sense until it doesn't. And there is one scenario that comes to mind where I would rather have my AR give me a skirt instead of sprinting down 10-15 yards to the corner flag to tell me that they want a PK. That scenario is when I don't want one. If I as the center, think I have a better view of the play and it is not a PK what my AR is telling me, with the skirt, I can wave them down. If, however, she is sprinting to the corner flag and I want to wave her down, I have to wait until they get there and then tell them to get back into position because play has continued quite possibly since they decided to take off for the corner flag.
I also think it might generate a bit of confusion, because if it is not a clear cut penalty in my book, then it could be that a defender behind me is racing towards the goal line and therefore my AR is just keeping up with the second to last defender. In other words, the procedure by which you come to the conclusion that it is a PK has to be good because if I miss the flag indicating the need for my attention, and I see the AR only running towards the corner flag, I could think that there is a defender or something that requires my AR to be there. However, if I miss the flag trying to get my attention but see the skirt, I still know that the AR wants to call a PK, because the skirt was only used in two occasions, the PK and the encroachment of the keeper on a PK.
Finally, the fact that my AR is so out of position, kind of forces me to comply with their request to call the PK, because otherwise, they may be seriously out of position and cannot help me with an offside or some other call. So yeah, I am not in favor of the new method of signaling for a PK from the AR. I will try and get clarification from those that know more than I do as to why this change in philosophy.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Busted (sort of)
Up until now, I had been living sort of a dual life. My online musings had little to no correlation to what happened IRL (my kids taught me than one). I could swing away at topics that may not be politically correct to say or express if your name was attached to it. This weekend, we had our second gathering of the School of Excellence here and it was a great session. I will go into that in more detail in the next day or two, however, I did overhear someone at the class asking someone if they were the author of a blog he followed. Well, the idea is for you not to find out who that person is since it would blur the lines from who I am on the field and who writes this blog.
While I looked back at my postings, I don't think I have said anything too terrible, but at the same time, the idea is for me to be able to say things without my name coming into the mix. I try not to make things personally identifiable so it is more of a teaching aspect than a direct critique on someone. If I am discovered and unveiled, oh well, it won't be a big deal.
As I mentioned above, the school of excellence was great this go around and I am still quite sore from my running yesterday morning. The 35/40 intermittent test (or whatever it is called) is particularly grueling for me. I passed but it really took me to the limit. I will have more about all of this in the next couple of days.
While I looked back at my postings, I don't think I have said anything too terrible, but at the same time, the idea is for me to be able to say things without my name coming into the mix. I try not to make things personally identifiable so it is more of a teaching aspect than a direct critique on someone. If I am discovered and unveiled, oh well, it won't be a big deal.
As I mentioned above, the school of excellence was great this go around and I am still quite sore from my running yesterday morning. The 35/40 intermittent test (or whatever it is called) is particularly grueling for me. I passed but it really took me to the limit. I will have more about all of this in the next couple of days.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Another first
This past weekend was the first weekend of State Cup. I had an interesting matchup on a rain soaked field that was full of clumps to begin with. The ball rarely rolled the way it should and aerial play was more the way to go instead of on the ground.
The takeaway was that there were a lot of challenges for balls in the air and it was a foul filled match. The away team immediately started complaining. The coach and the players (but strangely not the parents) were from the first minute complaining about this contact or another. Not 10 minutes into the game, I had to tell the orange team's defender (the away team) that he was "out of conversations" with me as I had already heard enough of him.
The two stories that I thought were interesting to take away from this match were these:
At midway through the second half, score is 1-0 for black and orange gets fouled. Black had committed more fouls but not by much. The foul is close to the orange coach so he asks me "how many fouls before we have a card? They are fouling a lot more than us and we both have a yellow card." He was right in that black had more fouls but it was not nearly what he must have been thinking. I had lost count when the foul count was 6-5 in favor of black. So I reply "Coach, the foul count is 11-8 so both teams are committing a lot of fouls. Not sure we want to card for every foul here on out." So he says half under his breath, "Foul counts? Who counts fouls?" as he turns away. It was kind of a gutsy move on my end, because I was not really sure what the foul count really was but I knew black had a couple more at least. That did quiet him down and left him to think that his team had also fouled.
The second thing was that during the first half, the AR alerts me to an orange player with incorrect equipment. The player had come on as a sub about 5 minutes ago and it turns out he had no shin guards. So I instruct him to step off the field and get his shin guards on. No card given at the time. He steps off, and his coach says to me, "But I don't want to sub him". I reply, "Coach, play with 10 until he is ready to come back in." The orange team takes a throw in and the ball eventually goes out again for another orange throw in. The player finishes putting on his shin guards and runs onto the field again as his teammate is about to throw the ball in. I guess he forgot about the whole being beckoned to come on thing and while I agree that the entering the field without permission is probably a silly yellow card to give in most cases, he earned one with me at that moment. I blew my whistle and said to the orange player "You have to wait until I tell you it is ok to come back onto the field." "Oh, ok, I guess I wasn't thinking." And there we have my first entering the field of play without permission card. Almost 8 years after I started reffing, we still have firsts.
The takeaway was that there were a lot of challenges for balls in the air and it was a foul filled match. The away team immediately started complaining. The coach and the players (but strangely not the parents) were from the first minute complaining about this contact or another. Not 10 minutes into the game, I had to tell the orange team's defender (the away team) that he was "out of conversations" with me as I had already heard enough of him.
