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.

2 comments:

LAPRGuy said...

I had a DOGSO situation in a U14 game blowout -- trailing team's substitute keeper (was a field player) fouls the attacker in the box, not malicious or out of frustration, just a common foul. Still, it's a PK and met all the criteria. I decide that nothing would come of a red but confusion and grief, so he "earns" a caution and lives to play another week.

Brian said...

One way of looking at this issue is to ask "why are we (as referees) there?" The answers, in order: #1 - for the safety of the players, then #2 - to administer the LOTG.

#1 is done...always...from opening kickoff until your authority over the game ends (i.e. you leave the field).

#2 is done in accordance with many factors. Law 18 always applies. :)

So in a tight State Cup Quarterfinal, a DOGSO is a DOGSO. But in a small school Girls' JV game where both teams barely have 11 players to play, some of whom have played < 1 year, am I issuing a red card for a textbook DOGSO, even if it's a tie game? No.