Yesterday I did my assessment on a U17 boys match and while there was drama and a good match overall (a 2-2 tie), there wasn't much to talk about other than it was competitive and that the main criticism I received was that I was out of place in terms of passing lanes, etc. And yes, I did feel clumsy and kind of in the middle. I didn't go too deep on my AR's quadrants and that was another point of emphasis that I need to change.
However, the most interesting thing of the weekend was the match right after. I originally was not going to do the next match because I wanted the assessor to have time to give me good feedback, but when it was clear that there wouldn't be a center should I not accept, I accepted.
It was a fairly benign match between two U17 girls squads. Maybe 10 fouls all match. However, in the second half, I made a mistake that I need to learn from. White #55 was the one attacker who could generate some offence for her team. She is in the corner and there is a little bit of action where she probably was fouled, but my AR didn't indicate anything (and he was somewhat of a junior AR, so I wasn't really expecting a ton of help on foul recognition). The ball goes out to touch and he signals for a throw in for the red team. I felt like I lost the opportunity to call the foul and instead gave the throw in to the white team. Let's say it now, "don't correct a mistake with another mistake".
So on that throw in, the ball goes into the box, white chests in down and gets wiped out by a defender, very possible DOGSO, though the defender, fortunately did legitimately attempt to play the ball, so yellow card for her. But I felt like I had had a direct impact on the score. They convert the penalty and with 10 minutes left, they are up 1-0.
With 5 minutes left, red has a great through ball and the attacker gets knocked down inside the box. Not as clear cut as the other PK, but still, a PK nonetheless. White coach goes absolutely ballistic and I know the coach well, which bothered me because I thought he respected my judgement, but I think I know what happened. He wanted to have a conversation with me about the call, before the PK was taken. I later inferred that the reason he did that was to try to ice the PK taker. But I didn't walk over until after the PK (too late to change my restart, by the way) and the girl buried it for a final 1-1. It was interesting that the coach might have tried to get some gamesmanship in there, but then, perhaps if I were the coach, I would too.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Friday, October 14, 2016
Last School of Excellence class and another first
On the eve of my assessment this Sunday, I have a couple of comments to make regarding the 2 year stint I was in for the school of excellence. We held the last class a couple of weeks ago, during the first full weekend of all the leagues that needed us referees out there. One of the key improvements I hope to see for next time is to fit the classes into times when there is no refereeing going on that is needed. Perhaps hold a couple of sessions in winter, a couple in the middle of summer and one towards the end of a season. In fact, my suggestion would be something like late February, late June and early December. That way there is little chance of clashing with the start or end of a league.
The real problem is that the school of excellence in this first iteration was mainly focused on the younger kids that have a real chance of working higher level games. I see a couple of kids that are serious potential to be the next Mark Geiger or Kari Seitz but they are the minority for sure. Most of us there, young and old, are going to be Grade 6 at best and never progress from there. And I am fine with that for me, some of the younger kids with more ambitious goals may have to conform to that given the dwindling numbers you get at the higher levels. The younger kids that do some of the special tournaments that I can only dream of happen to work through Thanksgiving or some other major holiday and therefore the School of Excellence has to hold sessions when they are outside of one of those major tournaments. In this first go, it was structured to benefit the needs of the few over the needs of the many. I really don't know if I will sign up again for another two years. That would be eight weekends that I would have to attend and miss out on a lot of matches again. I will think about it long and hard, but right now, I am leaning towards a no.
On another note, I figured I would be done with all these occurrences that shouldn't happen. But the new rulebook has different opinions. One of the new rules is that if a player commits a foul or misconduct that is going to have him or her sent off, but the referee applies advantage on the play, the player is still essentially "gone" and therefore cannot participate anymore but you administer justice the next time the ball goes out of play or if the player becomes involved in active play. How often are you going to have this happen? Probably twice in your reffing career if I were to take a guess. Well, it so happens that this past tournament weekend, I was centering a match and there was one player that received a yellow for dangerously lunging at an opponent and while he made minimal contact, it was the third time he had done it, so out came the yellow. I had had a quiet word with him after the first studs up lunge with no contact. The second was more of a public "seriously, cut it out" admonishment and the third was a yellow card. In all of these instances, they had the potential of causing harm but they were still clumsy and ill timed. Had he really wanted to hurt someone, he could have done it easily. It was more of his way of trying to recover the ball. This was U17 boys travel soccer, so not the kids first rodeo for sure.
In the second half, he had calmed down quite a bit and figured he had decided to just play. But with his team down 2-0, he made a nice run towards the opponent's goal when a defender from the other team slides in and takes the ball away beautifully. The attacker though, left his leg down through the slide and therefore there was a little contact between the slide and the attacking player. The attacking player goes down and he looks at me with those "Well, are you going to call THAT?" eyes. I look at him and say "that was a great tackle, no contact so no foul". He then slams his fist on the ground and yells "I will show you a great tackle" and gets up and lunges himself again against an opponent with the ball. As he makes contact with the opponent, the opponent puts a great through ball to an onside attacker. I yell to the fouling player and the opponent that Number 5 White is gone and getting a red, do not retaliate and sprint to where the attacking play is happening.
Sure enough, the play does not develop into a goal or anything and the defense clears it up field. To White #5. The moment he touches the ball, I blow my whistle, show him the yellow for the tackle from 45 seconds ago and show him the red. In 8 years of reffing, I may have given about 12-13 red cards, and I do not recall ever giving an advantage on an eventual red card call. So I suspect that it will be another 8 years before I have this happen again, where the player becomes involved in play after being sent off but still on the field due to an advantage call. Has that happened to you?
The real problem is that the school of excellence in this first iteration was mainly focused on the younger kids that have a real chance of working higher level games. I see a couple of kids that are serious potential to be the next Mark Geiger or Kari Seitz but they are the minority for sure. Most of us there, young and old, are going to be Grade 6 at best and never progress from there. And I am fine with that for me, some of the younger kids with more ambitious goals may have to conform to that given the dwindling numbers you get at the higher levels. The younger kids that do some of the special tournaments that I can only dream of happen to work through Thanksgiving or some other major holiday and therefore the School of Excellence has to hold sessions when they are outside of one of those major tournaments. In this first go, it was structured to benefit the needs of the few over the needs of the many. I really don't know if I will sign up again for another two years. That would be eight weekends that I would have to attend and miss out on a lot of matches again. I will think about it long and hard, but right now, I am leaning towards a no.
