Too many badges

So far I've had a mere 8 games - 3 CRs, the rest ARs.  This is solely based on my availability as I could easily get a lot more.  My games have been mostly smooth and no cards at all.

Two items of interest:

• U15 Girls.  There's a one-on-one battle for the ball between Team A's attacker and Team B's defender.  I'm in a terrible position - right behind the play, trying to get to an angle.  Team B's player falls.  From my angle, I could not tell if she tripped or was pushed.  My AR (and the parents) saw a good push.  I make no call.  My AR kind of raises his flag, thinks I tell him to drop it, then ultimately a goal is scored by Team A.  I run over to my AR and we decide to disallow the goal since there was a foul on Team A.  The coach for Team A wasn't too happy, but was ultimately satisfied with the explanation.  In the long run, it didn't matter - Team A won handily.  Lesson learned - make sure the AR is definitive and make sure I am!

• U14 Girls "SuperLeague."  I'm the AR on a corner kick.  Girl kicks the ball towards the goal, keeper mishandles it, goal scored.  NOPE.  I'm right on the goal line, I see the ball cross over the line in flight, therefore I raise my flag.  CR picks up my flag, blows whistle, then I signal GK.  Of course, this happens right in front of our field mentors and another team who plays the next game.  It's the absolute correct call - even a few players from the other team say to me "great call ref."  I saw the coach for the team who didn't get the goal throw his hat down, but never says a word to me as he knew I was right there.  Always pay attention as an AR!

Like I said, kind of uneventful start.

So we kick off Fall State and President's Cup this Labor Day weekend.  Still awaiting my assignments (if any).  We start HS this Thursday.  ALSO - I picked up some College Club team games (NCCSA).  Just AR for now as I don't know what I'm getting myself in to (and the Assignor wants me to AR a few games before picking up CR).  Although the NCCSA games don't count towards USSF certification, they should still be a great experience for me since these will be the first U18+ games I'm working.  All that means is I have 3 badges to carry with me - USSF, HSSO, and NCCSA.  Oh and 3 separate sets of Laws/Rules to keep straight!

Until next time...

It's Fall!

The calendar may read August (well end of July), but it's time to start the Fall soccer season!

• I start with 3 games next weekend in an early season tournament.  I could easily pick up 3x that if I wanted to work on Thu/Fri afternoons and Sunday.  My day job is preventing me from that on Thu/Fri, and my fitness concerns along with a desire to stay out of the heat are preventing that on Sunday.
• I participated in our HS Boys' 'draw' this time.  This is the first time the 'draw' has been entirely automated - or so they tell me - so I'm sure there will be lots of grumbling about said 'draw' at the Pre Season clinics that we have to attend for HS.  My schedule for HS is almost maxed out already.  Most of my games are Varsity, which should be interesting for Boys season.  I'm somewhat used to working this age group from State Cup.
• By the end of the Fall, I will have the CR games to qualify for Grade 7.  The State folks have already asked me when I'm going for my 7.  I think I'll do it - I'd like to be able to work some advanced Youth games.  Originally, I had dreams of becoming a 6, but given the amount of U18+ games you must work as CR, it's just not going to happen (unless I feel like ignoring my family).  Oh well.

I enjoyed watching the Euro games and some Olympics, along with almost any match I can find on Gol TV.  Why?  I watch the CR.  Where are they?  What are they calling?  Would I make that call?  I know the TV does not have the angle they have, but it's still interesting to watch.  At least for me.

Otherwise, I'm injury free and my fitness is reasonable.  So I'm ready to go!

The State of the Cup

I had a lot of State Cup Assignments this year.  Part of the reason I'm sure is I'm more experienced.  Another part is I'm being observed and obviously passing these informal assessments.

Since I'm still fighting my nagging plantar fasciitis injury from last year, my fitness level isn't where I want it to be.  It's good enough for normal reffing, but for State Cup you need to be better than normal.  To try to compensate, I've consumed the Gatorade "Prime" Pouch about 30 min before my CR games.  As far as I know, that does not contain caffeine, but it seems to put me on 'edge' - a comment I've received on 2 separate occasions from my more experienced ARs.  I know all the supplements in the world are no substitute for good fitness, so I'll just have to work on getting healed and improve my fitness level.

So onto the more interesting highlights.

1.  Life as a 4th ref.  For State Cup QFs onward we have 4ths.  I was a 4th for a QF and a 4th for a U17 Finals (which was recorded!).  Interesting job.  I've seen 'active' 4ths that are constantly helping the CR, and 'passive' 4ths which just handle subs, record goals/cards, and keep the technical areas (especially the coaches) under control.  So I'm not sure really how to do this job.  One would think it is easy, but in actuality the person with the 'easiest' job in a 4 man team is AR2.  Except for the parents.

2.  AR for Prez CupU14 Finals.  Oh I learned a lesson here!  Ball is on my end near the goal line, I see the ball go across the goal line, raise my flag to indicate I have information for the CR (ultimately a GK), CR never looks over.  So I'm wondering "what do I do?"  I'm now way out of position.  So I drop my flag thinking play is leaving my half.  Nope.  Ball is turned over and a quick goal is scored.  FORTUNATELY, AR1 and our 4th notice I had my flag up so they tell the CR "go talk to him."  I told the CR the ball went out but you never looked over.  We correctly rule "no goal" and restart with the GK.  Of course, our SDA is observing us.  After the game, he asked me what I saw, and what I should've done.  He did compliment us (the CR and me) for getting the call correct; otherwise, we had a Misapplication of the Laws situation, which is protestable.  Now I know.  Stand there with your flag raised all night if you have to. :)

New content from USSF

USSF seems to be in the process of updating their website with more video modules for refs.