The two stories that I thought were interesting to take away from this match were these:
At midway through the second half, score is 1-0 for black and orange gets fouled. Black had committed more fouls but not by much. The foul is close to the orange coach so he asks me "how many fouls before we have a card? They are fouling a lot more than us and we both have a yellow card." He was right in that black had more fouls but it was not nearly what he must have been thinking. I had lost count when the foul count was 6-5 in favor of black. So I reply "Coach, the foul count is 11-8 so both teams are committing a lot of fouls. Not sure we want to card for every foul here on out." So he says half under his breath, "Foul counts? Who counts fouls?" as he turns away. It was kind of a gutsy move on my end, because I was not really sure what the foul count really was but I knew black had a couple more at least. That did quiet him down and left him to think that his team had also fouled.
The second thing was that during the first half, the AR alerts me to an orange player with incorrect equipment. The player had come on as a sub about 5 minutes ago and it turns out he had no shin guards. So I instruct him to step off the field and get his shin guards on. No card given at the time. He steps off, and his coach says to me, "But I don't want to sub him". I reply, "Coach, play with 10 until he is ready to come back in." The orange team takes a throw in and the ball eventually goes out again for another orange throw in. The player finishes putting on his shin guards and runs onto the field again as his teammate is about to throw the ball in. I guess he forgot about the whole being beckoned to come on thing and while I agree that the entering the field without permission is probably a silly yellow card to give in most cases, he earned one with me at that moment. I blew my whistle and said to the orange player "You have to wait until I tell you it is ok to come back onto the field." "Oh, ok, I guess I wasn't thinking." And there we have my first entering the field of play without permission card. Almost 8 years after I started reffing, we still have firsts.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Pregame
There are pregames and there are real pregames. Many of our pregames normally consist of call what you see, offside is the most important thing and don't make me look bad. I know that I have had to do something as minimal as that because there was no time or someone was running late, etc. But if you want to have a pregame that consists of every possible scenario, take a look at this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4sb
This is Gil Weber's version of all the topics one can cover in their pregame. Needless to say is that it is a whopper but it covers most of everything that you can think of. I have used it when I am working high level games and wanted to make sure I covered some of the less utilized concepts presented there.
Anyway, I urge you to take a look, and grab some of the ideas for yourself so you have something to take with you that you had not thought of. Hopefully it makes your pregame that much better.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4sb
This is Gil Weber's version of all the topics one can cover in their pregame. Needless to say is that it is a whopper but it covers most of everything that you can think of. I have used it when I am working high level games and wanted to make sure I covered some of the less utilized concepts presented there.
Anyway, I urge you to take a look, and grab some of the ideas for yourself so you have something to take with you that you had not thought of. Hopefully it makes your pregame that much better.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
My youngest referee memories
I didn't grow up thinking I would be a soccer referee, I became one because it looked to be a good way to get some exercise and because my son issued me a challenge so many years ago (I believe I have written about the story so check the previous posts to get more details).
Today I was thinking of my earliest referee moments. The first one I remember was a game where I couldn't have been more than 8 years old and we were playing another team. The game was tied as far as I can recall and our keeper went to punt the ball. Somehow, he punted and it hit the back of one of our defenders and rolled into our goal. I recall asking the referee if that counted. Imagine at 8 already questioning a future peer!
The second memory was one where I was also playing rec and my father was the coach. I know the league held the games in a manner that counted (most rec leagues under the age of 12 now seem to discard results altogether, at least in my area). We were playing the top ranked team and I recall snippets of the game. It was a tough game, and the other team was quite aggressive from what I recall (I was probably 10 at the time). I recall my father arguing with the ref that there were too many fouls that were going underpunished. At one of our kick offs, we were down 5-2 and I received the ball. The most aggressive defender came up to me and I remember I juked him well and got the ball through his legs and proceeded upfield. All I recall after that was a very sharp pain in my lower backside. My father later told me that the defender essentially did some sort of karate flying kick into my back. I recall spending a good 5 minutes on the ground crying because I really couldn't move. The last thing from that incident was that my father pulled the team from the field and said that he was not going to play anymore that game under those conditions. I guess he had seen enough and he demanded that the kid receive a red card or the game would not continue. Don't recall any fallout from the incident.
The last memory I will share with you was during my time on travel. I used to play for a local club in the Northern VA area (BRYC) and we were playing another club, Reston. I recall that it was one of those really hot days and humid too. It was energy sapping weather. The winner would go on to Division 1 and the loser would stay in D2. If I remember correctly, with the tie, we had the tiebreaker. Towards the end of the match, game is tied 0-0 and a player from Reston takes a shot from distance. The ball is sailing well over the crossbar when it hits the upright of the multiuse field. Probably hit it 10 feet above it. Ball bounces back into play and an attacker who puts it in the net. Center awards a goal. Our coach appealed to the center and then to the other coach. No change of action was taken and we ended up losing 1-0.
These memories from around 8 to 11 were the three that I could recall off the top of my head that dealt with referees. Not that it adds light to anything you are doing, but it does show that mistakes and interesting things happen all the time.
Today I was thinking of my earliest referee moments. The first one I remember was a game where I couldn't have been more than 8 years old and we were playing another team. The game was tied as far as I can recall and our keeper went to punt the ball. Somehow, he punted and it hit the back of one of our defenders and rolled into our goal. I recall asking the referee if that counted. Imagine at 8 already questioning a future peer!