On another note, I figured I would be done with all these occurrences that shouldn't happen. But the new rulebook has different opinions. One of the new rules is that if a player commits a foul or misconduct that is going to have him or her sent off, but the referee applies advantage on the play, the player is still essentially "gone" and therefore cannot participate anymore but you administer justice the next time the ball goes out of play or if the player becomes involved in active play. How often are you going to have this happen? Probably twice in your reffing career if I were to take a guess. Well, it so happens that this past tournament weekend, I was centering a match and there was one player that received a yellow for dangerously lunging at an opponent and while he made minimal contact, it was the third time he had done it, so out came the yellow. I had had a quiet word with him after the first studs up lunge with no contact. The second was more of a public "seriously, cut it out" admonishment and the third was a yellow card. In all of these instances, they had the potential of causing harm but they were still clumsy and ill timed. Had he really wanted to hurt someone, he could have done it easily. It was more of his way of trying to recover the ball. This was U17 boys travel soccer, so not the kids first rodeo for sure.
In the second half, he had calmed down quite a bit and figured he had decided to just play. But with his team down 2-0, he made a nice run towards the opponent's goal when a defender from the other team slides in and takes the ball away beautifully. The attacker though, left his leg down through the slide and therefore there was a little contact between the slide and the attacking player. The attacking player goes down and he looks at me with those "Well, are you going to call THAT?" eyes. I look at him and say "that was a great tackle, no contact so no foul". He then slams his fist on the ground and yells "I will show you a great tackle" and gets up and lunges himself again against an opponent with the ball. As he makes contact with the opponent, the opponent puts a great through ball to an onside attacker. I yell to the fouling player and the opponent that Number 5 White is gone and getting a red, do not retaliate and sprint to where the attacking play is happening.
Sure enough, the play does not develop into a goal or anything and the defense clears it up field. To White #5. The moment he touches the ball, I blow my whistle, show him the yellow for the tackle from 45 seconds ago and show him the red. In 8 years of reffing, I may have given about 12-13 red cards, and I do not recall ever giving an advantage on an eventual red card call. So I suspect that it will be another 8 years before I have this happen again, where the player becomes involved in play after being sent off but still on the field due to an advantage call. Has that happened to you?
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Clarification on the new DOGSO
In my last post, I stated that I called a DOGSO PK and therefore the person committing the foul got only a yellow instead of a red card. I misspoke in a way because had that person used a push, shirt tug, or other already illegal method of stopping the player, it would have been a red card anyway. This is where I think that people are going to be a lot of confusion. I suspect that most referees will treat any DOGSO PK as a yellow and misapply the rules.
The rules state that you can commit a DOGSO PK foul and still be sent off if you handle the ball, or push, pull or do not or cannot play the ball with the tackle. In those cases, instead of a yellow, it should be a red card.
This may cause us to just go with yellow in the box, red outside, but it is much more nuanced than that. It will take some time, I believe, to have this trickle down to everyone.
The rules state that you can commit a DOGSO PK foul and still be sent off if you handle the ball, or push, pull or do not or cannot play the ball with the tackle. In those cases, instead of a yellow, it should be a red card.
This may cause us to just go with yellow in the box, red outside, but it is much more nuanced than that. It will take some time, I believe, to have this trickle down to everyone.
Monday, September 12, 2016
New DOGSO
Before I comment on the new DOGSO and my brush with it early in the new rule process, let me start by asking, where have all the referees gone? This weekend, which was the start of many leagues as well as State Cup, was brutal. My son had a center and two ARs that probably could even get a learner's permit in the state of Virginia. And that game was covered at least.
Ok, back to the DOGSO chat. As mentioned last week, the laws were altered a bit to reflect the need to eliminate the triple whammy when there is a denial of a clear chance to score and the foul was committed in the penalty area and resulted in a PK. If in your eternal wisdom, you believe there was an honest attempt to play the ball, but it resulted in a foul and not the result of pushing, pulling, handling or some other ill conceived attempt, then after the whistle, the person who committed the foul should be shown a yellow instead of a red if inside the penalty area. No change outside the penalty area, the red card is still shown in these cases.
The Labor Day weekend, I worked 6 matches. 2 centers and 4 ARs. And I got very lucky. My 4 ARs had the final scores of 6-0, 6-0, 9-0 and 6-0. My 2 centers nestled in those 4 lopsided matches were 3-1 and 5-3. Both very evenly matched and challenging in their own right. The first match, on Saturday was a U15 match. The game was not a hard match to call until the moment of truth. With White up 2-1 they were playing a very high line in their defense. It was something I couldn't really grasp why they were pressing so hard with the lead. The only way Red was generating chances was when white messed up their possession in the defense, so I wasn't too sure why white insisted in having their back line so far away from their keeper. Sure enough, with 10 minutes left in the second half, white lost the ball and red put a nice through ball to an attacker who outran the defender for a clear one on one chance with the white keeper the only defender standing in her way from tying up the match. The white keeper had been playing at the edge of her 18 all game since she had to clear a couple of balls before. She sprints out and the attacker and keeper meet about 25 yards from goal. The attacker makes a great cut to her left and the keeper sticks her leg out. She misses the ball and trips the attacker. Clear attempt to play the ball, but sadly, outside the box, and therefore a red card. It ended up working out in the end for white as the free kick resulted in nothing and then white ended up scoring an insurance goal.
In my other game, it was a U18 boys match. With the match 2-2, blue makes a great string of passes on white and leaves the blue attacker essentially one on one with the white keeper. As blue is about to take the shot with his right foot, a defender came in from the left, went through the attackers legs to get to the ball. It was a tough call in my head but I felt the attempt was "honest enough" where he tried to play the ball, albeit in a low percentage type tackle. It was still DOGSO but inside the box and it resulted in a PK, so I showed the yellow. In truth, I really didn't think it was that much of a DOGSO choice until a referee observer told me that he thought my new interpretation of the DOGSO was spot on. Funny how things work out like that sometimes.