Check out the new "Ask, Tell, Dismiss" guidance Here:

MLSsoccer.com also hosts a weekly "Instant Replay" series that reviews some of the notable calls (and non-calls) from MLS Action.  The link is here.  I don't always agree with Simon Borg's conclusions, but it is pretty cool to review.

Finally, we should follow this rugby ref's lead in dealing with Dissent on the field.  The dissent is at :08, the ref handles it at :38.

Inventing the Laws

As a 2nd year Grade 8 ref, I think I can apply the Laws 100% correctly.  That is different from foul recognition of course.  Well...

I've worked more State Cup games this year.  That's good of course - I'm working high level youth games as CR which offset some of the not-so-high level HS games I've recently had (even at Varsity!).  This weekend though I misapplied a few Laws.

• U14 #1 CR.  One minute before half I see an eligible sub at the center line.  I wave off the sub to my AR since I have a minute left and I already announced I was not adding time to the half.  Well that's an incorrect application of Law 3.  In "Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game", paragraph 3.6 clearly states "...Even if it seems that the purpose [of the substitution] is to waste time, the referee cannot deny the request, but should exercise the power granted in Law 7 to add time lost through "any other cause."  So my correct decision should have been to allow the sub then add time to compensate for the late substitution.

Well that misapplication in the grand scheme of things isn't too egregious.  The next one however...

Mood swing

As referees, we strive to be consistent in our calls throughout a game.  I prefer to let the game flow until the players start telling me, in their own way, I need to call more fouls.  Of course if I detect the temperature rising on my own my whistle becomes very active, or if in the first few minutes of the game I see a lot of physical contact then I know I need to call a bunch of fouls.

Which leads me to my experience with a U-16 D-2 Boys game.  The first half ended 1-0 with two fouls on each team.  One player asked me to watch the pushing, but otherwise no complaints at all.  In other words, the players knew what I was calling and were fine with it.  So 5 minutes goes by in the 2nd half and there's a challenge inside the penalty area.  The way I saw the attacker react seemed strange.  I didn't have a great angle, but I decided there was a substantial push from behind, so I gave the penalty.  After the usual complaints, the keeper (who decided to use his Captain status even though the Laws give him no such privilege) more or less said "you didn't call that in the 1st half, why are you calling it now?"  Although I said "both my AR and I saw it (which turned out to be true, but the AR did NOT signal for a foul)", I thought - you know he's correct.  Now I had to make a lot more calls since the players didn't know what I was going to call.  It took me about 20 min to get the game back to where I (and the players) wanted it to be.

During my game debrief my AR said there was indeed a push, and the push affected the attacker, but was surprised I gave the penalty.  So indirectly he thought the same thing as the player.  For what it is worth, the winning coach thought the call could've gone either way, but otherwise really liked how I called the game.

Lesson learned.  Be consistent, but manage the temperature if it needs to be managed.  With one close call, I changed the mood of the game when it didn't need to be changed.
 

Parental Guidance Suggested

In my last blog post I commented that I had my first parent removal.  Right now I'm in the middle of I don't know what type of Karma.  In my last three CR games I have had to remove a parent/spectator.  All three were a result of my AR calling me over to remove the offender.  Here's the latest two:

• State Cup.  I was CR for a U-12 boys game.  My AR-1 is a Grade 7.  My AR-2 is a Grade 6.  Wow that's a ton of AR experience for a U-12 boys game (even for State Cup).  Anyway, Blue team is winning 1-0.  White team launches a shot at goal.  From my angle, the GK acted a bit 'weird'.  Goal is scored (ball went through his legs), I glance over at my AR-2, and his flag is up.  Uh oh.  Fortunately I'm real good at *not* signalling a goal until after my AR confirms the goal.  So I backpedaled to him.  He called offside since an attacker was in an offside position and was charging at the keeper, influencing play.  OK that could explain the GK's reaction.  We talk about it, and, I know from past experience he knows his stuff, so I agree with his recommendation and disallow the goal.   White coach isn't terribly happy, so I run over and explain our call, and conclude "well it is a correct application of the Law, and that's the call I'm making."  White team's parents are somewhat up in arms.  So the IFK is taken and clearly the Blue team is offside on the IFK.  Easy call.  Some idiot screams "way to not swallow your whistle that time ref."  I'm about ready to shut the whole sideline up but my AR-2 beat me to it.  Then he tells me "Brian this parent has to go."  So I run over there and let him know he's done.  Gets up and argues, but hey I'm taller (and bigger) than he is, and he ultimately leaves.  Ironically, a Grade 8 AR likely does not make the offside call and the game may turn out differently (it ended 3-0).

The good news about the whole event is that at the end of the game the White team coach participates in the sportsmanship line and thanks us for a job well done. Those are the coaches I like.  Be fair in your dissent, and at the end of the game realize it is over and most likely the refs had nothing to do with the result.