tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83013712325718863992024-03-13T14:49:44.915-04:00Yet Another Soccer RefereeRantings and ravings of a newly minted soccer referee.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-65033124858618412572020-05-26T14:28:00.002-04:002020-05-26T14:28:56.030-04:00COVID-19And then the novel coronavirus hit and blew everything to pieces, at least reffing-wise. I want to thank the few organizations that have tried to hold some training sessions for us to keep us thinking of soccer, but I have to admit, I for one, have not really been out running much and have almost felt like stuff is not going to go back to what it was any time soon.<br />
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The other day I saw an email from one of the referee supply vendors saying that we needed to all buy an electronic whistle because you won't be able to blow a whistle with a mask on. To which I kinda say, I don't think I will be reffing if I need to have a mask on. At least not in 90 degree weather that is going to be rolling in soon. I have a hard time breathing with the mask on just walking around.<br />
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But in all seriousness, let's try to stay safe and somewhat fit if nothing else. Things are starting to ease up, and hopefully we can get out on the pitch soon. I may even start running again as the only running I have done is in Call of Duty Warzone lately.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-22518511366442739002020-01-28T23:20:00.001-05:002020-01-28T23:20:37.774-05:00Instructor CourseAgain it has been a long time since my last post. I have been quiet online but in the background dealing with a lot of issues related to recertification. In Virginia, we have a new system that replaces GameOfficials Training which is what we were using for certification and for signing up for classes.<br />
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Now we use a system called OMS and to say that the transition has been difficult is a bit of an understatement. My odyssey started back in October when I couldn't register and continued until just recently when I sent my 7th or 8th email on the subject. And I had to pay twice so the state referee association currently owes me $85. Hopefully, they can get that completed soon.<br />
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But onto what I wanted to chat about today. I am going to be taking the instructor course soon and one of the things that I need to prepare for is a class presentation where I can cover any referee related topic.<br />
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What I was initially thinking of was doing something with video clips of fouls or incidents that happen on the field and what do we think about them. Specifically, fouls and whether we think the clip merits a foul, yellow or red. I have a few clips in mind and it should lead to some discussion.<br />
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I was also thinking about possibly talking about the Spirit of the game, that in a way goes beyond the Laws of the Game. But not sure if I have 10 minutes of material for that.<br />
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If you have a good clip or two of fouls that can be red or yellow, let me know. Or if you think of anything else that might be better to discuss than that, also post it in the comments. Looking forward to hearing what you might have to say. And hopefully, I can make 2020 a bit more active than 2019 was. YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-43863445160182477982019-10-06T16:43:00.001-04:002019-10-06T16:43:43.466-04:00Has been quite a whileI did not realize I had not posted anything since February. Frankly a LOT has happened. But the main reason I did not post anything lately was something that happened in May. It was something catastrophic to my psyche but looking at it now that it is 5 months in the rear view mirror, it is something that can happen to anyone.<br />
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It was during a high school match. I thought I was having a fairly good spring high school season. It was the playoffs and it was a decent game. They went to overtime and without going into too much detail lest this somewhat anonymous mirror into the reffing world gets decrypted, I made a huge mistake when it comes to the application of the rules.<br />
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So yes, for a while, I was not taking many matches and let the shame wash over me over and over. I replayed the evening in my head thinking how I could have resolved this better. The truth is that I misread the rules of competition and where I thought I was right, I was not and was told that I was an embarrassment to the organization and felt like quitting right then and there.<br />
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But in spanish we say "La vida da revancha" which can mean that life gives you a rematch or revenge or something along those lines. A couple of weeks after this low, I was asked to do a match for this adult league where there are a lot of players that were quite good in their prime. A semi-pro league that had many good players, a lot of man management.<br />
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We arrive for the matches and the first match is the first semi-final of the league. Great game, 2-2 tie, goes to PKs. Then my match is starting and I see that they are setting up speakers and some sort of commentary booth and I later find out that the match is being streamed live on Facebook and that there are 35,000 people on the stream from all over the world. I won't go again into too much detail of who so as to leave this somewhat anonymous. They had a commentator streaming the game live and talking over the loudspeakers. There were about 200 people in the stands, something I was not expecting and then another several thousand over the internet. And I reffed what I though was one of the best matches of my life. I was everywhere along with my ARs. We worked fantastic as a team, I was able to man-manage situations where any other day, it would have gotten out of control quickly or with someone who reffed to the letter of the law and not to the spirit of the game. And when it was done, another PK shootout (one that I did not botch) and redemption.<br />
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To make matters more grandiose, it turns out that one of the players was the brother of a player who starts today for FC Barcelona in Spain. Again, won't say who because then it becomes very googleable but the brother was also a pro player back in the day. And just like that, I was back. After all the doubts, after all my beating myself up, I realized something that I learned the first time I ever did any sort of officiating.<br />
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Back before my being a referee, in 1994, I was a tennis umpire and the first time I did anything like that, I did a Davis Cup tie. The Davis Cup would send an impartial umpire that would call the match but would meet with the line judges and I remember this umpire from Cuba like it was yesterday. He said that if there is only one thing that you remember about what we spoke about that day, the first day I dipped my toe into the world of officiating at any level, was that the most important call was the next one. I have to say, that his comment helped me get through the rough time while I pondered whether to continue or not. Yes, the most important call will always be the next one.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-82533315015505154992019-02-14T14:37:00.003-05:002019-02-14T14:37:49.566-05:00Added new linkOn 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.<br />
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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.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-79848860202950312432019-02-11T13:00:00.001-05:002019-02-11T13:00:57.698-05:00Come on coachThere 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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"It is for her own protection, coach. She might get hurt."<br />