The second memory was one where I was also playing rec and my father was the coach. I know the league held the games in a manner that counted (most rec leagues under the age of 12 now seem to discard results altogether, at least in my area). We were playing the top ranked team and I recall snippets of the game. It was a tough game, and the other team was quite aggressive from what I recall (I was probably 10 at the time). I recall my father arguing with the ref that there were too many fouls that were going underpunished. At one of our kick offs, we were down 5-2 and I received the ball. The most aggressive defender came up to me and I remember I juked him well and got the ball through his legs and proceeded upfield. All I recall after that was a very sharp pain in my lower backside. My father later told me that the defender essentially did some sort of karate flying kick into my back. I recall spending a good 5 minutes on the ground crying because I really couldn't move. The last thing from that incident was that my father pulled the team from the field and said that he was not going to play anymore that game under those conditions. I guess he had seen enough and he demanded that the kid receive a red card or the game would not continue. Don't recall any fallout from the incident.
The last memory I will share with you was during my time on travel. I used to play for a local club in the Northern VA area (BRYC) and we were playing another club, Reston. I recall that it was one of those really hot days and humid too. It was energy sapping weather. The winner would go on to Division 1 and the loser would stay in D2. If I remember correctly, with the tie, we had the tiebreaker. Towards the end of the match, game is tied 0-0 and a player from Reston takes a shot from distance. The ball is sailing well over the crossbar when it hits the upright of the multiuse field. Probably hit it 10 feet above it. Ball bounces back into play and an attacker who puts it in the net. Center awards a goal. Our coach appealed to the center and then to the other coach. No change of action was taken and we ended up losing 1-0.
These memories from around 8 to 11 were the three that I could recall off the top of my head that dealt with referees. Not that it adds light to anything you are doing, but it does show that mistakes and interesting things happen all the time.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Changes coming to youth soccer
I receive the US Youth Soccer newsletter and this past one had some interesting proposals that will change youth soccer. I am in favor of them but wonder how we will adapt as a soccer society. Will it bring more top tier players?
The changes:
1. Focus on the small sided games more. 4v4 and 5v5 until u8 or u9. I remember for my daughter that she was playing 6v6 and 7v7 as early as 7. This was not really needed and it focused on kids that had more physical ability to run long distances than focusing on touches on the ball. This change is all about more ball touches. Less players, smaller fields equals more touches. Like it.
2. Change from school year to differentiate players to birth year. So before, an August child was the gold standard since they were the older players on the team and now it will be January as the gold standard as they will be the older kids. Apparently Canada and the US were the only two countries to use this system. So we are going to be able to compare apples to apples with respect to international play eventually.
3. At the local level, the club closest to home is going to kick ins instead of throw ins for everything under u10. Promotes more touches again and eliminates the throw ins that are not as strategic until later.
Anything that promotes more touches is the gold standard right now. I think it will work and hope that it makes older age soccer better and more competitive is a good thing. I hope that it proves to be the right strategy.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Going for 6
This past weekend, I had my first of three assessments for my 6 upgrade. It was hot, humid and on turf during an early afternoon game. It was a decent game between 2 teams from the area and it was demanding because the players tried to make it a more than just soccer for a little bit. Fortunately, we had a good crew and they bailed me out on one call each.
The first call was a foul or offside call that I had to go over to my AR1 for. Ball is played through to a player in an offside position, but the player is fouled on the follow through. There is no good signal and there was a little mis-communication between my AR and myself. I saw that he kind of wanted to have me call the foul but felt it was my call and so he half gave me an offside and half pointed with his left hand at the spot of the foul. Just to be sure, I went over to discuss that he saw what I saw, a foul prior to the offside call. He said yes, and the assessor said that coming over and confirming was the right thing to do.
The next one was a play where I am right behind a streaking attacker, he goes to the ground with a tackle that I was not sure was really much of anything. The team was down 2-0 at that point and they were pushing hard, so there was that as well to consider. The attacker fell on the ball and grabbed it with his hands, so I had to make a choice of either giving the foul or handling coming out. I look over to my AR2 and give him a look as to if he thought it was a foul and point to one direction or another, he points towards the attacking side, indicating he saw enough of a foul from his angle. Assessor praised the AR because he did the right thing, quick, communicative and no need for a conference.
All in all, my foul recognition was spot on as well as my advantages and what I thought was trifling. What I have to work on is to get a better read on the tempo of the match. There was a moment when things were heating up and I did not react quickly enough. Also, speak with my whistle more. Small tweet vs a longer one for more emphatic fouls. Finally, the other thing mentioned was that when presenting a card for a foul that is one you want to curtail, I can't be so casual about it. Pop the card, hold it up for a second or two instead of flashing it. Look at the pros, my assignor said, when they present a card, it is up there for the world to see if it is one of those fouls that need to be showing a "hard yellow". Interesting how so much can be said and can be read with actions aside from what is mandated by the laws of the game.
Now onto another center and one AR, then my physical and a recert clinic and if all goes well, I will be a 6 in 2016. In the upgrade clinic, I was essentially told that due to my age, that is the highest I can go. In another life, I want to be a referee earlier in the process.
