On the right hand side on the laptop and desktop edition of this blog there are some links I find beneficial, especially those that have new or interesting things for us to pick up. This referee store has a set of yellow and green long sleeve shirts that are either waterproof or for really cold weather. At $65, they are not cheap but perhaps they are what we need for those high school games that are freezing cold.
Anyway, check them out if you haven't. I have always thought that Officialsports.com was the authoritative place to get your ref gear, but they are not the only game in town. Refereestore.com has many things that are not available elsewhere, especially when it comes to gadgets like beeper flags or comm systems. Let me know if you find something out of the ordinary there and happy reffing.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Monday, February 11, 2019
Come on coach
There is a hierarchy with regards to most things in life. In soccer, one would think a coach has a certain level of cache when it comes to things related to the stuff that they are supposed to be the experts on. This weekend, it proved to me that some coaches may be brilliant when it comes to managing the players on the field but gosh darn it, get an idea about the rules, otherwise, you lose all credibility.
Case in point, I am working a college showcase tournament in the local area (by the way, it was cold and 6 layers of clothing was barely enough). In one match, the team in red and blue shirts is clearly dominating the team in white thought it is still a spirited match. Red/Blue is up by 2-3 goals at this point in the first half and we have the first incident where I started to think the Red/Blue coach was not as savvy with his laws interpretations that I would expect a coach of such caliber to be.
This is a DA coach, coaching a team with basically all D1 recruits. One of the players is a national team youth, so they should know the basics. And yes, what happens next is not the basics, per se, but it is not one of those "once in a lifetime" plays either.
I am AR1 and the girls are working their way down my side, white is attacking towards my side and red/blue is defending very close to me in my diagonal. Center is having a fine game, where he needs to be and calling the stuff that needs to be called. White makes a good move on the defender and the defender stumbles and gets tangled with the white player than put the move on her. While there is no foul, the defender sort of falls right next to the ball and attempts to play it from the ground but the ball goes nowhere really and just gets more caught up in her legs.
At this point, white is standing over the defender and possibly winding up to try and poke the ball away, when the Center rightfully blows his whistle and indicates an indirect free kick for white. You probably agree with me that this is something that happens every so often in a soccer match. Perhaps more at the lower levels, but this is something that at least a couple of times a season you will call since you need to protect the defender from getting hurt while players converge for the ball around their body.
The coach looks at me at that moment with an incredulous look on his face. "So what is the call?" he asks. "Dangerous play." I respond. "She should be allowed to get up, I don't understand." he says.
"It is for her own protection, coach. She might get hurt."
"Exactly, that is why it should be a dropped ball."
"No coach, she put herself in that position, chose to try to play the ball instead of trying to get up, so it is an indirect free kick."
"I am not going to attempt to try to argue with you how wrong you both are." and walks away.
Oh boy. A DA coach with years working with youth and you have a quibble over the garden variety putting yourself in a dangerous position? As the infomercials always state "But wait, there's more."
In the second half, Red/Blue is attacking (4-0 at this point) and the midfielder is running with the ball parallel to my line about 10 yards in. As she cuts in towards the penalty arc at the top of the 18, she shoots or attempts to pass and the ball goes off a defender who is a yard or two away. It goes to an attacker in an offside position and I put my flag up for offside.
Again the coach looks at me like "WTF?".
So without giving him too much attention, I say "Deflection off of a defender"
To which he responds "played by a defender".
And I just look at him thinking this man has to be pulling my leg. "The defender did not intentionally try to do that. She had no time to react."
I really couldn't believe it. This is a coach that sends players to the national team supposedly (at least their #10 is a national team player supposedly) and he is giving me grief about this?
To add to that, the day before, I did their center which they also dominated handily but we had another instance of unawareness of how basic things work. At the time, I though nothing of it, but given the exchanges on Sunday, I really have to wonder how much training this coach has when it comes to the laws of the game.
On Saturday, with the Red/Blue team up 3-0 or so, white is attacking down the center. Midfielder cracks a through ball at chest height to a streaking attacker. I see out of the corner of my eye that my AR puts his flag up (way too early as you will soon see). The ball goes about 20 yards and a defender basically knocks the ball down so she can restart play, but that is before I blow my whistle, before the attacker touches the ball, etc. She acted on the AR's flag, which, we all know, is not an actual call on the field and while the player is in an offside position, if the defender, while the ball is making its way down to her, makes a poor but intentional play on the ball, we are going to keep playing and no offside will be called.
