One of the biggest sporting events is almost upon us. It is the month long celebration of the sport we love (or tolerate, at least) and I plan to miss very little of it. I apologize for doing another off-topic post but I promise to add some referee content to make it more kosher. It is just that it is one of those things that happens once in a blue moon and it is an event that the whole world hinges on every play, every goal and in the end, one of the big countries will come out the winners, but I hope against hope that someone unexpected will take the title (not your typical Brazil, Germany or Italy).
What are your expectations for this event? I know I will be looking at the refereeing teams early on to see if I can figure out who is doing a good job. 4 years ago, Horacio Elizondo of Argentina did the first and last matches of the World Cup. My guess is that we will see someone who has one of those impeccable runs just like the teams do and they will have a good final. For some reason I remember the names of two other refs of World Cup finals without having to look them up, Codesal from Mexico did the 1990 World Cup final, and Arphi Filo (sp?) did the 1986 final both featuring Argentina and Germany.
Not that I ever aspire to get to that level, but it is nice to see how the pros do it to then take those techniques and try to apply them (normally unsuccessfully) to the younger games. Let me know what you all see and hopefully we will be talking about a small country (in terms of soccer prowess) taking home the cup. I would love to the US go deep and countries like Uruguay, Paraguay, Ivory Coast or the Swiss make an impact and leave out one or more of the giants in the group phase.
Personally, I think Spain will win as they are just too good, but it is 90 minutes and you have to play great soccer in the knockout phase or you go home. Hope everyone enjoys it. I know I will.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
The Acadamy Approach
For those of you new to the world of travel soccer and reffing in general, there is one thing that seems to have caught on that I would rather not see proliferate as much as it has recently and that is the concept of acadamy travel soccer and the next level of team sponsored soccer.
Let me delve into what exactly I am talking about and then we can go into why I do not like it as much. To begin defining the concept of acadamy soccer and its effects on the reffing world, we start with the local club's requirement starting this last season that all new teams formed would have to use a coach from the only authorized provider of said coaches for the club. This basically means that if you have a group of kids that play well enough where they are a little better than their rec counterparts, they get moved up into travel soccer. The local club has roughly two teams per age group, with some age groups having three or even four teams. That is a lot of kids playing travel soccer.
We have been lucky that my son's team was established before the establishment of "acadamy coaches only" policy so we have a grandfather policy that allows us to remain independant for now. But any other team formed after their age group or any one formed from now on are required to use these coaches (who are for the most part, very knowledgeable and have a keen interest in making sure the kids get better). This rant is not against any one coach or acadamy program because it is the concept and what it breeds that is the problem here, not the coaches themselves.
So what does this have to do with reffing you ask? Well, case in point was this past weekend. I was the center ref on a match between a U13 girls team from the local club and one from somewhere else in the area that was a critical match. It was important to the local club to come out a winner, because they are an acadamy team and have been for quite some time. Truth be told, for U13 girls, they play well, but evidently this season, the results have not gone their way. I looked at their standings after doing my Saturday and Sunday matches (I centered them on Saturday and on Sunday I did an AR) and the truth was in the pudding. Before the weekend they had played 4 matches and had drawn 4 matches, 0-0 and three 1-1 results. Since they are an acadamy team, they are expected to be atop of their division. It was suggested and hinted to me that this team deserved some results to come their way. It was not a clear cut request to assist the team with my calls, it was more of a shadow of a doubt that it would be something helpful.
It certainly did not work out for them because they were playing the top team in the division and were soundly beat out by them 4-0 (hey, at least they did not tie). I am at odds as to whether I should report this as I am not sure it was all that clear if it was a passing comment stating they would love a win or if it was more of a comment that required action on my behalf. Obviously there was no helping the girls even if I wanted to because I could not erase 4 goals with creative reffing. One or two goals perhaps, just ask the Spanish and Italian teams in the 2002 World Cup against South Korea. That was creative reffing and evidence of an agenda to aid the local country into a part of the World Cup that they had no business being in, but 4 goals is too much.
Anyway, this all boils down to the fact that Acadamy soccer is focused on results, much more so than development of the players. At the U10-U14 level, I think that while there should be some consisntancy on having your starters play the same position, every once in a while, shake things up because it is still developmental and it helps the kids adapt to a different scenario. Also, focus on making them better players, not on the results of the match at hand. Everything I have seen about Acadamy soccer is all about the result, and it makes sense if the parents are shelling out a ton of money to pay these coaches but the kids do not deserve it to be this way. Not sure if there is a solution or if it makes sense to restructure the leagues to refocus somehow on other things than just the result of the match.