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"Exactly, that is why it should be a dropped ball."<br />
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"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."<br />
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"I am not going to attempt to try to argue with you how wrong you both are." and walks away.<br />
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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."<br />
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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.<br />
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Again the coach looks at me like "WTF?".<br />
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So without giving him too much attention, I say "Deflection off of a defender"<br />
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To which he responds "played by a defender".<br />
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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."<br />
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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?<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-87226790809217433612018-12-07T10:21:00.000-05:002018-12-07T10:21:07.671-05:00Neptune ClinicYes, this happened in August and here I am in late November writing about it but I meant to write about this a long time ago and had my ideas laid out beforehand, but apologies for not getting it out sooner.<br />
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It was interesting being part of that Academy. I enjoyed it and recommend people try to get in and get feedback. It was a brutally hot weekend so other than my first match on Saturday where I was the center, all matches had a water break which shorted play even more.<br />
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But the match I wanted to focus on was the doozy of a match that I did at 8am on Saturday. It was an over 40 match so I thought it wouldn't be that good of a match. I knew one of the teams somewhat since they play in Northern VA but I wasn't prepared for the onslaught of goals. I guess because the field was relatively small and these guys knew what they were doing, it was a great match.<br />
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The game started out tame enough but escalated quickly. We had two quick goals, one from each team and then came one of those match critical plays. Yellow crosses the ball from my right side and as it bounces at the penalty spot, an attacker and defender are jostling for when the ball comes down again. The attacker does a spin move of sorts and the defender does the "sliding pic" or "pick" play that I used to do in basketball growing up and blocks him out but the ball is not there yet and they topple over. PK for yellow and black is angry when I also card the defender.<br />
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Later in the game, yellow up 5-2 and we had a moment where had there not been a precedent set by the pros then it would have been a hard sell. Yellow keeper collects the ball on a cross from black. Black is retreating out of the box and yellow keeper distributes the ball to a yellow defender but a black attacker sticks out his foot and collects the ball, passes to a teammate who scores on an empty net. Yellow goes crazy, and all I had to say was that it was exactly what happened in the final between Real Madrid and Liverpool not 2 months ago. Everyone knew what I was talking about and accepted it. Had that not happened, it would have been a harder sell.<br />
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In the end, Black pulled out a fantastic comeback to win 6-5 after being down 5-2 with 25 minutes left to play. The feedback I got was that I needed to anticipate more the play instead of reacting and that my substitution procedure was fantastic until the last sub opportunity where we lost track of one and yellow played for a short time with 12.<br />
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The rest of the clinic was good. I would certainly do it again if they continue to have it. I also had the center for the final of the open competition, in what looked to be one of the "marquee" matchups. However, the game was over almost before it started. One team was riddled with injuries and the other team jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first 5-6 minutes and then played keepaway. It didn't help that it was so hot that we had to do 2 water breaks per half.<br />
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More to come in the next couple of days now that activity for soccer has slowed down a bit (though I have a match on Sunday, where the high is going to be 37, not looking forward to it!).YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-67875407973186612482018-11-24T13:52:00.001-05:002018-11-24T13:52:38.051-05:00Blast from the pastFirst of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I do want to apologize for being negligent on posting. There has been a lot going on and I just haven't really had the time to get everyone caught up with all the stuff going on.<br />
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I will want to touch on a couple of topics in the next couple of posts:<br />
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- Correcting fellow referees' communications (sock issue)<br />
- Comms used with assessment match (and fight)<br />
- Talked out of a red card scenario (adult match)<br />
- Comms review<br />
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All these will be in the next couple of days since the weather is terrible. Tomorrow I have my physical exam and really feel like it is not the best time (I have eaten way too much turkey in the last couple of days) and I will update if anything weird happens.<br />
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But for today, I have a bit of a blast from the past. If you look at one of the first posts in 2008, I mention my first center, which was a U9 girls match. In cleaning out some of the stuff in my study/office, I came across this:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iZVvEjdT_2c/W_mcyA5sA6I/AAAAAAAAmss/4g6n0Q1rnuIy8je_9La6i0MjKpOIDlxXQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0100.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iZVvEjdT_2c/W_mcyA5sA6I/AAAAAAAAmss/4g6n0Q1rnuIy8je_9La6i0MjKpOIDlxXQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_0100.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is from that day. I couldn't believe it when I came across it. I still remember a lot from that match. It was hot, the assistant coach of the losing team asking me why I called on of their players offside, and by now, I wonder where a lot of those girls are. Some probably ready to begin playing in college while others stopped playing long ago. What is funny is that this was my actual first center than I can recall, even before doing rec, I did a travel center (albeit a lower level one).</div>
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And to think that I haven't done one of these U9 matches in about 4 years. Ever since they added the no-heading rule and build out lines, I find them more complicated and haven't really asked to do any of them. It has been a while and now there is proof of that (10 years, darn that is a long time).</div>
