Expired Goal Kick

[Rufusabc]

Last match of a long day and it is a spirited U9G match...a nice change of pace. Fun....

Here's the play....the grass is very long and the ball isn't moving all that fast or FAR. Goal Kick to white, and a mighty run up and a grass cutter.....It isn't going to make it out of the area. Everyone stops to watch the slow motion ball roll to a complete stop....nobody moves.

Does a ref have to wait until the ball is played to blow the whistle for the re-kick or does he blow it dead after it expires?!?!

I couldn't find the answer anywhere.....

[NHRef]

Blow the whistle, say/signal for a re-kick and move on.

No clue what the LOTG say, but it's impossible for anything legal to happen at this point. Gotta love U-Littles when GK is a great attacking chance!

[Rufusabc]

I blew for it when it stopped.....the u-littles are a blast.

[refmedic]

You have to blow the whistle and indicate for the retake. Since no one can play the ball again until it is in play (outside the PA), if the ball stops inside, it is not in play. You don't have to wait for an infringement to ensure the correct restart. If you want, the infringement is that the kick didn't leave the PA when it was kicked, so the restart is ordered.

[imasyko]

some of the leagues around here (eastern PA) let the u9's take goal kicks from the edge of the PA. Makes sense really.

[Gary V]

Does a ref have to wait until the ball is played to blow the whistle for the re-kick or does he blow it dead after it expires?!?!

I couldn't find the answer anywhere.....You must not have looked that far. :) First line under Infringements in Law 13: "If the ball is not kicked directly out of the penalty area from a goal kick: • the kick is retaken." If the ball stopped, it was not kicked directly out.

some of the leagues around here (eastern PA) let the u9's take goal kicks from the edge of the PA. Makes sense really.We've done you one better. For U10 and below, we've defined that the GA and PA are the same size. That's based on the allowable modifications to field size for youth play. While commonly the various areas are shrunk in proportion to the overall size of the field (for example, the center circle may be only 6 or 8 yards), we elected to expand the size of the GA.

[jayhonk]

I still remember coaching U7 and U8...
Goal kicks and corner kicks were both hazardous to the team kicking the ball.

[IASocFan]

You have to blow the whistle and indicate for the retake. ...

Slightly off topic! You don't have to blow the whistle. You can proabably get to the ball quicker than most of the players. You can kick or take the ball back to the goal area and explain that they need to try again. Or just tell them to try it again.

After my first several years of refereeing 3 games in a row, coming home with my ears still ringing, and listening to instructors talk about the communicating with the whistle, I don't use the whistle unless I need to.

[Sport Billy]

I hate officials that fail to use common sense.

We were coaching u7 on full sized PA's.

Coaches still on the field league.

I agreed with the other coach that we would take all goal kicks from any spot between the edges of the goal area and behind the PK spot because none of the kids were strong enough to get the ball out of the PA.

The ref wouldn't let us do it. Said they must be taken from inside the GA.

From then on the flow of the game just died. Each goal kick took a minimum of 3 attempts.

Isn't the idea at this age to just let the kids have as much active playing time as possible?

[refontherun]

I hate officials that fail to use common sense.

We were coaching u7 on full sized PA's.

Coaches still on the field league.

I agreed with the other coach that we would take all goal kicks from any spot between the edges of the goal area and behind the PK spot because none of the kids were strong enough to get the ball out of the PA.

The ref wouldn't let us do it. Said they must be taken from inside the GA.

From then on the flow of the game just died. Each goal kick took a minimum of 3 attempts.

Isn't the idea at this age to just let the kids have as much active playing time as possible?

At a military base near where I live, they have a small summer league for U4-U12 kids. It's not affiliated with USSF, so there are several rule mods that are rather unique.

U11-Large field, 11v11, one referee. Alot of kick and run. Similar problem with goal kicks. About 5 or 6 attackers line up two feet outside the PA and wait for the miskick. I make it very clear that the ball has to cross the line before it's played.