The first call was a foul or offside call that I had to go over to my AR1 for. Ball is played through to a player in an offside position, but the player is fouled on the follow through. There is no good signal and there was a little mis-communication between my AR and myself. I saw that he kind of wanted to have me call the foul but felt it was my call and so he half gave me an offside and half pointed with his left hand at the spot of the foul. Just to be sure, I went over to discuss that he saw what I saw, a foul prior to the offside call. He said yes, and the assessor said that coming over and confirming was the right thing to do.
The next one was a play where I am right behind a streaking attacker, he goes to the ground with a tackle that I was not sure was really much of anything. The team was down 2-0 at that point and they were pushing hard, so there was that as well to consider. The attacker fell on the ball and grabbed it with his hands, so I had to make a choice of either giving the foul or handling coming out. I look over to my AR2 and give him a look as to if he thought it was a foul and point to one direction or another, he points towards the attacking side, indicating he saw enough of a foul from his angle. Assessor praised the AR because he did the right thing, quick, communicative and no need for a conference.
All in all, my foul recognition was spot on as well as my advantages and what I thought was trifling. What I have to work on is to get a better read on the tempo of the match. There was a moment when things were heating up and I did not react quickly enough. Also, speak with my whistle more. Small tweet vs a longer one for more emphatic fouls. Finally, the other thing mentioned was that when presenting a card for a foul that is one you want to curtail, I can't be so casual about it. Pop the card, hold it up for a second or two instead of flashing it. Look at the pros, my assignor said, when they present a card, it is up there for the world to see if it is one of those fouls that need to be showing a "hard yellow". Interesting how so much can be said and can be read with actions aside from what is mandated by the laws of the game.
Now onto another center and one AR, then my physical and a recert clinic and if all goes well, I will be a 6 in 2016. In the upgrade clinic, I was essentially told that due to my age, that is the highest I can go. In another life, I want to be a referee earlier in the process.
Monday, June 15, 2015
School of Excellence
Here in Virginia, our referee higher ups set up a clinic of sorts that will meet 4 times a year and will be branded a school of excellence. I applied and had our first meeting this past weekend. This meeting was held at a park and then we went to dinner and finally a soccer game where one could comment on the crew working the game and get pointers, etc.
I enjoyed our first meeting and the one thing that I took from it that impressed me was how "picky" the observations can be when being assessed. We had a National Candidate run a couple of exercises during the park session when you have 2 ARs and one center and the ARs have to run in tempo with the center and then the center has to mimic the ARs positions. First the center would make a call and the ARs had to back it up (say a foul, throw in or offsides) and give direction or location if needed. Then the center had to mimic the ARs and their calls to back them up. It was a good exercise for getting used to working with the center and AR, it created great rapport. But the usefulness of working it out with others is questionable in the sense that no one is going to show up so early for a game that they would have time to do an exercise like that. It would only occur in rare occasions or when a game gets cancelled or delayed that you could do this exercise.
The other thing I liked was the notion of precise hand signals. For example, the goal kick signal as a center, should be with either the palm up (old school according to the instructor) or perpendicular to the ground (kind of like a karate-chop). The PK signal needs to be different than a goal kick from all possible angles so the instructor suggested having your signal palm face down or pointing with one finger and at an angle lower than parallel to the ground so that it is not mistaken for a goal kick signal.
As for the ARs, the directives there were that the throw in signal should be lower than 45 degrees so there is no chance of confusion with offside calls. And then there is the waggle for the fouls. There should be two different types of waggles. A regular run of the mill foul is a small waggle. Then there should be an exaggerated one for when you want to inform the referee that more information is coming, like a request for yellow or red.
Finally, the flag always in the left hand when running a regular diagonal. It has been mentioned many times, but can't be stressed enough. When there is nothing of note going on and you don't need to sprint upfield, you should have the flag in the left hand and signal offside with the right hand. That gives you more visibility and also an extra second to ensure you are making the right call. More nuggets of wisdom soon, but for now, this is what I was able to come up with.
I enjoyed our first meeting and the one thing that I took from it that impressed me was how "picky" the observations can be when being assessed. We had a National Candidate run a couple of exercises during the park session when you have 2 ARs and one center and the ARs have to run in tempo with the center and then the center has to mimic the ARs positions. First the center would make a call and the ARs had to back it up (say a foul, throw in or offsides) and give direction or location if needed. Then the center had to mimic the ARs and their calls to back them up. It was a good exercise for getting used to working with the center and AR, it created great rapport. But the usefulness of working it out with others is questionable in the sense that no one is going to show up so early for a game that they would have time to do an exercise like that. It would only occur in rare occasions or when a game gets cancelled or delayed that you could do this exercise.
The other thing I liked was the notion of precise hand signals. For example, the goal kick signal as a center, should be with either the palm up (old school according to the instructor) or perpendicular to the ground (kind of like a karate-chop). The PK signal needs to be different than a goal kick from all possible angles so the instructor suggested having your signal palm face down or pointing with one finger and at an angle lower than parallel to the ground so that it is not mistaken for a goal kick signal.
As for the ARs, the directives there were that the throw in signal should be lower than 45 degrees so there is no chance of confusion with offside calls. And then there is the waggle for the fouls. There should be two different types of waggles. A regular run of the mill foul is a small waggle. Then there should be an exaggerated one for when you want to inform the referee that more information is coming, like a request for yellow or red.