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<br />YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-7660648390136617932018-10-10T15:39:00.001-04:002018-10-10T15:39:55.175-04:00How much running...Round 3The picture below is from this weekend. I worked an out of town tournament and had 5 matches on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. While I was tired, I felt pretty good after the Saturday matches.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RBBjas9sah0/W75Uy5VSyHI/AAAAAAAAmoY/Qtu8wfR6k6UnI-IUncDfGvFoANdthJ6FACLcBGAs/s1600/56056564901__CB54CD60-16FC-41FC-AA77-462E19D1CFDF.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RBBjas9sah0/W75Uy5VSyHI/AAAAAAAAmoY/Qtu8wfR6k6UnI-IUncDfGvFoANdthJ6FACLcBGAs/s320/56056564901__CB54CD60-16FC-41FC-AA77-462E19D1CFDF.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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This was about an hour before going to bed and so I ended up with about a thousand more steps than that when it was all said and done. 21.5 miles is quite a decent clip for one day. On Sunday, I did three more matches and then met up with the family and walked around the town quite a bit so I ended up with another 32k steps for Sunday. All told, 37 miles or so for the two days. By far the most I have done in a long time as I tend to not do so many matches per day.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-15731931312045552402018-09-27T10:10:00.001-04:002018-09-27T10:10:30.576-04:00Mike NewmanEveryone, sorry for not writing much lately, a lot has been going on outside of soccer that required my full time attention and as such I have been reffing a little less and additionally been less inspired to write about what I have to deal with.<div>
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But two days ago, I received the news that a pillar of the referee community had passed away, and it shook me to the core. I am referring to Mike Newman. If you worked the FPYC Father's Day tournament (a rec tournament that was always a lot of fun) or State Cup, you were bound to come across Mike. He was always around. He checked in on his referees and his emails were slightly sarcastic and always made me laugh.</div>
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I was supposed to work this last Father's Day tournament but a couple of days before my wife suffered an accident where she broke a finger on her toe and would need help getting around that weekend and I had to cancel. I knew it would be the last time I could work together and now I regret even more not having been able to help him that one last time.</div>
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He moved out to Vegas shortly thereafter and passed away on Tuesday. My fondest memory of him was during a U12 President's Cup match some many years ago. My daughter and I were supposed to work it with another referee and instead Mike shows up. This was probably in 2014-2015 and we do the match, he was a hoot with the parents as AR2 and after the match we come to the conclusion that the goals were actually the wrong size. They were smaller than the regular U12 small sided goals were supposed to be. I cannot remember exactly what quip he said, but it was spot on and funny.</div>
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Along with Harvey Finberg, whom also helped me be the referee I am today and who, like Mike, is now hopefully reffing soccer greats from yesteryear, it is hard to not feel a sense of loss. Mike, may you rest in peace.</div>
YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-43407409875579180952018-07-09T10:42:00.001-04:002018-07-09T10:42:44.055-04:00SmilingThere has been a lot of soccer going on due to the World Cup. And it has been fun for the most part. The one thing that I don't care for too much is the VAR. While I agree that it adds fairness to the game, it is also ripe for misapplication. For instance, the Spain-Russia match had an instance towards the end of the match where one of the Russian players was grabbing the Spaniard while there was a cross heading into the box. They decided not to review when to me it looked like a clear PK.<br />
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Evidently, there is a system of criteria that we are not fully aware of. I suspect that the VAR is being used if no one saw the incident. But if the booth believes that the center, ARs or the 4th got a good look and communicated about it and still decided to not call, then they won't push for a review. At least that it what it looks like. Still not sure I like it.<br />
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As for the only real thing that I can say is new in the soccer world at the World Cup that is something I would like to call out is all the smiling that the center referees are showing. They make a call, and for the most part, they smile. It either conveys one of two things, I saw what you did there and let's be smart about it because I am on to you or to say that they have no idea what you are saying. Either way, it looks good. The optics of it from far away convey knowledge and is probably something I will add to my repertoire.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-62146609665715119702018-06-20T09:55:00.000-04:002018-06-20T09:55:39.672-04:00Reffing adults while tiredSo you may have seen that there is a World Cup soccer thing going in Russia. I plan to do some commentary on that. Especially something like the Poland-Senegal goal that was unfortunate and the Colombia red card in the 3rd minute of play.<br />
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But today I want to talk about reffing when mentally tired. I don't seem to have much luck or I basically commit self inflicted wounds when reffing while mentally tired. For some reason, when I am tired like I was last week (the cause was that I had to go get someone at the airport at 2am and then work a regular day and then ref a 9pm match that night), I don't deal with situations well. I see myself as have a short temper and what is worse, I noticed I was falling into this pit, sending the game into the crapper and there was little I seemed I could do to get out.<br />
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There was no reset button and the teams tried to work with me, one team realizing before the other that I was in a foul mood and they didn't talk back too much. The other one, perhaps to no fault of their own, seemed to be more than willing to take my foul mood which I couldn't seem to get a handle of and tried to see how much fouler they could make it.<br />
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It boiled over, I issued a red card for foul language and I wish I would have had some techniques to be able to deal with my terrible mood. I did not do the game any favors and felt like I blew it. I wonder what you all have in your referee bag of tricks for when you aren't 100% on your game.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-27437702993624548452018-05-31T13:48:00.002-04:002018-05-31T13:48:22.361-04:00Injury and other musingsHad a good scare trying to do a fitness test for the PRO matches. I was doing the men's AR test and things were going splendidly. I had the CODA test (change of direction) and that one was fine. Then came the 6 sprints. 30 meters in 4.7 seconds. Ran the first 5 just fine. All around 4.3 or 4.4 seconds. Last one, the moment I push off of my left leg to start, I feel the back of my thigh go jelly.<br />
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I finish the sprint in 4.67 seconds apparently and then I had to talk to the trainer. He said that I probably tweaked my one of the three muscles in the back that we commonly call the hamstring and to keep things warm for my run as it probably would be ok if I let my adrenaline do the running.<br />
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That test, on a good day is grueling. Each lap is 75 meters of almost sprint speeds followed by 25 meters of walking, in 4 sections. Men's FIFA AR dictates that you need to run that in 15 seconds for the 75 and 20 seconds for the 25 meters.<br />
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I managed to run three laps before my body said that it was silly to continue trying. I had to return games I had for the next day and for high school. I thought my season would be over as hamstring injuries are all about rest and elevation etc. Not really anything you can do to speed things up.<br />