Ok, back to the DOGSO chat. As mentioned last week, the laws were altered a bit to reflect the need to eliminate the triple whammy when there is a denial of a clear chance to score and the foul was committed in the penalty area and resulted in a PK. If in your eternal wisdom, you believe there was an honest attempt to play the ball, but it resulted in a foul and not the result of pushing, pulling, handling or some other ill conceived attempt, then after the whistle, the person who committed the foul should be shown a yellow instead of a red if inside the penalty area. No change outside the penalty area, the red card is still shown in these cases.
The Labor Day weekend, I worked 6 matches. 2 centers and 4 ARs. And I got very lucky. My 4 ARs had the final scores of 6-0, 6-0, 9-0 and 6-0. My 2 centers nestled in those 4 lopsided matches were 3-1 and 5-3. Both very evenly matched and challenging in their own right. The first match, on Saturday was a U15 match. The game was not a hard match to call until the moment of truth. With White up 2-1 they were playing a very high line in their defense. It was something I couldn't really grasp why they were pressing so hard with the lead. The only way Red was generating chances was when white messed up their possession in the defense, so I wasn't too sure why white insisted in having their back line so far away from their keeper. Sure enough, with 10 minutes left in the second half, white lost the ball and red put a nice through ball to an attacker who outran the defender for a clear one on one chance with the white keeper the only defender standing in her way from tying up the match. The white keeper had been playing at the edge of her 18 all game since she had to clear a couple of balls before. She sprints out and the attacker and keeper meet about 25 yards from goal. The attacker makes a great cut to her left and the keeper sticks her leg out. She misses the ball and trips the attacker. Clear attempt to play the ball, but sadly, outside the box, and therefore a red card. It ended up working out in the end for white as the free kick resulted in nothing and then white ended up scoring an insurance goal.
In my other game, it was a U18 boys match. With the match 2-2, blue makes a great string of passes on white and leaves the blue attacker essentially one on one with the white keeper. As blue is about to take the shot with his right foot, a defender came in from the left, went through the attackers legs to get to the ball. It was a tough call in my head but I felt the attempt was "honest enough" where he tried to play the ball, albeit in a low percentage type tackle. It was still DOGSO but inside the box and it resulted in a PK, so I showed the yellow. In truth, I really didn't think it was that much of a DOGSO choice until a referee observer told me that he thought my new interpretation of the DOGSO was spot on. Funny how things work out like that sometimes.
Friday, September 9, 2016
New Stuff
It has been a while and for that I apologize. I have not been as diligent in writing, not because I don't have material, but rather, life seems to get in the way. One child is a senior, another a freshman and one starting Kindergarten so things were hectic these last couple of months.
So all this new stuff is hitting us since we last talked. Kickoffs can go backwards, new uniforms and you can't score on yourself off of a corner anymore. Where is the fun in all of this? Seriously, the things that matter most are the new uniforms. They look better, but the change in logo means we have to change EVERYTHING? I have 10 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, countless pairs of socks (that initially don't change, thankfully) and a myriad of other USSF logoed things. I calculated the cost of my entire wardrobe change will be in the $350-$400 range. And being a grade 6, you kind of are expected to have Official Sports, and only Official Sports gear. Gee thanks. At least we can use the old stuff for another couple of years, but again, as a 6, I will be expected to buy the new gear sooner rather than later. Not cool.
Moving on to the new rules, I have read a couple of posts on the new rules and have the new IFAB document that has the new rules incorporated. The link is here: http://www.theifab.com/#!/document. The new rules have a lot of common sense in them. Everyone used to tap the ball forward on kickoffs to have the second touch go backwards towards their midfielders 90% of the time, so why not eliminate the silly rule that the kick off had to go forward? It makes sense. I like it. There are a number of other rule changes as well. Fouls outside the field of play are now not a dropped ball if the ball was in play at the time. Just like that, there are a bunch of others. I do want to focus on the one that does affect us the most in terms of determining the outcome of a game, and that is the new DOGSO-F interpretation.
Before I go any further, I have NOT attended a new rules class (mostly because I was out of town the week that it was offered before the season started) so please understand that this is my possibly misguided interpretation of what the rules are. Don't take this as fact but rather as my initial interpretation.
With regards to DOGSO-F, the way I interpret it now is that the law makers decided to remove the so called triple whammy. That is, foul as last defender that denies obvious goal scoring opportunity inside the penalty area used to cause the following:
- Penalty kick called against the team committing the foul which as a high chance of being converted
- Red card for the defender
- Next game sit out for the defender
Now if there is a foul where the defender meets the criteria of committing a DOGSO-F foul and is genuinely trying to play the ball (not shoving, pulling the shirt, etc.) and the foul is committed inside the penalty area, then the card to show is a yellow. If it is outside of the penalty area, then it is still a red. This changes things quite a bit, in terms of considerations for the referee as now there is a change in thought process until we all get used to the new laws.
In my next article, I will speak to the last two centers where I had to apply DOGSO-F in each of them.
So all this new stuff is hitting us since we last talked. Kickoffs can go backwards, new uniforms and you can't score on yourself off of a corner anymore. Where is the fun in all of this? Seriously, the things that matter most are the new uniforms. They look better, but the change in logo means we have to change EVERYTHING? I have 10 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, countless pairs of socks (that initially don't change, thankfully) and a myriad of other USSF logoed things. I calculated the cost of my entire wardrobe change will be in the $350-$400 range. And being a grade 6, you kind of are expected to have Official Sports, and only Official Sports gear. Gee thanks. At least we can use the old stuff for another couple of years, but again, as a 6, I will be expected to buy the new gear sooner rather than later. Not cool.