Finally, the flag always in the left hand when running a regular diagonal. It has been mentioned many times, but can't be stressed enough. When there is nothing of note going on and you don't need to sprint upfield, you should have the flag in the left hand and signal offside with the right hand. That gives you more visibility and also an extra second to ensure you are making the right call. More nuggets of wisdom soon, but for now, this is what I was able to come up with.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
My first DOGSO
I began reffing in August/September of 2008. There have been many, many games. Hundreds for sure, after 7 years of reffing. After the almost countless games, I had never had a DOGSO situation (DOGSO meaning denying obvious goal scoring opportunity). And I had envisioned my first DOGSO as a clear cut, no bones about it foul or handling offense where the clouds would part and a ray of God's light would shine over the ball indicating the almost religious holiness with which this "call of calls" would be made.
Many times I had dreamed of the call, and many others, I came close to making the call but it just wasn't enough. So when I finally got the call this fateful Saturday, it was less that the lofty image I had of that call. With those expectations, nothing other than a Suarez like handball against Ghana in 2010 would be enough. And while this was the right call, it did feel hollow in a way.
The situation, yellow had dominated the whole game and had scored late in the first half. The second half had been more of the same, with yellow attacking and with about 10 minutes left, they figured that even with just a 1-0 advantage, they had the game in hand since purple had done little to deserve a goal. But a goal they got nonetheless with about 5 minutes left and so they last part of the game was going to be a lot of fun. Yellow pushed up hard to break the 1-1 tie and so with 30 seconds left, the "play" happened. Yellow pushing hard up the field got caught with few defenders and lost the ball in transition. A few decent passes and we have a fairly decent one-on-one between a purple attacker and the yellow keeper. Keeper comes out and attacker makes a decent move and gets away from the keeper by going slightly away from the goal. The keeper, either clumsily or brilliantly sticks her foot in between the legs of the attacker and brings her down just outside of the box. I blow hard the whistle and at that moment I realize what had to happen. It had not occurred to me until after blowing the whistle that we were in a 1-1 game, with 30 seconds left and with a foul that "could" be DOGSO. What led me to give the red instead of yellow was the fact that she was 75% beat (the keeper) and that the attacker had a good chance of scoring, even with her skill level. And a yellow would have been too little a price to pay.
The aftermath was that I was quite flustered and so the poor keeper tried to explain to me that she didn't mean it and I think I just kept telling her to get off the field. The purple team missed the ensuing free kick and the game was over.
The yellow coach at the end of the game basically came over to tell her keeper that she saved the game and that he was proud of her (and in a way, he should be) and to tell me that he thought it was the right call and that he would rather take a red than a 2-1 loss.
My ARs backed me up on the call but it wasn't that moment of clarity that I thought my first DOGSO would have. Well, let's see what other first we can achieve in the coming weeks.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Comedic Pre-game player conferences
Sorry for being out of posting activity in the last couple of weeks. Missed a post in May, and it was not that there was nothing going on, it was that there was too much. I will have to dedicate some future posts to my attempt at becoming a 6 and to a special class that I will be attending for referees. Frankly don't have too much info on it now as the State sent out an email asking people to apply but they were more than light on details. As of right now, all I know is that I have been accepted, along with 30 others and that our first meeting will be shortly.
But let me talk about an interesting thing that happened recently on the field. Depending on how you conduct your team check ins and your coin toss, it might not work out like I describe below, but it was funny the way things worked out for me.
Normally, when working with older kids, say U14 or U15 and above, and when I believe I have a group of kids that are there to have fun, I sometimes try to get a chuckle out of the team check in process or the coin toss. You have to evaluate your crowd and size them up. If it is a final, no joking, all seriousness, but if it is something less pressured, then I certainly can give it a shot.
For example, mainly with boys, at the U15-U16 range, I may add something about not retaliating when an opponent does something that is uncalled for and the referee crew doesn't see. I tell them that if someone pulls their shirt, or says something about your mother, they should not react, because, chances are, we may not see or hear what the instigator does, but there is a good chance we will see the punch or whatever else you decide to retaliate with. The phrase "or say something about your mother" always gets a chuckle or two.
With the coin toss, it is a little more seriousness. My typical monologue goes something like this, "We are here to decide who kicks off and get the game started. Captains are normally selected because they show special appreciation for the commitment required to play soccer respectfully. Also, captain tend to know who the hotheads are on the team and I ask you to calm them down before I have to." The phrasing goes something like that and allows me to give them the respect they deserve for being selected captains.
This past weekend, in a U17 girls match, in the captain's chat, one of the girls understood pothead instead of hothead. Everyone had a laugh at that. She interrupted me and asked if I wanted to know who the potheads on her team were. I told her that I wanted her to watch for hotheads and that the potheads would probably be mellow enough that they would not be complaining about calls!
From now on, I guess I am going to change the wording a little bit so no one is thinking potheads.
But let me talk about an interesting thing that happened recently on the field. Depending on how you conduct your team check ins and your coin toss, it might not work out like I describe below, but it was funny the way things worked out for me.
Normally, when working with older kids, say U14 or U15 and above, and when I believe I have a group of kids that are there to have fun, I sometimes try to get a chuckle out of the team check in process or the coin toss. You have to evaluate your crowd and size them up. If it is a final, no joking, all seriousness, but if it is something less pressured, then I certainly can give it a shot.