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Anyway, fast forward a week and I am getting antsy, as well as feeling fine. I did a bit of jogging and things felt just fine. I even ordered some compression sleeves for the thighs but alas the post office has found a way to lose the package, so no idea where they are at the moment.<br />
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Still, I take a low level game for my standards to see if I can actually run. It is for a tournament over the Memorial Day holiday. The match is a stand alone U14 girls final. Just as I arrive at the field (grass fields only at that location), the heavens open up and down comes a lot of rain. The tournament organizer suggests that all the matches slated to start at that time to talk to the coaches to see what they want to do (wait and play or declare themselves co-champs and go home).<br />
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My two teams are from about 100 miles away and 250 miles away, so the coaches decide to call it a tie and get on the road early. Great in the sense that I am going to get paid for essentially negotiating a truce but still no idea if I can really run for any significant amount of time.<br />
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So Tuesday rolls around and I was originally scheduled for a boys regional semifinal in high school without really knowing if I could run for 80+ minutes. One goal and 4.77 miles later, I answered the question, the leg is fine. Since, I have done one other high school match and the leg felt ok as well.<br />
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On the other match, it was just recently and it was a regional semi-final, so the losing school would be done for the year. I am AR1. Game is a high friction, high intensity match with one team pushing hard for the opening goal and the other team playing some counter mixed in with a lot of fouling.<br />
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Start of the second half and the home team scores and is dominating. Many yellows are pulled for the visitors and they cannot really break through the defense. In one of the rare mistakes, the home team loses the ball in transition and the visiting midfielder loops a long pass to two streaking attackers. One attacker going down the middle of the field is onside while the other off close to my touchline as he was slow getting back.<br />
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The looping pass kind of gets held up a bit thanks to the wind and the rain. If there had not been any elements to contend with, the ball would have gone to the central attacker who was onside, but since it did get held up, it floats more towards the offside attacker. Sure enough, the attacker runs onto the ball, makes an absolutely fantastic volley that lofts over the keeper and into the net. Enormous celebrations ensue until they see my flag up. It sucked having to call such a nice goal back.<br />
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What was worse was that there were perhaps five minutes left on the clock when that happened and so they realized that their chance of tying had pretty much slipped away. The level of hate directed at my call, at me and to referees in general was next level. To the point where we had to essentially get out of the stadium quickly because it seemed like there was a bit of mob mentality brewing.<br />
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Next time, the place to set up is not near the exit. It is let everyone else leave and then go to your car in a group. But, again, at least the leg was fine. So at least I have that going for me.<br />
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<br />YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-66707800663691292752018-05-18T11:36:00.001-04:002018-05-18T11:36:30.184-04:00My next dilemmaHaving discussed yesterday my thoughts on handling and offside, let's keep the comments coming because until I get a definite answer (and who knows, the next time I work with someone that is a 4 or during another assessment match, I will make sure to ask).<br />
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My other uneasiness on law interpretation is the on the concept of playing on and waiting for the advantage to materialize. A couple of years ago, in a competitive U15 or U16 match, I had a situation where one team is attacking and towards the top of the penalty area, a foul occurs but I play on (some of the details are gone so I am making it generic).<br />
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Anyway, defender commits a foul that I play on because the ball goes to another attacker who takes one touch and her second touch is somewhat bad and the defender clears it out. Time elapsed was probably about one second to less than two. I blow to come back to the foul and the coach gives me a hard time because they got the advantage, it was taken with the first touch and the second was beyond being "called back".<br />
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Same thing in my assessment match that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and that I promised I would elaborate on one particular issue the next day (and then didn't because life happens).<br />
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That scenario is similar. The team that was down towards the end of the first half when a through ball is played to an attacker. The defender, seeing that it is a great opportunity for the other team, tries to grab the shirt of the attacker but he breaks free and is streaking down the side, angling towards the middle of the field. I yell play on loudly. After about 3-4 touches and about 3-4 seconds have elapsed, he makes a bad touch and that same defender that tried to grab him clears the ball upfield and the attacker takes a dive. Eventually, the ball goes out and I card the defender for attempting to break up a promising attack. The fouled team could not comprehend how I could play on, give a card and not go back to the foul. I tried to explain that in my opinion, the attacker had indeed taken advantage of the play on, and that by the time he made a bad touch, there was no "advantage didn't materialize" to go back to.<br />
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Side note on that: the team was almost all comprised of people from Jordan and they kept saying that in Jordan, you go back to that. So perhaps in other countries our colleagues hold advantages longer?<br />
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Anyway, that is the scenario. What is the point of no return on an advantage? One touch, 2-3 seconds, the attacker getting out of the jam? And of course, it goes without saying that skill level comes into play as well. But what constitutes the end of the "advantage"? Let me know in the comments below or mull it over as an icebreaker when you don't know what to talk about during a break with your next crew.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-52812279108897922662018-05-17T19:41:00.002-04:002018-05-17T19:41:23.430-04:00Rethinking a previous postIt is more than a hypothetical. It has happened to me, once as a center referee back in 2017 in a Adult Open match (there is a post here somewhere about it) and now a couple of weeks ago in a youth DA match. It is the dilemma of whether handling by a defender can reset offside and allow that initially offside player to legally play the ball.<br />
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If you recall in the adult match, it was a play that was debatable (at least from what I recall all this time later) whether it was intentional or not as it was withing what I call the deflection range. Close enough where one might argue that it was a deflection. However, I remember that I felt that the defender was making himself bigger and took the risk. That ball, after the handling offense, went to a player in an offside position, my AR raises his flag and the player slots it in the back of the net.<br />
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We talked it over and decided to go with the handling offense. At that time, I considered it not intentionally played by the defender but making himself bigger. Now that I think about it more, that is terrible reasoning but it is what I decided at the moment.<br />