Moving on to the new rules, I have read a couple of posts on the new rules and have the new IFAB document that has the new rules incorporated. The link is here: http://www.theifab.com/#!/document. The new rules have a lot of common sense in them. Everyone used to tap the ball forward on kickoffs to have the second touch go backwards towards their midfielders 90% of the time, so why not eliminate the silly rule that the kick off had to go forward? It makes sense. I like it. There are a number of other rule changes as well. Fouls outside the field of play are now not a dropped ball if the ball was in play at the time. Just like that, there are a bunch of others. I do want to focus on the one that does affect us the most in terms of determining the outcome of a game, and that is the new DOGSO-F interpretation.
Before I go any further, I have NOT attended a new rules class (mostly because I was out of town the week that it was offered before the season started) so please understand that this is my possibly misguided interpretation of what the rules are. Don't take this as fact but rather as my initial interpretation.
With regards to DOGSO-F, the way I interpret it now is that the law makers decided to remove the so called triple whammy. That is, foul as last defender that denies obvious goal scoring opportunity inside the penalty area used to cause the following:
- Penalty kick called against the team committing the foul which as a high chance of being converted
- Red card for the defender
- Next game sit out for the defender
Now if there is a foul where the defender meets the criteria of committing a DOGSO-F foul and is genuinely trying to play the ball (not shoving, pulling the shirt, etc.) and the foul is committed inside the penalty area, then the card to show is a yellow. If it is outside of the penalty area, then it is still a red. This changes things quite a bit, in terms of considerations for the referee as now there is a change in thought process until we all get used to the new laws.
In my next article, I will speak to the last two centers where I had to apply DOGSO-F in each of them.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Don't keep it a secret
As I work these higher level games, 2 conclusions come to mind. One of them is that you get to work with many incredible, driven, determined and confident individuals and some of them are almost half my age. Quite incredible if you ask me. The other is that you don't really get paid any more than you did for the previous level of matches. These past two weekends, I worked a couple of WPSL matches that were quite interesting, especially in light of the little things you hear that are useful in my future matches.
In the level of talking, there is more than I normally do. The typical, "straight up", "don't be silly", etc. Then the other one that I heard as an AR for the first time was, "don't keep it a secret". Basically the center asked us to vocalize something that both teams could benefit from. His particular example was a ball that was on the touch line but not fully out, spinning close to the line or questionable. Everybody knows when it goes out because the AR will signal, but he had a ball that was not fully out and it looked out but was spinning in place and a player grabbed the ball thinking it was out with her hands. That lead to the only game of the match. He was being assessed and was told to not keep it a secret in an instance like that, where both teams can benefit from the information and no do something silly. While I believe that most of us do that as a center, we rarely do it as an AR. I liked the fact that the scenario presented clearly indicates when it is beneficial. This applies more at the higher levels rather than at the lower levels where interaction between referee and player is more ceremonial to verbalize it in a way. I know I don't verbalize nearly enough especially when I am an AR to players. What do you all think about the more verbalization?
In the level of talking, there is more than I normally do. The typical, "straight up", "don't be silly", etc. Then the other one that I heard as an AR for the first time was, "don't keep it a secret". Basically the center asked us to vocalize something that both teams could benefit from. His particular example was a ball that was on the touch line but not fully out, spinning close to the line or questionable. Everybody knows when it goes out because the AR will signal, but he had a ball that was not fully out and it looked out but was spinning in place and a player grabbed the ball thinking it was out with her hands. That lead to the only game of the match. He was being assessed and was told to not keep it a secret in an instance like that, where both teams can benefit from the information and no do something silly. While I believe that most of us do that as a center, we rarely do it as an AR. I liked the fact that the scenario presented clearly indicates when it is beneficial. This applies more at the higher levels rather than at the lower levels where interaction between referee and player is more ceremonial to verbalize it in a way. I know I don't verbalize nearly enough especially when I am an AR to players. What do you all think about the more verbalization?
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Communicating with players
It has been a while again. I do apologize. What has kept me busy these past 5-6 weeks is what I want to talk about today. Since my last post, I have gone ahead and started working a lot more at the higher level leagues (yes, being a 6 has its advantages, and disadvantages). One of the advantages is being able to work PDL matches and CCL 23 matches, etc.
These matches are at a whole other level than the typical U15 match. There is a lot more thought and purposefulness to everything that goes on. In one PDL match, we had to arrive 90 minutes prior to kick off, had a minute by minute time table set out in our locker room and had actual paying public at the door. Not stuff I am used to.
One of the main things that really got me was the use of the communication systems. In the PDL match where I was a fourth official and then a State Cup final where I was AR2, I had the benefit of using an open mic system akin to what the professionals use. And it was mind blowing in terms of the different tactics that the centers used to convey their thoughts, what they were seeing and the level of chatter compared to what I am used to.
I was not aware at how little I talked until I started doing these open mic matches where I can hear all the little things that are said as part of drive bys and during dead time. In the PDL match, I worked with a center who kept the peace with players by saying "I'm right here" when action was happening. He did that to convey that he was close by and seeing what was going on and was either allowing it or to dissuade a defender from doing something silly. And it worked quite well. One thing that I will put in my back pocket.
The other one was during a State Cup final where the center referee kept telling the players what exactly happened (and again, position had a lot to do with that, since he was where he needed to be to sell the call he was making or not making). And he told them things like "I saw that, it went off your shoulder, I know you think it went off him, but you were too busy trying to head the ball that you didn't see it go off you, don't worry I got it." Things like that, it relaxed the players, especially at that level, the higher level players where things work differently than our garden variety U14 match, where players are scared to talk to the referee.
I am finding it so hard to work back down to the U12 levels now that I haven't done a low level match in 2-3 months. But this weekend, I go back to that, so hopefully I can still ref that level after working higher level matches almost exclusively for the past 2 months.
These matches are at a whole other level than the typical U15 match. There is a lot more thought and purposefulness to everything that goes on. In one PDL match, we had to arrive 90 minutes prior to kick off, had a minute by minute time table set out in our locker room and had actual paying public at the door. Not stuff I am used to.
One of the main things that really got me was the use of the communication systems. In the PDL match where I was a fourth official and then a State Cup final where I was AR2, I had the benefit of using an open mic system akin to what the professionals use. And it was mind blowing in terms of the different tactics that the centers used to convey their thoughts, what they were seeing and the level of chatter compared to what I am used to.