So to wrap it up, it sucks because all of this in the background leads to having one of the parents and the acadamy coach (who I do not care for too much) to come and hint/suggest/attempt to influence/etc. my decisions on the field because of their needs for results. Sorry, guys, but I don't dance like that.
Let me delve into what exactly I am talking about and then we can go into why I do not like it as much. To begin defining the concept of acadamy soccer and its effects on the reffing world, we start with the local club's requirement starting this last season that all new teams formed would have to use a coach from the only authorized provider of said coaches for the club. This basically means that if you have a group of kids that play well enough where they are a little better than their rec counterparts, they get moved up into travel soccer. The local club has roughly two teams per age group, with some age groups having three or even four teams. That is a lot of kids playing travel soccer.
We have been lucky that my son's team was established before the establishment of "acadamy coaches only" policy so we have a grandfather policy that allows us to remain independant for now. But any other team formed after their age group or any one formed from now on are required to use these coaches (who are for the most part, very knowledgeable and have a keen interest in making sure the kids get better). This rant is not against any one coach or acadamy program because it is the concept and what it breeds that is the problem here, not the coaches themselves.
So what does this have to do with reffing you ask? Well, case in point was this past weekend. I was the center ref on a match between a U13 girls team from the local club and one from somewhere else in the area that was a critical match. It was important to the local club to come out a winner, because they are an acadamy team and have been for quite some time. Truth be told, for U13 girls, they play well, but evidently this season, the results have not gone their way. I looked at their standings after doing my Saturday and Sunday matches (I centered them on Saturday and on Sunday I did an AR) and the truth was in the pudding. Before the weekend they had played 4 matches and had drawn 4 matches, 0-0 and three 1-1 results. Since they are an acadamy team, they are expected to be atop of their division. It was suggested and hinted to me that this team deserved some results to come their way. It was not a clear cut request to assist the team with my calls, it was more of a shadow of a doubt that it would be something helpful.
It certainly did not work out for them because they were playing the top team in the division and were soundly beat out by them 4-0 (hey, at least they did not tie). I am at odds as to whether I should report this as I am not sure it was all that clear if it was a passing comment stating they would love a win or if it was more of a comment that required action on my behalf. Obviously there was no helping the girls even if I wanted to because I could not erase 4 goals with creative reffing. One or two goals perhaps, just ask the Spanish and Italian teams in the 2002 World Cup against South Korea. That was creative reffing and evidence of an agenda to aid the local country into a part of the World Cup that they had no business being in, but 4 goals is too much.
Anyway, this all boils down to the fact that Acadamy soccer is focused on results, much more so than development of the players. At the U10-U14 level, I think that while there should be some consisntancy on having your starters play the same position, every once in a while, shake things up because it is still developmental and it helps the kids adapt to a different scenario. Also, focus on making them better players, not on the results of the match at hand. Everything I have seen about Acadamy soccer is all about the result, and it makes sense if the parents are shelling out a ton of money to pay these coaches but the kids do not deserve it to be this way. Not sure if there is a solution or if it makes sense to restructure the leagues to refocus somehow on other things than just the result of the match.
So to wrap it up, it sucks because all of this in the background leads to having one of the parents and the acadamy coach (who I do not care for too much) to come and hint/suggest/attempt to influence/etc. my decisions on the field because of their needs for results. Sorry, guys, but I don't dance like that.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
High School experience
I was so worked up about doing a dual. I was jittery, nervous, and did not know how to react. But it is done with and in the end, there is nothing that terrible about it. It really boils down to this, you call your quadrant and the other one calls his/her quadrant. Stay within the offside lines of the team, act more like an AR than a center and basically stuff in the middle of the field either does not get called or gets called twice.
But here are the specifics. I arrived at 5:25 for a 6pm JV kickoff. I got to the field and it was everything that the guy at refblog.com always harps about. Hard barely grassy field, long and narrow, like football fields are. The other ref had emailed me earlier stating that he had a 4pm match somewhere else and was not going to show up until right at kickoff. I did not know the JV procedure, but I did collect the rosters from each team and then checked the girls in.