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This one happened in a DA match, U18 girls. The match was already 3-0 in favor of the team that had the chance to score. They are attacking in a 2 on 2 situation. Both defenders are in line and the attacker off the ball is in an offside position. The girl with the ball slots it between the two defenders and the defender closest to the pass tries to somewhat cover her chest but the ball travels about 10 yards. With her arms outstretched, it hits her arm and goes to the attacker who scores.<br />
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At halftime, the lead AR said that he thought the ball was intentionally played and the center said, but it hit her arm and so if the attacker was in the offside position, he would have called the handling. And we got into the discussion again of whether offside can be reset with a handling call.<br />
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The center argued that any other foul, like a tackle, would be called and not offset the offside. To which I countered that essentially, all other fouls are against an opposing player, not the ball or the game itself. At that time, I still had the thought that handling does reset offside, as it is intentionally played by the defender, played on as advantage and therefore no offside.<br />
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Anyway, we managed to confuse ourselves, we agreed with each other's points of view and then we finished out the match to an 11-0 drubbing.<br />
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So a couple of days later, I am an AR for an assessment match and the assessor said that he thought that you had to call the handling but that he would look into it. But he never followed up and so here I am, possibly still thinking that handling can reset the offside or even worse, I am right, and there are many others that are wrong, so perhaps I have to spread the word like the gospel among my brethren.<br />
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Before I go and make "Handling before Offside" T-shirts, let me know what you think in the comments. Do you believe offside is reset if the defense commits a handling foul before the ball gets to the offside positioned attacker? Do you have a position paper or some other documentation that hints to the answer? If either of the above questions pique your curiosity, please let me know. After all, we want to make sure that this darn blog climbs out of the doldrums of soccer referee blogging leaderboard.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-25957541963343828032018-05-11T11:00:00.002-04:002018-05-11T11:00:14.255-04:00Top 20 HonorWell it looks like we did it, after almost 10 years of being certified and blogging about the troubles and the benefits of being a referee, we have been recognized as the one of the top 20 blogs for soccer referees.<br />
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Here are the details in the link:<br />
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<u style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.8px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://blog.feedspot.com/soccer_referee_blogs/&source=gmail&ust=1526134711266000&usg=AFQjCNGQAvxCDW03wTiO80GoSMdphlt0vA" href="https://blog.feedspot.com/soccer_referee_blogs/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://blog.feedspot.com/socc<wbr></wbr>er_referee_blogs/</a></u><br />
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But basically, we are 15th (out if 16 mind you) in terms of popular soccer referee blogs. Frankly, I am amazed that we are in it at all but hey, I am not going to complain.<br />
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I have added the Top 20 Badge on the side of the blog and if nothing else, take a look at some of the other fine blogs for referees there are out there. There were only a couple I knew about and most of them were new to me, so they may be to you as well. Enjoy.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-4989951719039225502018-05-03T11:20:00.000-04:002018-05-03T11:20:23.008-04:00Only with CommsHad an interesting match last week. It was a regular, run of the mill girls varsity high school match. Home team is up 2-1 and about 4 minutes left. Corner for the visiting team who is pushing up hard to tie the match. I am AR2 and the corner is happening in front of me while I stand as the trail AR.<br />
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The corner is taken and it hits off the near post and back to the girl who took the corner. She crosses it again and the ball is pinballing in the box. What is interesting is that my mouth started yelling into the comms "double touch" to the center referee, but I know my brain didn't consciously think it, so it was almost an involuntary uttering.<br />
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After the match, the center said that he wasn't even thinking double touch and thank goodness for the comms. It is not something you see every day and it was funny to hear the kids ask us about the call after the game. Coaches and players alike thought we were calling offside and were yelling that you can't be offside on a corner (which they are correct, but we weren't calling that).<br />
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In the end, this teaches us two things, even as trail AR when everyone is the other half, you can still pay attention and contribute and comms really did help with a match critical call because if I had seen it without comms, it would have been very tough to convey that to the center referee in a timely manner.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-13407649377354703932018-04-19T10:13:00.002-04:002018-04-19T10:13:34.124-04:00Maintenance assessment match As you may know, here in Virginia, if you are a State referee grade 6, you need to get 2 assessments a year (July 1 to June 30) in order to maintain your grade. You also have to do the training and pass a physical fitness test (which consists of 10 laps around the track in 20 segments of sprinting and walking).<br />
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One of your assessed matches can be on a U17 or above and the other has to be an Adult match. The youth match was done early and I was getting worried that the adult league that currently is the only one in the area that is tough enough to be considered valid for assessments was not publishing matches.<br />
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So it was surprising to me when I get an email from the assignor that I had 2 games on Sunday. One was an AR and the next was my center. The teams were well known to me and we were all set. I email the person in charge of assessments and within a day, I have my assessor and we are ready to go. One of my ARs was also going to use my center match as her upgrade AR match. So great, more bang for the buck.<br />
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Fast forward to Sunday. Dreary, dark, dank and depressing. Around 4pm, we get an email from the league that the 9pm matches are cancelled. Does not affect me at all, but the impending torrential rain we are supposed to get gives me concern that perhaps no one is going to show up for the 7pm assessment match.<br />
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As we arrive to the field around 4:15, the center for the first match mentions that he is a 7 as well and was wondering if it wouldn't be too late for him to also get assessed as an AR in my assessment match. We call the person in charge of the assessments and he blesses the additional assessment. So at that point, the 7pm match, right around the time a crazy amount of rain is scheduled to come down, is now a match where all 3 officials are going to be assessed for maintenance or upgrade purposes.<br />