I was not aware at how little I talked until I started doing these open mic matches where I can hear all the little things that are said as part of drive bys and during dead time. In the PDL match, I worked with a center who kept the peace with players by saying "I'm right here" when action was happening. He did that to convey that he was close by and seeing what was going on and was either allowing it or to dissuade a defender from doing something silly. And it worked quite well. One thing that I will put in my back pocket.
The other one was during a State Cup final where the center referee kept telling the players what exactly happened (and again, position had a lot to do with that, since he was where he needed to be to sell the call he was making or not making). And he told them things like "I saw that, it went off your shoulder, I know you think it went off him, but you were too busy trying to head the ball that you didn't see it go off you, don't worry I got it." Things like that, it relaxed the players, especially at that level, the higher level players where things work differently than our garden variety U14 match, where players are scared to talk to the referee.
I am finding it so hard to work back down to the U12 levels now that I haven't done a low level match in 2-3 months. But this weekend, I go back to that, so hopefully I can still ref that level after working higher level matches almost exclusively for the past 2 months.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Play on Project
These past couple of weeks I started reffing more the adult league that has ethnic teams participating and that gave me an idea. A couple of months ago, I was thinking how best to say "Play on" in Spanish and there are a good three or four ways, but not sure what the official way is to say it.
Siga and Ventaja are two ways that come to mind. I will eventually look in the Spanish version of the Laws of the Game to see what word they are using specifically.
Possibly other ways, but it got me thinking with these teams that are many ethnic players that there should be a possible point of reference. So I asked the two teams, one team was mainly people from Uzbekistan and the other team was mostly from South Korea. This is what they said, though they also had a couple of ways to say it.
For Uzbek it would be something like Oyna which they said means play or dance. For Korean it was He (or possibly Je). They were a little more unanimous in stating the proper way of saying Play On. But as time goes by and I get more teams like this, I will ask them and document it as something I will call my "Play on project".
Hopefully it comes in useful to you when it is your game or you are ever on "Referee Jeopardy".
Siga and Ventaja are two ways that come to mind. I will eventually look in the Spanish version of the Laws of the Game to see what word they are using specifically.
Possibly other ways, but it got me thinking with these teams that are many ethnic players that there should be a possible point of reference. So I asked the two teams, one team was mainly people from Uzbekistan and the other team was mostly from South Korea. This is what they said, though they also had a couple of ways to say it.
For Uzbek it would be something like Oyna which they said means play or dance. For Korean it was He (or possibly Je). They were a little more unanimous in stating the proper way of saying Play On. But as time goes by and I get more teams like this, I will ask them and document it as something I will call my "Play on project".
Hopefully it comes in useful to you when it is your game or you are ever on "Referee Jeopardy".
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Defending one of our own
I bet some of you reading this at home think I make some of this stuff up, but I don't. If I am posting well after an event, I may not remember all the details exactly, so that is why I am writing this one while it is really fresh in my mind.
My son plays club soccer and high school soccer as well as being a referee sometimes. Tonight he had a game and I was in attendance. As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of high school because of the different rules, the whole extension of the classroom concept and a few other things.
This evening, I recognized the center and the AR on our side. Most schools have one side for the home team parents and one side for the away team parents. That is the case at my son's school. During the second half, while my son's team is up by 6 or so, I start to hear from behind me the following comments, increasing in volume and intensity as the game winds down.
"AR, you are not even with the second to last defender."
"AR you can't keep up play."
"AR you suck."
"AR, that was a foul, raise your f***ing flag."
I knew the AR well enough to recognize that he did one of my 7 to 6 assessments, so I KNEW he was a good AR and that he was keeping up with play as best as he could and that over all, he was doing what he should be doing, not letting his guard down just because the game was 6-0 (in fact, some will say that this is the time you have to be at your most attentive, because something might blow up just as you start to get complacent).
So I turn around to the yelling parent and ask him, "Do you know Pat?" He was giving him such a hard time that I figured he must know him and was giving him a hard time because they were friends and there was some friendly ribbing going on. What he said next told me quite the contrary.
"No, I don't know who he is, but he is laughing with the coaches and he is not paying attention and he is just home cooking."
At that point I disengaged, we were in an area where there weren't many other parents and I just started looking at my phone. About 2-3 minutes later, the angry parent starts up again.
"AR, you can't call that."
"Where did you learn to hold up an offside flag?"
"The ball went out back there AR, have some f***ing balls and make them throw it in back there."
I turned around and said to the guy that it was enough, that I knew that AR and that the crew deserved more respect. He tells me to go into his face and make him stop and gets up and starts walking towards me. At that point, I figure there is nothing to gain and I try to disengage again but not before he gets close and I smell quite a bit of alcohol on him, so I say to him "Oh you're just flat out drunk, that explains everything." and walk away. A couple of parents come over to see what is going on and I watch the rest of the game from farther down the stands.
At the end of the game (7-1 was the final), the parent comes back towards me and tells me again to make him shut up, to which I laugh and walk away. I really couldn't believe that this parent would do such a thing when there was nothing to really get all riled up about. The game was a blowout, and pinning things on the AR was really not something that made much sense.
So Pat, if you are reading this and heard the guy in the second half, just know it was me that stood up for you. You did a great job tonight! All I hope is that this guy did not drive home with his kid. Hopefully his kid had a driver's license and could drive his old man home since he was probably over the limit.
My son plays club soccer and high school soccer as well as being a referee sometimes. Tonight he had a game and I was in attendance. As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of high school because of the different rules, the whole extension of the classroom concept and a few other things.
This evening, I recognized the center and the AR on our side. Most schools have one side for the home team parents and one side for the away team parents. That is the case at my son's school. During the second half, while my son's team is up by 6 or so, I start to hear from behind me the following comments, increasing in volume and intensity as the game winds down.
"AR, you are not even with the second to last defender."
"AR you can't keep up play."
"AR you suck."
"AR, that was a foul, raise your f***ing flag."
I knew the AR well enough to recognize that he did one of my 7 to 6 assessments, so I KNEW he was a good AR and that he was keeping up with play as best as he could and that over all, he was doing what he should be doing, not letting his guard down just because the game was 6-0 (in fact, some will say that this is the time you have to be at your most attentive, because something might blow up just as you start to get complacent).