I started the game and about 4-5 minutes into the match, I see the other guy on the field. I yell to the ladies that there were now two whistles on the field and to play on. I had started my watch, but since there was a high school scoreboard, I let it guide me only to find out that at 2 minutes remaining, they did not count it down anymore because it is the ref's determination of when it ends, so in the first half, they probably played another minute or two because I did not know if it would end by itself when the 2 minutes were up or if I had to end it. When we got to at least 3 minutes after, I blew the whistle for the first half to end.
I got to meet the other ref, we chatted and I admitted that I had not done any matches before under this regime but he said that it just takes a little adapting and that most JV games are not really competitive, that the games everyone comes to watch is that actual high school matches and not the younger kids.
The game itself was interesting, more contact than I would have liked, but the other ref basically called nothing. I called 3 fouls in the second half and 2 in the first. I did not attempt to make all the hand signals but I did call out what I saw, for the sake of the coaches. But in the second match where I was an AR, the center only made the 'stop the clock' gesture after each goal was scored, other than that there is no stopping of the clock they said.
Back to the matches, both were very similar, the JV game was won by the local side who played more controlled soccer and started the second half by getting scored on in the first couple of minutes of the second half and then turned it around for a 2-1 win. In the second match, the home team scored in the first minute of the second half and then went on to lose 4-2.
The last impression I had was the fact that we had the whole camaraderie thing going on, with the starters getting their names called out, the whole national anthem, it really did feel like a world cup match, at least this first time. Interesting since I had never done it quite like this before.
So all in all, it is still soccer, just a little quirkier than I am used to, a little rougher than I expected and more people in the stands than just parents. Next week I do the same school but on the boys side, and I have been warned to buckle up for even a bigger ride. We'll see about that.
But here are the specifics. I arrived at 5:25 for a 6pm JV kickoff. I got to the field and it was everything that the guy at refblog.com always harps about. Hard barely grassy field, long and narrow, like football fields are. The other ref had emailed me earlier stating that he had a 4pm match somewhere else and was not going to show up until right at kickoff. I did not know the JV procedure, but I did collect the rosters from each team and then checked the girls in.
I started the game and about 4-5 minutes into the match, I see the other guy on the field. I yell to the ladies that there were now two whistles on the field and to play on. I had started my watch, but since there was a high school scoreboard, I let it guide me only to find out that at 2 minutes remaining, they did not count it down anymore because it is the ref's determination of when it ends, so in the first half, they probably played another minute or two because I did not know if it would end by itself when the 2 minutes were up or if I had to end it. When we got to at least 3 minutes after, I blew the whistle for the first half to end.
I got to meet the other ref, we chatted and I admitted that I had not done any matches before under this regime but he said that it just takes a little adapting and that most JV games are not really competitive, that the games everyone comes to watch is that actual high school matches and not the younger kids.
The game itself was interesting, more contact than I would have liked, but the other ref basically called nothing. I called 3 fouls in the second half and 2 in the first. I did not attempt to make all the hand signals but I did call out what I saw, for the sake of the coaches. But in the second match where I was an AR, the center only made the 'stop the clock' gesture after each goal was scored, other than that there is no stopping of the clock they said.
Back to the matches, both were very similar, the JV game was won by the local side who played more controlled soccer and started the second half by getting scored on in the first couple of minutes of the second half and then turned it around for a 2-1 win. In the second match, the home team scored in the first minute of the second half and then went on to lose 4-2.
The last impression I had was the fact that we had the whole camaraderie thing going on, with the starters getting their names called out, the whole national anthem, it really did feel like a world cup match, at least this first time. Interesting since I had never done it quite like this before.
So all in all, it is still soccer, just a little quirkier than I am used to, a little rougher than I expected and more people in the stands than just parents. Next week I do the same school but on the boys side, and I have been warned to buckle up for even a bigger ride. We'll see about that.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
It has been a while
And I want to apologize to everyone, I had not realized the length of time that had elapsed since my last post. I know I always promise to bring up the seminar and more details around it and I might, but it really was not that thick enough.
This past weekend, I opened the season for spring with an invitation tournament. In all, I did 8 matches, 3 centers and 5 AR positions. They were for U13 and U14 boys. Decent level of competition since only halfway decent teams get in. My son's team got invited in their U10 category and were promptly blown out of the first two matches. They did manage to tie their last match, but not the start of the season they were expecting.
