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.

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. 

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.