So I turn around to the yelling parent and ask him, "Do you know Pat?" He was giving him such a hard time that I figured he must know him and was giving him a hard time because they were friends and there was some friendly ribbing going on. What he said next told me quite the contrary.
"No, I don't know who he is, but he is laughing with the coaches and he is not paying attention and he is just home cooking."
At that point I disengaged, we were in an area where there weren't many other parents and I just started looking at my phone. About 2-3 minutes later, the angry parent starts up again.
"AR, you can't call that."
"Where did you learn to hold up an offside flag?"
"The ball went out back there AR, have some f***ing balls and make them throw it in back there."
I turned around and said to the guy that it was enough, that I knew that AR and that the crew deserved more respect. He tells me to go into his face and make him stop and gets up and starts walking towards me. At that point, I figure there is nothing to gain and I try to disengage again but not before he gets close and I smell quite a bit of alcohol on him, so I say to him "Oh you're just flat out drunk, that explains everything." and walk away. A couple of parents come over to see what is going on and I watch the rest of the game from farther down the stands.
At the end of the game (7-1 was the final), the parent comes back towards me and tells me again to make him shut up, to which I laugh and walk away. I really couldn't believe that this parent would do such a thing when there was nothing to really get all riled up about. The game was a blowout, and pinning things on the AR was really not something that made much sense.
So Pat, if you are reading this and heard the guy in the second half, just know it was me that stood up for you. You did a great job tonight! All I hope is that this guy did not drive home with his kid. Hopefully his kid had a driver's license and could drive his old man home since he was probably over the limit.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Refcation
Great weekend a couple of weekends ago. There is a somewhat remote assignor that I enjoy working for because the association really strives to take care of the referees that are traveling. So at the last minute, I reached out to her to tell her that I could be there with my daughter (my son is on a ref break, also called having a girlfriend. Side note, he will be back, he is going to need the money).
This assignor worked her magic and got me games for Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I was able to loop it to a vacation for Saturday through Monday. So I was able to work 8 games between Thursday and Saturday while my daughter worked two matches and mostly was stand-by. I enjoyed the time because when we were done, my daughter and I went to the movies one night, went to dinner and just had a good father/daughter time and someone was actually paying us to be there for a while (and work games or be standby for a while). Still, it was a good way to loop work that I enjoy with time away from the office and other distractions to spend one on one time with my daughter. It was worth more than all the reffing I did.
One note regarding that weekend that jumps on top of what I said in a previous post about kids no really knowing the rules. The other post referenced U15 girls and not understanding advantage. This new game was more telling than the U15 girls.
The scenario was a college showcase level U16 match (read, very experienced girls playing). Score is blue 2, white 0. White is pushing hard in the last 2 minutes of the match. Their strikers makes a great move on the defender, breaks free and heads one on one with the keeper. She then fakes out the keeper and sends her sprawling and is about to tap it in the goal when the keeper reaches out and grabs her foot on the backswing and knocks her down.
I blow the whistle, point to the PK and make sure the attacker is ok. Once that is settled, I walk over to the keeper and show her the red card as she was the last defender as the shot would have been a tap in with no keeper or defender. The blue team freaks out (not the coach at least) asking why that is a red card. I thought about it for a while, how do this girls not know what the punishment is for committing a foul that essentially can negate a goal? Have they never experienced that before? Have they had this before but the other referee did not pull out a red?
Since it is a college showcase tournament, there was a no playing down requirement in the rules and therefore, the blue team brought on their other keeper. White scores the PK and the game ends about 2 minutes later, 2-1. The coach for blue said that it was the right call, so I have that going for me. But what I question or ponder in this post is that the rules are really not well known or something else is amiss. I am not sure what. Why do you think there is a lack of understanding with some of the lesser seen plays in soccer? Is it the players or the referees? Is it because we just don't have that many DOGSO situations?
Funny thing is that the only two times I have shown red cards to girls has been for DOGSO. Never have I had violent conduct, two yellows for anything, etc. Boys on the other hand, the 2-3 reds I have shown them have all been for VC, two yellows or something along those lines. No DOGSO for them, but I do recall one game many years ago where a U11 travel game would have been DOGSO had I had the guts to red card an 11 year old keeper. I am sure it is somewhere in one of my old posts.
This assignor worked her magic and got me games for Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I was able to loop it to a vacation for Saturday through Monday. So I was able to work 8 games between Thursday and Saturday while my daughter worked two matches and mostly was stand-by. I enjoyed the time because when we were done, my daughter and I went to the movies one night, went to dinner and just had a good father/daughter time and someone was actually paying us to be there for a while (and work games or be standby for a while). Still, it was a good way to loop work that I enjoy with time away from the office and other distractions to spend one on one time with my daughter. It was worth more than all the reffing I did.
One note regarding that weekend that jumps on top of what I said in a previous post about kids no really knowing the rules. The other post referenced U15 girls and not understanding advantage. This new game was more telling than the U15 girls.
The scenario was a college showcase level U16 match (read, very experienced girls playing). Score is blue 2, white 0. White is pushing hard in the last 2 minutes of the match. Their strikers makes a great move on the defender, breaks free and heads one on one with the keeper. She then fakes out the keeper and sends her sprawling and is about to tap it in the goal when the keeper reaches out and grabs her foot on the backswing and knocks her down.
I blow the whistle, point to the PK and make sure the attacker is ok. Once that is settled, I walk over to the keeper and show her the red card as she was the last defender as the shot would have been a tap in with no keeper or defender. The blue team freaks out (not the coach at least) asking why that is a red card. I thought about it for a while, how do this girls not know what the punishment is for committing a foul that essentially can negate a goal? Have they never experienced that before? Have they had this before but the other referee did not pull out a red?
Since it is a college showcase tournament, there was a no playing down requirement in the rules and therefore, the blue team brought on their other keeper. White scores the PK and the game ends about 2 minutes later, 2-1. The coach for blue said that it was the right call, so I have that going for me. But what I question or ponder in this post is that the rules are really not well known or something else is amiss. I am not sure what. Why do you think there is a lack of understanding with some of the lesser seen plays in soccer? Is it the players or the referees? Is it because we just don't have that many DOGSO situations?