As for me, I have been getting myself in shape with exercising in the morning for about 30 minutes or so. But no running and that is something I am going to have to change. I was VERY tired after match #4 on Saturday. Sunday was a bit better, but still, I needed a healthy dose of Advil when I was done.
There was not much to tell about the matches in general, except that on Saturday, as an AR, there was a situation where a player got hurt. Ball was close to my position so the center told me to do the drop ball instead of him. Never had that happen before, and if I am the center, I would handle a drop ball, not the AR, who has a more important function, offside. Anyone ever have that? What do you think?
On Sunday, I arrived at my field 30 minutes before kick off and so did the other AR. Our center arrived 3 minutes before kick off and was angry at me for doing the coin flip. I did not want to start an argument with the center since we were going to be a crew for the 4 matches, but I really wanted to tell him to be a little bit earlier next time. Everything after that went fine. We even had one of those, we both saw the same thing from different angles and complemented each other on the non-call, but it irked me at the beginning to get slapped on the wrist for something that I should not have.
These next 3 weekends include more tournaments, so there will be a lot of soccer and a lot of material for the blog. If I ever get to post it, well, that is a different story!
This past weekend, I opened the season for spring with an invitation tournament. In all, I did 8 matches, 3 centers and 5 AR positions. They were for U13 and U14 boys. Decent level of competition since only halfway decent teams get in. My son's team got invited in their U10 category and were promptly blown out of the first two matches. They did manage to tie their last match, but not the start of the season they were expecting.
As for me, I have been getting myself in shape with exercising in the morning for about 30 minutes or so. But no running and that is something I am going to have to change. I was VERY tired after match #4 on Saturday. Sunday was a bit better, but still, I needed a healthy dose of Advil when I was done.
There was not much to tell about the matches in general, except that on Saturday, as an AR, there was a situation where a player got hurt. Ball was close to my position so the center told me to do the drop ball instead of him. Never had that happen before, and if I am the center, I would handle a drop ball, not the AR, who has a more important function, offside. Anyone ever have that? What do you think?
On Sunday, I arrived at my field 30 minutes before kick off and so did the other AR. Our center arrived 3 minutes before kick off and was angry at me for doing the coin flip. I did not want to start an argument with the center since we were going to be a crew for the 4 matches, but I really wanted to tell him to be a little bit earlier next time. Everything after that went fine. We even had one of those, we both saw the same thing from different angles and complemented each other on the non-call, but it irked me at the beginning to get slapped on the wrist for something that I should not have.
These next 3 weekends include more tournaments, so there will be a lot of soccer and a lot of material for the blog. If I ever get to post it, well, that is a different story!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Shirt pulling
This is my number one pet peeve now. I saw this during a tournament where my son played this past weekend. It was up in Maryland and there was a mix of teams from Maryland, DC and Virginia. It seemed that most of the teams from Maryland used this tactic to balance out the lack of speed in terms of defenders keeping up with attackers. I saw one breakaway that the attacker basically got dragged back by a well employed shirt pull and it just reminded me how unfair and hard to detect some of that is. This is my first resolution for 2010, to catch and card more of that. And I want to make sure that my ARs see that. Easier said than done, but at least I am going to give it a try.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
High School vs. USSF Rules
I plan to delve deeper in this category as I was in training this past weekend to begin doing high school soccer. I received the rule book and the first thing that jumps out at me is the fact that you can see the philosophy of one vs. the other. USSF is written with a certain audience in mind whereas the NFHS rulebook is geared towards the same people but with details galore, covering many more minute details that the USSF book leaves to common sense for the most part (or lack thereof).
My idea is to give it a more profound breakdown of some of the interesting things that contrast between the two, but I wanted to throw it out there that things just were so different between the two that it does not seem like it was the same sport.
My idea is to give it a more profound breakdown of some of the interesting things that contrast between the two, but I wanted to throw it out there that things just were so different between the two that it does not seem like it was the same sport.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Cool Runnings
Oy it's cold in the Northern Virginia area! To think that I was able to take a vacation where I could lie on the beach and laugh at the snow people were enduring here only to return and the day after I am back, I was called into action thanks to the O40 women's league I reffed a couple of matches for last year.
But this time, I was not prepared for it. My match started at 3pm. I arrived at 2:30 and saw that the ladies were putting up the nets on the goals. It was cold, around 34 F and it was ok until the wind started swirling up. The field was a turf field on top of a hill of sorts, and how the wind blew.