For example, mainly with boys, at the U15-U16 range, I may add something about not retaliating when an opponent does something that is uncalled for and the referee crew doesn't see. I tell them that if someone pulls their shirt, or says something about your mother, they should not react, because, chances are, we may not see or hear what the instigator does, but there is a good chance we will see the punch or whatever else you decide to retaliate with. The phrase "or say something about your mother" always gets a chuckle or two.
With the coin toss, it is a little more seriousness. My typical monologue goes something like this, "We are here to decide who kicks off and get the game started. Captains are normally selected because they show special appreciation for the commitment required to play soccer respectfully. Also, captain tend to know who the hotheads are on the team and I ask you to calm them down before I have to." The phrasing goes something like that and allows me to give them the respect they deserve for being selected captains.
This past weekend, in a U17 girls match, in the captain's chat, one of the girls understood pothead instead of hothead. Everyone had a laugh at that. She interrupted me and asked if I wanted to know who the potheads on her team were. I told her that I wanted her to watch for hotheads and that the potheads would probably be mellow enough that they would not be complaining about calls!
From now on, I guess I am going to change the wording a little bit so no one is thinking potheads.
Monday, April 27, 2015
Working with "Elders"
Whew. I almost didn't make it. I try to get at least one post in per month to keep things fresh and while I have a lot of material to talk about, I just don't have a lot of time to transform thought into words. My apologies for that.
Anyway, today I wanted to talk a little about working with Elders. And I use that phrase because some of us younger referees sometimes despise working with older referees, but sometimes, you get something you didn't bargain for and you come out with a nugget or two that you didn't expect.
Case in point this weekend, I worked a couple of higher level matches and happen to be AR2 on both matches. Both other referees were older, but were State Emeritus which means that they have worked good matches and were at one point or another, a very high level referee who now does it more for the love of the game than for the love of the money (though if you are really in it for the money, find something else to do, this will not make you rich).
When I first saw the crew, and I saw that I was AR2 on both, I thought, well, shoot, these guys are past their prime, why don't I get a shot. But when we got to the fields, they oozed experience and an uncanny way to deflate polarizing personalities and situations.
In the first game, the center, who was a heavy set man was able to work around a disparate matchup (tends to happen in State Cup sometimes in the early rounds, kind of like March Madness and the classic 1v16 matchup). He did a fantastic job talking down fouls and being vocal to where the parents were saying that for once they understood some of the calls. There was one particular forward who was really good, but had been trained to throw her body around and caused some heartache when she was involved with challenges as she was reckless sometimes. So the center did a great job of talking her down, never escalating and kept her in the game and focusing on the game rather than the opponent or her coach who wanted her to push up and attack the defender with the ball (since she was reckless).
However, towards the end of the match, this attacker went hard on a defender and made a challenge that was fair and got the ball but there was too much contact for the center's liking. So out came the yellow and the coach went somewhat crazy. The center just went over, spoke to her for a minute and essentially told her that he only gets to see a player for 70 minutes at a time, and that in that time, she had committed one too many fouls. Perhaps she does not need to be so aggressive and that is something that someone who has more time with this attacker can pass on. Loved the message. Put her in her place and took the onus of responsibility from the referee to the coach all in one fell swoop. Loved it.
The next game was done by another State Emeritus and his deal was similar but what I loved about his game was that even though it was a hard fought U15 affair, there was only one yellow card (though I "suggested" another that he did not deem necessary). And all the fouls that were garden variety for that age group were met with a very short tweet, so as to say, nothing to see here, move along. So the tone really never got elevated. Loved that about this center.
I hope to be as good and compensate lack of physical ability with experience at some point when the body decides that it can no longer take it anymore. And for when I think I am too good for a game, I hope I get put in my place by a more experienced referee even if they do not know that they are doing it.
Anyway, today I wanted to talk a little about working with Elders. And I use that phrase because some of us younger referees sometimes despise working with older referees, but sometimes, you get something you didn't bargain for and you come out with a nugget or two that you didn't expect.
Case in point this weekend, I worked a couple of higher level matches and happen to be AR2 on both matches. Both other referees were older, but were State Emeritus which means that they have worked good matches and were at one point or another, a very high level referee who now does it more for the love of the game than for the love of the money (though if you are really in it for the money, find something else to do, this will not make you rich).
When I first saw the crew, and I saw that I was AR2 on both, I thought, well, shoot, these guys are past their prime, why don't I get a shot. But when we got to the fields, they oozed experience and an uncanny way to deflate polarizing personalities and situations.
In the first game, the center, who was a heavy set man was able to work around a disparate matchup (tends to happen in State Cup sometimes in the early rounds, kind of like March Madness and the classic 1v16 matchup). He did a fantastic job talking down fouls and being vocal to where the parents were saying that for once they understood some of the calls. There was one particular forward who was really good, but had been trained to throw her body around and caused some heartache when she was involved with challenges as she was reckless sometimes. So the center did a great job of talking her down, never escalating and kept her in the game and focusing on the game rather than the opponent or her coach who wanted her to push up and attack the defender with the ball (since she was reckless).
However, towards the end of the match, this attacker went hard on a defender and made a challenge that was fair and got the ball but there was too much contact for the center's liking. So out came the yellow and the coach went somewhat crazy. The center just went over, spoke to her for a minute and essentially told her that he only gets to see a player for 70 minutes at a time, and that in that time, she had committed one too many fouls. Perhaps she does not need to be so aggressive and that is something that someone who has more time with this attacker can pass on. Loved the message. Put her in her place and took the onus of responsibility from the referee to the coach all in one fell swoop. Loved it.