Funny thing is that the only two times I have shown red cards to girls has been for DOGSO. Never have I had violent conduct, two yellows for anything, etc. Boys on the other hand, the 2-3 reds I have shown them have all been for VC, two yellows or something along those lines. No DOGSO for them, but I do recall one game many years ago where a U11 travel game would have been DOGSO had I had the guts to red card an 11 year old keeper. I am sure it is somewhere in one of my old posts.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Lots to talk about
Boy do I have a lot of material. I have stuff from the most recent School of Excellence meeting and also the latest College Showcase tournament I did a couple of weeks ago. Don't have a ton of time to write it all up today but I will go with something that happened this past weekend, and then work my way back in time.
This past weekend was interesting because Saturday I had the School of Excellence class in Richmond. More on that in the next entry or two. And on Sunday, I had some games for a local tournament out here in Northern VA. I got to work with my son, which you all know by now is a highlight of my weekend. He did say after this tournament that he is taking a break from refereeing so it is going to be just me and my daughter for a while (until my son realizes that he likes to do things that actually cost money).
Anyway, on those games, I had a fun couple of games. We had an intense game early, that was a semi final and then another semi that the 3rd person in our trio did (only his 3rd center in a while and he did very well by the way).
In my third match, I had the center and it was a consolation match. Both teams had finished at the bottom of their brackets and had neither scored a goal or gotten a point from their previous matches. It was a U15 girls match and when the teams were warming up, I noticed that there were more than a couple of girls that were, stockier than what I am normally used to seeing at the travel level.
I knew I was in for a ride when the teams were warming up and they were both in blue from top to bottom. Immediately one of the girls from the visiting team came to me and said, "We are the visiting team for this match, so they have to change." I checked with the home team, and three girls had forgotten their alternate jersey so I asked the visiting team and the coaches there were less than receptive to change. It was only when the offer to possibly use sweaty, smelly pennies did the visiting team state that they indeed had all their alternate white jerseys.
Game starts and as expected, the girls' play is not exactly earth shattering. They have clumsy challenges. #7 blue and #57 white immediately start jawing at each other and laughing at each other. I call a couple of fouls on blue and then I have to chat with #7 blue and then with #20 blue. Immediately after, #57 white does a hard challenge off the ball on a blue player. Out comes the card. I had not expected that. Blue seemed to be the one pushing harder and more on edge, yet white committed the first truly cardable foul.
First half ends 0-0 and #3 blue earned a card right before halftime. Second half starts and white scores two quick goals. Blue goes crazy on the second because the keeper grabs the ball and then collides with her defender and drops the ball to the white attacker's feet. Nothing I could do about that. When they protested, all I could tell them is that if it had been a white attacker colliding, it would have been a foul, but the defender collision with the keeper is fair game.
Then something interesting happened. For the first time in however many games I have been a part of, I called an offside for obstructing the vision of the goalkeeper. Shot from outside the box and the white attacker was in the way of the ball. When she jumps out of the way, then the keeper reacts and doesn't get to the ball. I look at my AR and he stands at attention, not giving me a good goal and not giving me the offside. He knew something was wrong but could not articulate exactly what. That is when I realized just how offside the attacker was when she jumped out of the way of the ball. The white coach initially asked what the call was and then when I explained, he was ok with it. Had the attacker not been where she was, the keeper would have easily gotten to ball but the fact that she jumped out of the way and then the keeper reacted to the ball told me what I needed to know.
The game then got a blue goal and then the game got really chippy. #7 blue picked up a PI card and then a very telling thing happened. Blue is pushing hard to tie, white steals the ball and makes their way upfield. Blue #14 recklessly tries to tackle white to stop play and cannot. White player stumbles but breaks through with a great pass. I call play on and then say to #14 that I have her in the book and to #57 white to not retaliate. White scores a goal on the breakaway, a perfect advantage call if there ever was one.
After recording the goal, I motion over to #14 blue and show her the yellow card. Team mate #9 blue asks why I am showing her the card. I said that #14 committed a cautionable offense but that I allowed an advantage. So she goes on to protest that I should have stopped play if I wanted to show her the card. I told her that is not how advantage works. So she says that I am favoring the other team by allowing them the goal and still giving the card. To which I reply, "I guess that on that play, I was favoring them. Why would I favor the team that tried to commit the foul?" She kept protesting and it hit me, at no time had anyone ever explained the process of advantage to her. In her mind, I just wanted them to lose. Oh well, if by U15 you still don't understand the concept of advantage, I am going to have to say that I may not be able to help out on the soccer field. Or she just picked up soccer not too long ago and that concept hasn't presented itself enough for her to figure out the process. Quite fascinating either way that I would have such a discussion.
More on the school of excellence and the College Showcase in the coming days.
This past weekend was interesting because Saturday I had the School of Excellence class in Richmond. More on that in the next entry or two. And on Sunday, I had some games for a local tournament out here in Northern VA. I got to work with my son, which you all know by now is a highlight of my weekend. He did say after this tournament that he is taking a break from refereeing so it is going to be just me and my daughter for a while (until my son realizes that he likes to do things that actually cost money).
Anyway, on those games, I had a fun couple of games. We had an intense game early, that was a semi final and then another semi that the 3rd person in our trio did (only his 3rd center in a while and he did very well by the way).
In my third match, I had the center and it was a consolation match. Both teams had finished at the bottom of their brackets and had neither scored a goal or gotten a point from their previous matches. It was a U15 girls match and when the teams were warming up, I noticed that there were more than a couple of girls that were, stockier than what I am normally used to seeing at the travel level.
I knew I was in for a ride when the teams were warming up and they were both in blue from top to bottom. Immediately one of the girls from the visiting team came to me and said, "We are the visiting team for this match, so they have to change." I checked with the home team, and three girls had forgotten their alternate jersey so I asked the visiting team and the coaches there were less than receptive to change. It was only when the offer to possibly use sweaty, smelly pennies did the visiting team state that they indeed had all their alternate white jerseys.