We've brought up suggestions to make it more like the state soccer program; i.e. smaller fields, fewer players, etc, but it's been the same for the three years I've done that league. Half of the kids on the field never get a touch on the ball.

[rippingood]

We've done you one better. For U10 and below, we've defined that the GA and PA are the same size. That's based on the allowable modifications to field size for youth play. While commonly the various areas are shrunk in proportion to the overall size of the field (for example, the center circle may be only 6 or 8 yards), we elected to expand the size of the GA.

That's fine except... perhaps I am having trouble visualizing this:

defender takes kick at edge of PA / GA. Where do opponents get to stand? Do you 'enforce' a 10 yd (or scaled 10 yd as is the center circle) to keep the opponents back a bit? Or can they move to the edge of the PA / GA? Or does the kicking team move the ball a few yds into the PA / GA to create some distance between ball and opponents?

[Gary V]

That's fine except... perhaps I am having trouble visualizing this:

defender takes kick at edge of PA / GA. Where do opponents get to stand? Do you 'enforce' a 10 yd (or scaled 10 yd as is the center circle) to keep the opponents back a bit? Or can they move to the edge of the PA / GA? Or does the kicking team move the ball a few yds into the PA / GA to create some distance between ball and opponents?
Scaled 10-yard distance for defenders. The only change is that the ball now is in play pretty much when it is kicked and moved. In practice the movement is 1 ball radius, as they usually plop the ball right on the line - just like they do with a smaller goal area. So it only has to travel it's radius to be clear of the line.

[rippingood]

Scaled 10-yard distance for defenders. The only change is that the ball now is in play pretty much when it is kicked and moved. In practice the movement is 1 ball radius, as they usually plop the ball right on the line - just like they do with a smaller goal area. So it only has to travel it's radius to be clear of the line.

sounds like a good practical solution - I sometimes wish we could let the U-littles throw or punt from a GK as that is less beneficial for the opponents who shouldn't (SOTG) get such a scoring opportunity from knocking the ball out over their opponents' goal line (outside the goal, of course...).

OTOH, eons ago my son played at U12 (U13?) with a team that had a player who could put goal kicks in the opponent's half with ease and another player who could throw the ball in over half the width of the field (on a line).
Any goalk kick for "us" was never an attacking option for our opponent and any ball that went out of play below the extension of the 18 when 'we' were attacking was equivalent to a corner kick. Those two things really changed the dynamic of your typical U12 match.

[falcon.7]

[QUOTE=rippingood;17756651OTOH, eons ago my son played at U12 (U13?) with a team that had a player who could put goal kicks in the opponent's half with ease and another player who could throw the ball in over half the width of the field (on a line).[/QUOTE]

I'll bet they got healthy scholarships from some DI school. Although there was that article by Graham Poll about one player holding the ball for upwards of 10 minutes over the course of an EPL game preparing to throw it...

[rippingood]

I'll bet they got healthy scholarships from some DI school. Although there was that article by Graham Poll about one player holding the ball for upwards of 10 minutes over the course of an EPL game preparing to throw it...

Alas not... for reference, they are all seniors in HS now

The good kicker wasn't aggressive enough (just a mellow personality) and as he got older was more of a liability than an asset (but man could he drill the ball, especially into the wind so they tried to hide him on the field except for GKs and foul kicks from anywhere near midfield - awesome) and the thrower stopped soccer in HS to focus on swimming and he went to CIF-South championships so he probably received a swimming scholarship somewhere. I think he had some double-jointed shoulder thing going on... Best part is both are stilll good kids.

[jkc313]

Slightly off topic! You don't have to blow the whistle. You can proabably get to the ball quicker than most of the players. You can kick or take the ball back to the goal area and explain that they need to try again. Or just tell them to try it again.

After my first several years of refereeing 3 games in a row, coming home with my ears still ringing, and listening to instructors talk about the communicating with the whistle, I don't use the whistle unless I need to.
Not only do I agree with this but LOTG say you don't have to use the whistle to signal a stop or start of a goal kick. Just go kick it back to the keeper and say try again