The next game was done by another State Emeritus and his deal was similar but what I loved about his game was that even though it was a hard fought U15 affair, there was only one yellow card (though I "suggested" another that he did not deem necessary). And all the fouls that were garden variety for that age group were met with a very short tweet, so as to say, nothing to see here, move along. So the tone really never got elevated. Loved that about this center.
I hope to be as good and compensate lack of physical ability with experience at some point when the body decides that it can no longer take it anymore. And for when I think I am too good for a game, I hope I get put in my place by a more experienced referee even if they do not know that they are doing it.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
The Female Perspective
Boy am I sunburned. First thing, always, ALWAYS, have sunscreen on hand. My son and I were in a tournament this past weekend and while it was cold and the days started windy, that Saturday I practically burned my face off (and my hands, and the back side of my knees, everything else was covered).
But the takeaway for me this weekend was the fact that for the first time in forever, I worked with two women and one of them was the center. Both were grade 7, so they knew what they were doing and they shed some light on the female side of the game that I really hadn't seen before.
First of all, I know how I like to call a game. And I know I call the game different if it guys out there playing or women. I know I do, there is no denying it, at least for me, that gender does influence, at least a little bit, my calls. I don't particularly want to call games differently, but I know I do. For one, the hip check is different. Guys don't do that, so when girls do it, it is taken into consideration because it is not shoulder to shoulder. The other aspect that is totally different is the handling calls. Truth be told, we men muck it up, it seems to me. Some of us call it like we call men's games, if it touches the hand, it is handling, period.
What I took away from seeing a woman doing a woman's game was that she was calling it like I would call a man's game if I were in the center. She was treating them like players and not thinking of gender. At least that is what my realization was. At one point, the orange coach got flustered because there was a play where a girl fell and could have been a foul. He said something (I didn't hear specifics) but the center said, "These are women, coach. They are not made of crystal. They can fall and get up again."
I correlate this to a game I did a couple of weeks ago where I called some fouls and the girls were complaining about the same thing, that I was calling things that shouldn't be called (one team was much more aggressive). Perhaps they were right. I know that if I had been the center of that match that this center did, I would have called more fouls. I just wonder if I can adjust my game to accommodate that different view, that the players are players first and they need to be treated as such instead of looking at them as men or women and adjusting my bar that significantly.
But the takeaway for me this weekend was the fact that for the first time in forever, I worked with two women and one of them was the center. Both were grade 7, so they knew what they were doing and they shed some light on the female side of the game that I really hadn't seen before.
First of all, I know how I like to call a game. And I know I call the game different if it guys out there playing or women. I know I do, there is no denying it, at least for me, that gender does influence, at least a little bit, my calls. I don't particularly want to call games differently, but I know I do. For one, the hip check is different. Guys don't do that, so when girls do it, it is taken into consideration because it is not shoulder to shoulder. The other aspect that is totally different is the handling calls. Truth be told, we men muck it up, it seems to me. Some of us call it like we call men's games, if it touches the hand, it is handling, period.
What I took away from seeing a woman doing a woman's game was that she was calling it like I would call a man's game if I were in the center. She was treating them like players and not thinking of gender. At least that is what my realization was. At one point, the orange coach got flustered because there was a play where a girl fell and could have been a foul. He said something (I didn't hear specifics) but the center said, "These are women, coach. They are not made of crystal. They can fall and get up again."
I correlate this to a game I did a couple of weeks ago where I called some fouls and the girls were complaining about the same thing, that I was calling things that shouldn't be called (one team was much more aggressive). Perhaps they were right. I know that if I had been the center of that match that this center did, I would have called more fouls. I just wonder if I can adjust my game to accommodate that different view, that the players are players first and they need to be treated as such instead of looking at them as men or women and adjusting my bar that significantly.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Tournament time
This past weekend, I stayed home while my son and wife went to a tournament in NC. They came back with some abysmal stories regarding the referring they saw while down there, but I have to take that all with a grain of salt since I wasn't there. Except my wife filmed most, if not all of the matches. While I could not appreciate everything going on, I do have some things standing out from what I saw in the matches. Two of these things are somewhat hard to refute and to shrug off.
First one is in the first game played on Friday was my son's team against a local team. No idea about where the referees were from but it was evident who they were rooting for. After the first goal from the NC team, my wife caught the referee pumping his fist. And I know I have celebrated plays before, when a player scores an unbelievable goal or when you call an advantage that 5 seconds later is converted into a goal, but this was more a run of the mill play that the referee felt like celebrating. A couple of the boys saw it and immediately knew they weren't going to get many calls. They didn't.
Second game was interesting in that there was a younger AR as AR2. He was not paying much attention, it seemed as you could see him playing with his flag. In a counter play, he is not in line with the second to last defender, but is somewhat close. Ball is played to what looks to be a fairly offside attacker but no call is made. Keeper makes a save that goes to the corner and the center comes over and chats with him and the mike picks up something about offside and how the attacker was offside, yet the center lets the corner stand. And you guessed it, there is a goal directly off of the corner. Not sure what the referee was thinking if he thought the attacker was offside (audio was not that clear, but it picked up attacker offside, so perhaps the center did not think the attacker was offside).