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There was a delay in getting the field ready and about 10 minutes before kick off, we get an email that the 7pm match is cancelled due to weather. What a dilemma because we all need the match. So I call the assessor to see if by any chance, they are close by and can make our 5pm match, our assessment match. He says yes, the coordinator says yes and we kick off 5:30 with me in the center and both ARs being assessed. Thank goodness we were not able to get the field ready and that the players were ok with starting a little later.<br />
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It turned out to be a good match, even though it was rather lopsided at the end. My ARs were spot on with their calls, I had a great play on that resulted in a yellow and a very easy second yellow in the second half that made the match level difficult.<br />
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I will expand on the "play on yellow" in the next post as this one is rather long as well as some other stuff that is blog related as I have run out of time for today. More to come tomorrow. Thanks for reading and commenting everyone.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-22287752994710258402018-03-22T16:47:00.001-04:002018-03-22T16:47:17.965-04:00What I learned just recentlyThis is a bit of a tongue in cheek post. But it harps back to the misconceptions that people have. These last couple of weeks I have been doing a bunch of tournaments. A lot of games for sure (in cold and ugly weather as well). But taking it all in stride. I don't think that I have ever had such a busy end of February and start of March. In it, there were 2 things of the many that seemed to stick.<br />
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The first one was that a pass that does not go forward means that the receiving end of the pass cannot be offside. So in essence if player A and B are on the same team and A is in front of B, with B controlling the ball and A is in an offside position, if the pass from B to A does not go "forward" then A is not offside even if he comes from an offside position.<br />
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So I got that in a high level U17 match. Player passes the ball in what some of us call negative (that is the ball is played sideways, but slightly backward, almost like a lateral in the NFL. Player A comes from a clear offside position and collects the ball. My AR raises his flag and I blow my whistle. The team that was called for the offside insists that since the pass did not go forward but rather slightly backward, that is it not offside. Sorry I said, I would check it later but as far as I knew at the moment, it is offside.<br />
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Perhaps I am wrong and the ball indeed has to go forward but I find that hard on the AR since many times, they don't see exactly how the ball gets to the attacker in an offside position, they just see that they were in an offside position, a pass was made and the offside player is the first to make contact with the pass. So I will have to look it up, but I think I am right on that one.<br />
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The second was also related to offside but pertained to a deflection by the offense. This one happened to me as an AR in a high school match. The defense had the ball and was going to clear it. I am AR on that side and as the defense clears the ball, an attacker steps in front of the clearance. The ball deflects off of the attacker to another attacker who was making his way back and was in an offside position. He makes contact with the ball and turns to the goal for a one-on-one. I raise my flag and the coach on my side goes ballistic.<br />
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"He is on because it was a deflection."<br />
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I explained that the defense gets to use that argument (deflection vs intentionally played) but the offense does not get that same treatment (or should it?). It was evident that the player that was hit by the ball was not intentionally trying to play it to the attacker, it just happened. But the attacker, at the time his teammate was hit with the ball, was in an offside position. Therefore, my understanding, is that he is offside. Again, if I am wrong, I want to hear about it in the comments.<br />
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Finally, a really funny one. Team Red is down 2-1 and attacking. Coach of the losing team is on my side, I am AR1. They are attacking towards me and the attacker gets by a clumsy challenge by the white defender. In the process of defending, the white player loses his shinguard. He gets up and steals the ball from the attacker (while his shinguard is on the ground).<br />
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Coach immediately loses it and states that a defender cannot play the ball because he lost his shinguard. That he is not allowed to touch the ball at all and that it should be a free kick for red. I told him that there was no such rule but he kept going on and on about him not being allowed to play the ball until the shinguard was back in its place. I would agree that if the play had stopped because the ball went out of bounds, I would probably hold up the restart if I saw the white defender with the shinguard in his hands, but during the run of play, play on.<br />
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All I am going to say is that you learn something new every day. Or at least, you are challenged to the point where you have to think about it. Let me know what you think with you comments and hopefully we start getting some warmer weather. YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-71007774997224105152018-02-21T13:43:00.002-05:002018-02-21T13:43:45.472-05:00High school vs USSF vs CollegeFor those that don't do comments too much, here is the link to the current differences between the three sets of rules. I have not looked over all of the differences so I won't comment but I did want to thank the 2-3 of you that read my post and sent me an email almost immediately. I did not think I had that level of a following!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">https://www.nfhs.org/media/1018270/2017_soccer_guide_-interscholastic_revised.pdf</span><br />
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Another interesting thing from this weekend was the snow we had on Saturday evening. I had 3 matches and at the start of my center which was kicking off around 2, it was coming down nicely on the turf field. By the end of that match, the field was more white than green and it was coming down hard. To the point that I had to shield my eyes when running down the pitch.<br />
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When we were about 10 minutes from kick off for the 4pm match, it looked like there was a good couple of inches of snow and the lines were gone. No 18, no touch lines. We had to put down cones and discs to see where the midfield was and where the top of the box was for each side. I went to talk to the tournament director and said that the fields were unplayable. To which I was told that it was not my call. And yes, to a point, it is not, until it is, you see. Unfortunately the center for that match was more accommodating than I would have been and played the match in full.<br />
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The field right next to ours ended their match at halftime of the 4pm kick off. And the field behind us actually played their 6pm match as well (while the other 2 fields's matches were cancelled). Go figure.<br />
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Still, not your everyday field conditions. Players were going in hard as it was a showcase tournament but they really couldn't showcase much. I had to send off one player in my match who slid so hard that had he made contact with the person with the ball in earnest, he would have broken a foot or leg (and the perp was already on a yellow).<br />