So I stop play and call handling instead of offside and the coach wants an explanation, to which I reply "the offside hadn't occurred yet, so the handling came first." Since they were up and there was little chance of a comeback, I didn't get much more out from him, though perhaps he chewed AR1's ear a bit like he did in the match on Sunday.
I really don't quite understand how a coach of that level can go through soccer for the length of the time it takes to get to that level and not understand these calls. Have you all ever had someone similar?
Case in point, I am working a college showcase tournament in the local area (by the way, it was cold and 6 layers of clothing was barely enough). In one match, the team in red and blue shirts is clearly dominating the team in white thought it is still a spirited match. Red/Blue is up by 2-3 goals at this point in the first half and we have the first incident where I started to think the Red/Blue coach was not as savvy with his laws interpretations that I would expect a coach of such caliber to be.
This is a DA coach, coaching a team with basically all D1 recruits. One of the players is a national team youth, so they should know the basics. And yes, what happens next is not the basics, per se, but it is not one of those "once in a lifetime" plays either.
I am AR1 and the girls are working their way down my side, white is attacking towards my side and red/blue is defending very close to me in my diagonal. Center is having a fine game, where he needs to be and calling the stuff that needs to be called. White makes a good move on the defender and the defender stumbles and gets tangled with the white player than put the move on her. While there is no foul, the defender sort of falls right next to the ball and attempts to play it from the ground but the ball goes nowhere really and just gets more caught up in her legs.
At this point, white is standing over the defender and possibly winding up to try and poke the ball away, when the Center rightfully blows his whistle and indicates an indirect free kick for white. You probably agree with me that this is something that happens every so often in a soccer match. Perhaps more at the lower levels, but this is something that at least a couple of times a season you will call since you need to protect the defender from getting hurt while players converge for the ball around their body.
The coach looks at me at that moment with an incredulous look on his face. "So what is the call?" he asks. "Dangerous play." I respond. "She should be allowed to get up, I don't understand." he says.
"It is for her own protection, coach. She might get hurt."
"Exactly, that is why it should be a dropped ball."
"No coach, she put herself in that position, chose to try to play the ball instead of trying to get up, so it is an indirect free kick."
"I am not going to attempt to try to argue with you how wrong you both are." and walks away.
Oh boy. A DA coach with years working with youth and you have a quibble over the garden variety putting yourself in a dangerous position? As the infomercials always state "But wait, there's more."
In the second half, Red/Blue is attacking (4-0 at this point) and the midfielder is running with the ball parallel to my line about 10 yards in. As she cuts in towards the penalty arc at the top of the 18, she shoots or attempts to pass and the ball goes off a defender who is a yard or two away. It goes to an attacker in an offside position and I put my flag up for offside.
Again the coach looks at me like "WTF?".
So without giving him too much attention, I say "Deflection off of a defender"
To which he responds "played by a defender".
And I just look at him thinking this man has to be pulling my leg. "The defender did not intentionally try to do that. She had no time to react."
I really couldn't believe it. This is a coach that sends players to the national team supposedly (at least their #10 is a national team player supposedly) and he is giving me grief about this?
To add to that, the day before, I did their center which they also dominated handily but we had another instance of unawareness of how basic things work. At the time, I though nothing of it, but given the exchanges on Sunday, I really have to wonder how much training this coach has when it comes to the laws of the game.
On Saturday, with the Red/Blue team up 3-0 or so, white is attacking down the center. Midfielder cracks a through ball at chest height to a streaking attacker. I see out of the corner of my eye that my AR puts his flag up (way too early as you will soon see). The ball goes about 20 yards and a defender basically knocks the ball down so she can restart play, but that is before I blow my whistle, before the attacker touches the ball, etc. She acted on the AR's flag, which, we all know, is not an actual call on the field and while the player is in an offside position, if the defender, while the ball is making its way down to her, makes a poor but intentional play on the ball, we are going to keep playing and no offside will be called.
So I stop play and call handling instead of offside and the coach wants an explanation, to which I reply "the offside hadn't occurred yet, so the handling came first." Since they were up and there was little chance of a comeback, I didn't get much more out from him, though perhaps he chewed AR1's ear a bit like he did in the match on Sunday.
I really don't quite understand how a coach of that level can go through soccer for the length of the time it takes to get to that level and not understand these calls. Have you all ever had someone similar?
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