A couple of minutes later, ball goes out of touch on his side and the AR does nothing, so out sprints another referee from nowhere and replaces him. No words exchanged, no stopping play, just a new AR instead of the distracted young AR. Interesting, hadn't seen that and I guess they had already decided this was going to happen.
Finally, the level of play in general was bad for a college showcase tournament. I guess the fields didn't help. A couple of them looked like they were more suitable for cow pastures than soccer, but that was not really appreciated until you saw the kids try to make passes on the ground that kept popping up and were sometimes hard to control and anticipate.
Most parents stated that they wouldn't come back, for these and many other reasons. So there you have it. This weekend, I am the designated driver for another tournament, but this one is closer to home, and supposedly is on turf. We will see if my brethren can do better than that NC tournament. I will be spectating and filming, so if I can get something juicy on film, you might see it here in a week or two.
First one is in the first game played on Friday was my son's team against a local team. No idea about where the referees were from but it was evident who they were rooting for. After the first goal from the NC team, my wife caught the referee pumping his fist. And I know I have celebrated plays before, when a player scores an unbelievable goal or when you call an advantage that 5 seconds later is converted into a goal, but this was more a run of the mill play that the referee felt like celebrating. A couple of the boys saw it and immediately knew they weren't going to get many calls. They didn't.
Second game was interesting in that there was a younger AR as AR2. He was not paying much attention, it seemed as you could see him playing with his flag. In a counter play, he is not in line with the second to last defender, but is somewhat close. Ball is played to what looks to be a fairly offside attacker but no call is made. Keeper makes a save that goes to the corner and the center comes over and chats with him and the mike picks up something about offside and how the attacker was offside, yet the center lets the corner stand. And you guessed it, there is a goal directly off of the corner. Not sure what the referee was thinking if he thought the attacker was offside (audio was not that clear, but it picked up attacker offside, so perhaps the center did not think the attacker was offside).
A couple of minutes later, ball goes out of touch on his side and the AR does nothing, so out sprints another referee from nowhere and replaces him. No words exchanged, no stopping play, just a new AR instead of the distracted young AR. Interesting, hadn't seen that and I guess they had already decided this was going to happen.
Finally, the level of play in general was bad for a college showcase tournament. I guess the fields didn't help. A couple of them looked like they were more suitable for cow pastures than soccer, but that was not really appreciated until you saw the kids try to make passes on the ground that kept popping up and were sometimes hard to control and anticipate.
Most parents stated that they wouldn't come back, for these and many other reasons. So there you have it. This weekend, I am the designated driver for another tournament, but this one is closer to home, and supposedly is on turf. We will see if my brethren can do better than that NC tournament. I will be spectating and filming, so if I can get something juicy on film, you might see it here in a week or two.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Referee related novel
http://www.amazon.com/OFFSIDE-Mystery-William-P-Barrett/dp/1620154439/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420652370&sr=1-4&keywords=offside
This link is to a book that found its way to me during the holiday season. It is referee related (one gets murdered, so that is not really good for us referees) and soccer related as well. It is set in Southern California in 2006 so there is a housing bubble to contend with as well as a financial crisis. All in all, it is a fun read and you learn a lot along the way about soccer, the laws of the game and their origins, the various locations and many other things. I thought it was well written and thoroughly researched. The main character is very believable and so are the rest of the characters in the story. If you are on the lookout for a good read this book should be able to hold your interest and then some.
This link is to a book that found its way to me during the holiday season. It is referee related (one gets murdered, so that is not really good for us referees) and soccer related as well. It is set in Southern California in 2006 so there is a housing bubble to contend with as well as a financial crisis. All in all, it is a fun read and you learn a lot along the way about soccer, the laws of the game and their origins, the various locations and many other things. I thought it was well written and thoroughly researched. The main character is very believable and so are the rest of the characters in the story. If you are on the lookout for a good read this book should be able to hold your interest and then some.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Recert class
After passing the exam, I had on my calendar to attend the class for this year. Since I was a returning 7, all that was required was to sit through the class and see what the focus was this year. As you may recall, last year's clinic had a lot about social media and why a referee shouldn't be on it. This year, my takeaway focus was about fitness. A lot of videos on stretching and getting ready for the game, and for staying fit. It is like they were reading my mind. But other than that there wasn't much in terms of new things.
Also, a lot on head coverings and what colors were allowed (black and the predominant team color for field players). The coverings must match (that is all players who wear them must use the same color). They cannot be attached to the shirt worn by the players.
But other than that, there wasn't much that I can recall. No big rule changes for this go around other than the clarification (yet again) on offside. And to FIFA now, or at least the instructors at my class, offside player involvement means actually touching the ball not just going for it, so more and more, they want us to keep our flags down as an AR, at least that is what I took from that discussion.
How have your recert classes been going and has anyone noticed a trend since we have not really had a ton of rule changes in the past couple of years?
Also, a lot on head coverings and what colors were allowed (black and the predominant team color for field players). The coverings must match (that is all players who wear them must use the same color). They cannot be attached to the shirt worn by the players.
But other than that, there wasn't much that I can recall. No big rule changes for this go around other than the clarification (yet again) on offside. And to FIFA now, or at least the instructors at my class, offside player involvement means actually touching the ball not just going for it, so more and more, they want us to keep our flags down as an AR, at least that is what I took from that discussion.
How have your recert classes been going and has anyone noticed a trend since we have not really had a ton of rule changes in the past couple of years?
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