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After the match he came to me and insisted that he got all ball. I didn't agree completely. He did get ball, but got leg in there as well and I did mention that I always want them to control the body and that he played in a manner that could have caused injury given the conditions. But the truth of the matter was that regardless, the game should not have been played, because it was on a field that was already somewhat dangerous, or was getting there quickly. And yes, I could have stopped play at any moment when I felt it was unsafe. It didn't really feel like that until we were ready to kick off the next match when I came to the conclusion that it was ok to finish the match but the field was not ok to start a whole new match. No one got hurt but I did call the assignor and said that in my book the 4pm games were being held on a field that was not playable. He suggested that we talk to the coaches and see if they were ok (and unfortunately, they were).YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-71095878450930635982018-02-13T11:35:00.000-05:002018-02-13T11:35:50.969-05:00Back in schoolConditions on the ground dictated that I could and should return to school to do High School games. This season, I return to the fray. I have taken my test, watched the rules clinic online and attended the on-site meeting that they had for high school referees. I haven't found a good (and updated) list of differences between the rules in USSF soccer, and that of NFHS rules.<br />
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The ones that I know of off the top of my head are the throw in, where USSF is a redo should the ball not actually go in play (high school you gave up your chance), the yellow card requirement of coming off in high school and the injury to the keeper where a trainer needs to come out.<br />
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There are other differences, like OT PKs but that is more of a procedural thing. If any of you have a good updated list with all the differences, it would be great for someone like me that has exclusively been doing USSF based rules for the last 3-4 years. Thanks in advance if you do find a list out there and I will update this post should a good one be found.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-82221846768513140782018-02-11T12:50:00.001-05:002018-02-11T12:50:26.384-05:00Match that changed everything part 2I will have to speak in code a bit so as not to offend certain parties, but we had a meeting regarding the issue of the match. And I also talked quite a bit with my daughter about her desire to stay out of the refereeing world.<br />
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First, there was a meeting about the match in question. I was asked to provide more detail and to explain my perceptions of what was going on, what I heard and what I didn't hear. Not something that I get to do every day. In the end, the panel is going to decide within a couple of week whether the was enough for referee abuse. If I hear anything regarding that, I will update you.<br />
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With regards to my daughter, I dug a little deeper. Because I have mentioned this many times, I enjoy more than almost anything else in my refereeing world the ability to spend time with my kids doing something I love. My daughter was more of a referee-for-money type of person and so she said that while she was genuinely scared at the time of the incident, she also had decided before then to not recertify for 2018. So it was not the match that caused her to end her career altogether but rather a factor in the decision to do something else other than ref during tournament season.<br />
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So in the end, there was one. I have a 6 year old that says she wants to referee but that is 6 years in the future, so not sure that will stay like that. But I will say that I am happy that we were able to get to the bottom of what happened, and that there was a meeting to decide whether referee abuse happened.<br />
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And then next 4-5 weeks are going to be absolutely crazy. I have tournaments starting next week all the way through the end of March. I guess it will be good money, but I am sure going to be tired as well. Hopefully I will have some time to let you in on what happens if something merits it.<br />
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Finally, I am about to purchase a comm system. Full details when I get it and when I try it out. Gotta have that tax deduction!YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-51544707340130423352017-12-08T09:46:00.001-05:002017-12-08T09:46:09.159-05:00The match that changed everythingAs you know, I have said many times that I love doing matches with my daughter (and when my son was doing matches, with him as well). I thought it was a great bonding experience, we had fun and gave us something to do, together, that was akin to what some other people say they feel when they volunteer or do good, etc.<br />
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So to have a match that in my eyes ended my daughter's career or desire to referee is something I don't look fondly too. I have always tried to shield her since she wasn't as committed as my son was when he was doing it. And I am not sure if she is using the excuse to say that the match in question caused her to not want to ref anymore rather than just say that she lost the desire a while back. That is something that I am not sure she would admit to.<br />
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Anyway, the match in question, and I have to be careful of how I word it because I don't want it to be easily identifiable for the center in question since there is a lot of fallout from this match apparently.<br />
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We were not at home, but rather at a tournament elsewhere, where we were put up in a hotel, so we had a bunch of matches on Saturday and the last one was where both my daughter and I were together as ARs for a center that we both knew up in Northern VA.<br />
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Anyway, it was a bad situation, we had an issue before kick off that set the tone for a really rough match and at the end the center had to abandon the game due to threats from the sideline. My daughter says that this match, the fact that she felt we had to run for our lives (and we didn't, but it sorta felt that way at the moment) and the complete disaster that it was has given her pause and wants to not recertify.<br />
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I hold that center substantially responsible for the fact that my daughter does not want to ref anymore. She did work the Sunday matches with me and I thought she had a good time, but it seems that it wasn't enough to sway her back to reffing. I suspect she didn't really want to ref anymore and found this match as a gift as the excuse to say she didn't but the truth is that this center that I held in such high regard made a series of mistakes and let's just say, I would have handled things differently.<br />
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On the bright side, I have a lot more equipment and gear to work with now. And thankfully I had not bought my daughter the new ref shirts since we can use them until the end of 2018.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-50410082315039278572017-12-06T16:22:00.001-05:002017-12-06T16:22:15.180-05:00HiatusBoy did I take a hiatus these past 3 months. I always had it in my head that I have to post about this or that and sure enough, life would get in the way (or more games) and as they say, the rest is history. So I apologize for not getting into some of the things I wanted to talk about. At this point, the commentary about being a site coordinator is a mere figment of my memory. I do recall there being an issue with a coach who had been ejected and me having to play interference between the ejected coach and the crew that ejected him. It was nothing too terrible, but it did escalate a bit because they had to call me out to the field and make sure that the crew was able to walk off the field without the coach coming to talk to them since there was nothing that could be said at the moment.<br />
