Watches

This past week, as I was preparing for my matches this weekend, I discovered that I could not locate my regular watch (and still have not been able to). I had bought my watch about 2 years ago at Walmart and had been happy with the purchase. It had something that I know some refs do not use, and that is a countdown function. That watch had cost me $15 or so and had a velcro strap, which made it easy to adjust. And though I know that I will find it at some moment, I realized Friday afternoon, that I was going to have to make an investment in getting another.

Some of the places online, make it a big deal that they have soccer referee specific watches, and I am sure that they are better than the standard ones I use. I know that there are ones that countdown and then count up once the time has been consumed so you know how much additional time you have added. There are others that look almost like those athletic stop watches that track and field people use and have huge numbers so that it is easy to read.

For me, I decided on going with 2 watches (I heard someone tell me that it is recommended to go with two just in case one goes bad and you do not have ARs that can back you up). So I trotted to Kmart and ended up buying two Casio watches. Not both the same because that would have been silly in case the design had a problem that I did not like. The two models I bought were a Casio W-752 and a Casio W-93H. Total cost was around $35 for both (they were running a special of sorts, regular price is more like $45 for both).

The W-752 has a long life battery (it said 10 years, but I am sure it is not that long) and had larger numbers, so I wear that one on my right (I am a lefty and use a wrist strap whistle on my left hand). I normally wear my watch on my right so that is where I go most of the time to consult how much is left. It has a countdown timer but no bells and whistles with regards to that countdown timer. Here is a picture of the watch:

The second watch is smaller (the W-93H) but I fell in love with it almost instantly. And why you ask? Because its countdown timer has a couple of features that I was not expecting (not for $15 at least). There is one to immediately restart, so that when it hits 0:00, it begins at 40, or 35 minutes, or whatever you were at. I can see this option working if you want to add time, and you say, ok, I am going to add two minuites, so we go to 33:00. I have not used that function yet (I did 4 matches this weekend, 2 in center and two as an AR). The other feature it has is awesome to tell you the truth. You can have it beep when the countdown timer hits 10 minutes remaining, 5 minutes and then every minute until 1, then every 10 seconds until 5 seconds, and then every second until it is done.

I find this feature to be very useful as I do not need to be looking. Today, when it beeped for 10 minutes, I already knew that was the 10 minute beep, the second one told me we had 5 remaining and I did not look at my watch until it started doing the 10 second chirps. To be truthful, I find the 10 second (at 50 seconds, 40 seconds, etc) to be overkill, but otherwise an awesome watch. The numbers are smaller, but still a great buy for $15 at Kmart. I might go get another one for when this one dies or cannot be located. I certainly hope that doesn't happen soon!

The strange final - my daughter's

In this tournament that I have been able to string out for 4 posts up to this point, I had my son and daughter playing as well. Though my son's matches were great, there was nothing referee related that was worth mentioning. He played on a field that was terrible (the outfield of a softball field, where one side of the field (about 25-30% of the left midfield area was actually the infield of the softball field) and since it was wet in the mornings, it made for some ugly play but other than that, nothing worth mentioning here.

My daughter's team, a U9 team, shouldn't have anything significant either because, they are 8 or 9 years old and do not really have the command of soccer that a U12 and up might have. Regardless, I have to mention them in this because what happened in their final match. To set it up, both teams reached the final by winning their corresponding groups. My daughter's team with wins of 5-1, 2-0 and 5-1. The other team with wins of 2-0, 1-0 and 3-1, so the stage was set.

I had noticed the referees working the two fields prior to my daughter's final were both young, asian and quite proper with the interpretations, paying attention and not sleepwalking (it is U9 after all, and many of you know how slow some of these matches are). Anyway, the final gets under way just as the other field finishes their last match. The ref on that field stuck around to see the final that had just started. The match itself was close, but nothing to knock on the ref in the first half. The half ends 0-0 and at halftime, I see both refs changing their shirts to match and they both come on to the field.

They both worked the second half of the final match, one of them on one side and the other on the far side. I was taken for a loop, as I did not know what the heck was going on. Has anyone ever had something like this happen? I know people switch the ref due to injury, etc. but I had never seen anything like this, where the only ref of the match suddenly goes to a two-man system mid match. And if you are going to do that, fine, but be aware that you cannot do that for half of the match and that you have to do it with a real 2-man system like I have done before, not this is my half and that is your half. In the end, the original ref called a PK with 40 seconds left in regulation (I guess they did not want to go to overtime) and my daughter's teammate scored to win the championship.

In all of this, I don't disagree with the calls made during the match, before or after the two-man system was implemented, but this is not how you ref matches. I should have said something to them but the end of the match was frantic, with the girls hugging and running up and down the pitch in celebration and I wanted to soak that in instead of going to educate the refs. I did not see them after that, so the opportunity was lost, but it was still a strange series of events. Since we are so close to Halloween, does anyone else have some of these weird referee horror stories?

Time Management and frantic final

The first match of the tournament weekend had a team winning 1-0 thanks to an own goal. The tournament had a rule that specifically said there was no added time. This is typical of tournaments so that they do not fall behind with added time. So with literally 15 seconds, the team losing 1-0 gets a cross in and one of the defenders knocks the ball down with her hand. I wave my flag as an AR, once I have the center's attention, I hold the flag across my hip to indicate it was in the box for the attacking team. It took the center a second or two to figure out what had happened but we were ok except that we were already 2-3 minutes behind because even though there is no added time, you have to extend the match for a PK. Talk about a oxymoron.