The match started 10 minutes late because all the players were basically in their cars with the motors running in the parking lot until enough people got out to start the match. It is funny to see how some women, like those closer to 60 years old were out and warming up while those closer to 40 were in their cars and thinking "What am I doing here?"
We did 2 40 minute halves and by the end of the match, I was frozen to the bone. I mean I was cold. It was almost 5pm, dark, and the temperature had dropped to about 29 F or so. It had been a decent match, where white scored 2 first half goals, and with 15 minutes to play, blue pulled one back and then attacked to get the equalizer but failed to so. Kudos to the ladies, it was a decent match, but they did not really need me as I called three fouls tops.
However, as I was about to leave, the second match did not have their ref yet. Even though this league pays well, I was in no desire to stay and do another match. I do have a policy though that unless I have to be somewhere else after a match, I hang around until the ref for the next match shows up. Of course, they always do but it is the right thing to do in case they do. Well, he didn't this time.
So I did the second match. We did 30 minutes because it was bitterly cold with the wind. Not sure what the wind chill was or how to calculate it but it was a good 15-20 miles and hour and gusts every so often made it worse. To tell you that in the first half, I did it with my coat on. Side note: I was wearing a t-shirt, an Under Armor compression shirt and my blue, red, black and yellow jerseys on for the first match.
When one of the ladies said that they were confused and almost passed me the ball thinking I was one of their teammates, I replied "Don't worry, I will take it off soon" and she replied "You have no idea how long I have waited to hear you say that!" It was certainly funny.
Anyway, in the second match, I did have a lot more work, there were two ladies, one on each side that were somewhat enforcers and no one really got by them. So I had to call some more fouls and there were a couple of complaints with the balls going out of touch, but it seemed they were gaming me instead of actually thinking I had missed the call.
And I called a penalty, the keeper diving for the ball, took out the attacker, so it was all in all a better game. The final there was 2-2 but good stuff indeed because their level of play was more than decent given the fact that it was the first games of the season for each team and that it was in such demaning weather. Hats off, ladies.
But this time, I was not prepared for it. My match started at 3pm. I arrived at 2:30 and saw that the ladies were putting up the nets on the goals. It was cold, around 34 F and it was ok until the wind started swirling up. The field was a turf field on top of a hill of sorts, and how the wind blew.
The match started 10 minutes late because all the players were basically in their cars with the motors running in the parking lot until enough people got out to start the match. It is funny to see how some women, like those closer to 60 years old were out and warming up while those closer to 40 were in their cars and thinking "What am I doing here?"
We did 2 40 minute halves and by the end of the match, I was frozen to the bone. I mean I was cold. It was almost 5pm, dark, and the temperature had dropped to about 29 F or so. It had been a decent match, where white scored 2 first half goals, and with 15 minutes to play, blue pulled one back and then attacked to get the equalizer but failed to so. Kudos to the ladies, it was a decent match, but they did not really need me as I called three fouls tops.
However, as I was about to leave, the second match did not have their ref yet. Even though this league pays well, I was in no desire to stay and do another match. I do have a policy though that unless I have to be somewhere else after a match, I hang around until the ref for the next match shows up. Of course, they always do but it is the right thing to do in case they do. Well, he didn't this time.
So I did the second match. We did 30 minutes because it was bitterly cold with the wind. Not sure what the wind chill was or how to calculate it but it was a good 15-20 miles and hour and gusts every so often made it worse. To tell you that in the first half, I did it with my coat on. Side note: I was wearing a t-shirt, an Under Armor compression shirt and my blue, red, black and yellow jerseys on for the first match.
When one of the ladies said that they were confused and almost passed me the ball thinking I was one of their teammates, I replied "Don't worry, I will take it off soon" and she replied "You have no idea how long I have waited to hear you say that!" It was certainly funny.
Anyway, in the second match, I did have a lot more work, there were two ladies, one on each side that were somewhat enforcers and no one really got by them. So I had to call some more fouls and there were a couple of complaints with the balls going out of touch, but it seemed they were gaming me instead of actually thinking I had missed the call.
And I called a penalty, the keeper diving for the ball, took out the attacker, so it was all in all a better game. The final there was 2-2 but good stuff indeed because their level of play was more than decent given the fact that it was the first games of the season for each team and that it was in such demaning weather. Hats off, ladies.
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