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I also will touch on a game I did in Richmond that at the moment I thought would strengthen my daughter's resolve to be a great referee but it did just the opposite. This will be in my next post because I am still quite saddened by it, by the fact that my daughter will not recertify for next year and I hold someone I looked up to fully responsible for botching a match so badly that it lead my daughter to decide that she has had enough. So that will be next time (who knows, my next post could be in 2019 and I won't even remember that I wanted to talk about it).<br />
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But I will share something interesting that I calculated today. As I mentioned, I keep a spreadsheet of all my matches. And to this day, I have calculated that I have worked a total of 914 matches since I started in August of 2008. That is a lot of matches. It comes out to 109 matches a year. It is scary to think that I have worked that many matches since starting.<br />
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Anyway, I will try to catch up on the following topics in the next couple of weeks:<br />
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- World Cup<br />
- The match that led to my daughter's retirement<br />
- My latest recent class<br />
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Hope everyone has a great holiday season if I don't get to posting before 2018 starts!YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-33222563102969581852017-09-14T17:23:00.001-04:002017-09-14T17:23:47.605-04:00New StuffSo I promised the follow up story on what my daughter did during the tournament weekend and I also have to discuss how the following weekend, I ended up being a Site Coordinator for a tournament instead of reffing games. Quite a different point of view for sure.<br />
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Anyway, first things first. The following day, during my center (I had 2 ARs and one Center), we were doing a U13 match between two teams that were clearly disliking each other. They both were from the same club and it turned out that one was an academy team while the other was not. It even started out during the coin flip when the other AR asked the girls if they knew each other and one of the girls replied, "We're XYZ academy trained and they are not."<br />
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There was a difference in style for sure but the game was 0-0 through most of the first half. Towards the end of the first half, the academy team gets a free kick close to the 18 and the resulting free kick goes in for a goal. But it was a close match for sure, with a slight edge to the academy team.<br />
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For the second half, the game continues and towards the end of the game while still 1-0, there is a play where the non-academy team is shielding the ball and there is a little shove from the defender. I am in decent position as it is in my quadrant but I also look over to AR1 since he is also somewhat close and he gives me no indication that there is anything more than trifling. About 5 seconds later, everyone starts yelling "Look at your AR". I look over and my daughter has her flag up.<br />
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Ok, I am thinking I missed an offside call. So I stop play and run over to her. She let's me know that she was calling the push in the back. And I look at her in disbelief. She was confident and I really didn't want to hurt her assertiveness so I call the foul.<br />
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The coach from the academy team says "You are going to have to explain that one to me after the game." And I thought, he is kind of right. I was about 10 yards from the play and didn't think much of it. My AR that was 20 yards away didn't do anything to indicate he thought it was a foul. But yet, my daughter from 55-60 yards away thought to raise her flag (for what I can say is probably the first time ever she decides to call a foul).<br />
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And I looked at the situation as well. To me it was low risk. The foul was a good 30 yards away from goal, no chance they can score from there directly, right? So I called it, heard the complaints from the coach and wouldn't you know it, the resulting free kick seemed to weave in between the heads and bodies of at least 6 people before kissing the far post and going in. I couldn't believe it.<br />
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Now I had a game that had to have a winner, tied 1-1 and with a goal that probably shouldn't have been called because I basically took a calculated risk that the free kick was not going to go in and it sure did.<br />
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In the end, the academy team won it in PKs and it was a great teaching moment for my daughter. I told her that we didn't communicate properly on that play. I should have looked over at her as well and she would have given me a nod or something not as obvious as a flag to indicate she wanted a foul. But truth be told, I should have said that she was there to assist and not insist. But again, I do want her feeling comfortable calling fouls, so I cannot really say that the first time she brings up her flag. It was just a bet that I took and lost. A learning and teaching moment for all involved.<br />
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I will comment on the Site Coordinator aspect of soccer in my next post. I am out of juice for today.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301371232571886399.post-45999013633288631762017-08-29T17:48:00.001-04:002017-08-29T17:48:14.582-04:00Getting all teary eyedThere comes a moment in time when, as a parent, you make a realization about your kids. It hits you like a brick on the head. It comes to you and you are so proud, or so amazed or whatever realization happens, it is a rush of emotions. This weekend was like that.<br />
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As you know, my daughter has kept the reffing flame going for the next generation. This weekend, we were doing a U14 game that was high level. I am AR1 and in the center, a 6. The play was the ball was rolling towards the keeper and the defender decides to play the keeper the ball ever so faintly to "hurry up" the ball going to the keeper. If there had been a touch, it was faint. The center didn't blow his whistle, though from my angle, it sort of looked like the defender had passed it back slightly to the keeper. When he didn't call it immediately, the coach on my side started talking to his assistant and wondering if that was a passback. At that moment, my daughter's flag shoots up, gives the waggle and direction to indicate that she had seen the passback and wanted it called.<br />
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I swear that at that moment, it hit me. She was a "referee". She was interpreting the laws, she saw the play, she gave the center the time to make the call himself and then when she saw that he was not going to make it, she made it for him. At halftime, he stated that he thought there was a touch, but was not sure and was relieved to see her flag go up.<br />
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As a father, it was a proud moment for sure. For those of you that are parents, you have these moments where feelings come rushing in when you realize the milestone you have just witnessed. Here was one that I was thrilled to be a part of.<br />
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Now the following day, my daughter perhaps got a little too confident. I will tell you about that in the next post.YASR - Yet Another Soccer Refereehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01118525176477899746noreply@blogger.com0