The girl taking the PK winds up and takes a good shot to the right of the keeper who makes a wonderful one handed save, and the rebound goes directly back to the kicker who now has the goal wide open, but alas, the center ref (abiding by the rules, mind you) calls for the end of the match because we were 3 minutes past the end without there being any additional time allowed. The coach for the losing team came out ready to rip our heads off, but we stood our ground, explained that the rules were clear, no additional time, and walked off the field. Interesting to say the least when you have so much happen in so little time. The other 57 minutes of the match were much less exciting than the final 3 minutes were for sure.

More on the tournament weekend - The Injury

As promised last time, I was going to go over what happened during the match where I had my first major injury (not to me but rather a player). The match itself was supposed to be a preliminary match between two teams from the same club but since they both were in the final as well (as they finished first in each of their respective brackets with one game left, they were going to play each other again regardless of the outcome of my match). The coach (who was the coach for both teams as well) asked me if it was ok for them to just play the final now and record the score twice, one for the round robin match and one for the final. I could not see a problem with that.

The game started and it was clear who the A team was and who the B team was. The blue team attacked the whole first half but the closest chance was for the yellow team. Still at the half they were 0-0. At the start of the second half, the star attacker of the blue team tried to force a corner and was nudged as he was turning his body to kick the ball off the defender and he landed on his wrist awkwardly. I was close to the play and heard a faint pop and knew that something was not well. His wrist was in a weird angle and fortunately, two doctors were at the field and were able to stabilize him enough so when the EMTs arrived, it was not a dire thing. Off to the hospital he went.

Meanwhile, the boys still wanted to finish the match, but the coach having lost his 4th player in 2 weeks (I found out later) asked me if I had any problem going straight to PKs. I did not, as long as everyone was in agreement. In the meantime, they also decided to not have the PKs actually determine the winner, as they would both share the championship. So instead of having an actual 5 PKs per team, they all got to shoot once, regardless of the score. In the end, it did take 10 PKs per side to determine the winner, with the keepers being the kickers. The B team keeper missing and the A team keeper scoring to 'win' it.

Finally, I later found out that the player had suffered a fractured wrist. I really hope he gets better quickly as he is a fantastic player and fun to watch.

A lot to talk about

Man it was an interesting weekend of soccer. I do not have the time to write it all out, but just so I can remember all the talking points, I will list them out here...

• The first major injury on my watch
• Frantic final on the first match of the weekend tournament and clock management
• The weird final (which happened to be my daughter's)
• A new fan dangled technology for refs

I do not have the time to write each of these out right now but I wanted to at least list them while they are fresh in my head so that when the time comes and I can add to each of these stories I will. There is a lot to talk about and some of these posts, I want to get your opinion as there is no clear answer, in my book.

Nuggets of wisdom

What a beautiful weekend. Weather was great on Saturday for my start of the regular season. In the morning I worked a U12 boys match that was not particularly interesting except two nuggets. They happened one right after another. To lay the scenario down, it was one of the local teams versus a team that was heavily latino. In my past experience, the heavy latino presence tends to favor that team as they play more of a control/individual style as opposed to the boom and run that most anglo teams like to play. In this match, it did not work out for that team. It was perhaps that they did not have enough players (9 suited with 8 on the field) as well as U12 being 35 minute halves instead of 30. So they basically ran out of gas after going up 1-0 early in the match.

In the second half with the match pretty much decided for the other team (they were up 3-1 and pounding heavily for more), I call a free kick close to the top left corner of the penalty box. On the run up to the kick, the defending team's wall, instead of holding their position, run up to try to block the kick. One boy moved up a foot or so, but the other had charged about 5 yards of the 10 he had. I stopped the play, carded the player and then I hear the other boy tell his now carded teammate, "No te preocupes, el es un maricón". I grew up around Spanish speaking parents and grandparents enough to know what that means (something akin to "The ref is gay"). So I looked up, and proceed to tell him in spanish that I knew what he meant and he'd better not say it again. He turned pale to say the least.

In the end, I should have gone over to the coach and explained what happened, I should have carded the boy as well but well, I guess I got flustered. I certainly think he will think twice before uttering such an opinion.

So the nugget is more for the players, but for us, it is how we deal with it. I could have (should have?) carded the player, but the mere fact that he was so surprised might be enough for him to not do it again. I will not ref them again this season, but perhaps we cross paths again. If we do, I wonder what will happen...

Oh it hurts...

Who said you needed to prep for 7 matches in two days? I will be the first to admit that I did fairly little in terms of physical preparation this summer. I ate poorly, and did not do much in terms of exercise, but this weekend's 7 matches did something for me that I was not expecting, and that was to reinvigorate my desire to get back in shape. So I plan on running some during the week and see if I cannot get back into the form I was prior to the last season ending (and then staying there at least during the long winter off season).

Regarding the actual matches, there was little to throw in. They were good, I had a great time and was happy to be back. Saturday was four U12 matches and Sunday was a bit more challenging in the U14 Boys and U14 Girls brackets of a local tournament.

Sidebar here - During this tournament, they used a system of bonus points to determine seeding into the semifinal round, so in one bracket, Team A and Team B both beat Team C. Team A won 12-0 and Team B won 3-0. When Team A and Team B played each other, they tied 2-2, so who should be the team that goes as the first seed and who is the second seed? Well, due to the weird bonus points that they had for this tournament, both Team A and Team B were deadlocked and went to a PK shootout instead of looking at overall goals scored. Just thought it strange, since 12-0 and 3-0 are two very different results.

Back to the matches, I know my center where I had a full set of ARs was not difficult, but I am also sure that my diagonals were atrocious. I was all over the place, still, it worked out well as I was able to get the offsides calls ok and the fouls seemed to be decent as well. All in all, just glad to be back, but man are my muscles sore today.