Game starts and as expected, the girls' play is not exactly earth shattering. They have clumsy challenges. #7 blue and #57 white immediately start jawing at each other and laughing at each other. I call a couple of fouls on blue and then I have to chat with #7 blue and then with #20 blue. Immediately after, #57 white does a hard challenge off the ball on a blue player. Out comes the card. I had not expected that. Blue seemed to be the one pushing harder and more on edge, yet white committed the first truly cardable foul.
First half ends 0-0 and #3 blue earned a card right before halftime. Second half starts and white scores two quick goals. Blue goes crazy on the second because the keeper grabs the ball and then collides with her defender and drops the ball to the white attacker's feet. Nothing I could do about that. When they protested, all I could tell them is that if it had been a white attacker colliding, it would have been a foul, but the defender collision with the keeper is fair game.
Then something interesting happened. For the first time in however many games I have been a part of, I called an offside for obstructing the vision of the goalkeeper. Shot from outside the box and the white attacker was in the way of the ball. When she jumps out of the way, then the keeper reacts and doesn't get to the ball. I look at my AR and he stands at attention, not giving me a good goal and not giving me the offside. He knew something was wrong but could not articulate exactly what. That is when I realized just how offside the attacker was when she jumped out of the way of the ball. The white coach initially asked what the call was and then when I explained, he was ok with it. Had the attacker not been where she was, the keeper would have easily gotten to ball but the fact that she jumped out of the way and then the keeper reacted to the ball told me what I needed to know.
The game then got a blue goal and then the game got really chippy. #7 blue picked up a PI card and then a very telling thing happened. Blue is pushing hard to tie, white steals the ball and makes their way upfield. Blue #14 recklessly tries to tackle white to stop play and cannot. White player stumbles but breaks through with a great pass. I call play on and then say to #14 that I have her in the book and to #57 white to not retaliate. White scores a goal on the breakaway, a perfect advantage call if there ever was one.
After recording the goal, I motion over to #14 blue and show her the yellow card. Team mate #9 blue asks why I am showing her the card. I said that #14 committed a cautionable offense but that I allowed an advantage. So she goes on to protest that I should have stopped play if I wanted to show her the card. I told her that is not how advantage works. So she says that I am favoring the other team by allowing them the goal and still giving the card. To which I reply, "I guess that on that play, I was favoring them. Why would I favor the team that tried to commit the foul?" She kept protesting and it hit me, at no time had anyone ever explained the process of advantage to her. In her mind, I just wanted them to lose. Oh well, if by U15 you still don't understand the concept of advantage, I am going to have to say that I may not be able to help out on the soccer field. Or she just picked up soccer not too long ago and that concept hasn't presented itself enough for her to figure out the process. Quite fascinating either way that I would have such a discussion.
More on the school of excellence and the College Showcase in the coming days.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Coach to player communication
Interesting thing to speak about. Should the referee be involved in how communication goes between the coach and the players? Most often than not, you will not intervene as it is strictly tactical or encouragement issues. But if the coach crosses the line?
Case in point, this past weekend on a field by mine while I am at halftime in my match. Game is evidently tight by all the yelling and screaming from both team parents and benches, etc. Ball goes to white attacking on the left side, so totally the referee's quadrant. White player goes down after a challenge. Referee calls the foul and the blue coach gives an earful to his player, sounding somewhat hostile. Referee does not interact in this case. I did not see hear anything too terrible but I was too far away to hear everything, but the blue player did not really take kindly to whatever was said.
2-3 minutes later, same white player and blue player running down the sideline again and the white player goes down again. Referee does not call a foul in this case, and the white player is down clutching his head. Blue coach is right beside the play and yells out, "Get up you pussy. Where did you learn to dive like that, the EPL?" He goes on to talk some more to the white player not as loud. The white player eventually gets up and when play stops, the referee checks on the player and he gestures to the blue coach. I inferred something like "Are you going to deal with this?". Nothing was actually done it seems, as the referee does the universal "enough" crossing of the arms, but I was kind of appalled of the interaction.
My thought is that you talk to your players much more than what you can talk to the other team's players. And there is still a line that cannot be crossed. I probably would have addressed it had he said that to his own player, but to the other team? I would certainly have addressed it with him. To me that was unacceptable. Especially with what was said. Again, to his own team, in a non-public manner, I probably would have let it slide but publicly, I would have said something and to the other team's players, I certainly would have said something. Again, my feelings here, but would like to hear what you think about player/coach interactions like this.
Case in point, this past weekend on a field by mine while I am at halftime in my match. Game is evidently tight by all the yelling and screaming from both team parents and benches, etc. Ball goes to white attacking on the left side, so totally the referee's quadrant. White player goes down after a challenge. Referee calls the foul and the blue coach gives an earful to his player, sounding somewhat hostile. Referee does not interact in this case. I did not see hear anything too terrible but I was too far away to hear everything, but the blue player did not really take kindly to whatever was said.
2-3 minutes later, same white player and blue player running down the sideline again and the white player goes down again. Referee does not call a foul in this case, and the white player is down clutching his head. Blue coach is right beside the play and yells out, "Get up you pussy. Where did you learn to dive like that, the EPL?" He goes on to talk some more to the white player not as loud. The white player eventually gets up and when play stops, the referee checks on the player and he gestures to the blue coach. I inferred something like "Are you going to deal with this?". Nothing was actually done it seems, as the referee does the universal "enough" crossing of the arms, but I was kind of appalled of the interaction.
My thought is that you talk to your players much more than what you can talk to the other team's players. And there is still a line that cannot be crossed. I probably would have addressed it had he said that to his own player, but to the other team? I would certainly have addressed it with him. To me that was unacceptable. Especially with what was said. Again, to his own team, in a non-public manner, I probably would have let it slide but publicly, I would have said something and to the other team's players, I certainly would have said something. Again, my feelings here, but would like to hear what you think about player/coach interactions like this.
Friday, January 15, 2016
Finally
It took a while but today I received this in the mail. In essence, I have hit my ceiling as a referee in terms of grade but I still have much to grow. 
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