Refs: Give us the story of your first straight red.

[MrEleganza]

As the subject says.

[nonya]

22 years ago, I am doing a JV H.S. match between two rival boys teams. I am working with a senior partner, we go to the coin toss. My head referee introduces himself and me, shows the coin to the capitans and one of them sucker punches the other right there at the toss. The other player got up and hit him back. My partner gave me the honors of showing my first two red cards.

[DerbyRam54]

The first time I sent a player off was in a boy's varsity match. I could see there was going to be a clash between the goalkeeper and the forward so I ran pretty hard to make sure I was in a good position to see if anything happened. The keeper went down and gathered the ball, good technique, the attacker managed to stop before he clattered him and held off from kicking the ball. For an instant that is. I observed him hold his kick and then deliver it with full force, kicking the keeper hard on the arm.
It was the fact that he hesitated, showing he could have held the kick, and then went for it anyway that earned him the red. I wrote it up as VC since he could not legally challenge for the ball and he knew that.
If I hadn't been in such a good position I probably wouldn't have seen the little hesitation and would probably have just cautioned him as going in a bit late and reckless for what he had seen as a 50/50 ball.
He knew what he was doing and there was no protest when I sent him off. No idea what he was thinking as there'd been no previous between him and the keeper, and in fact it was his first foul in the match.

[Ref Flunkie]

I believe I was a freshman-sophomore in HS at the time and was centering a 7-8th grade game. The keeper picked up a routine rolling ball, and the attacker, trying to show his toughness, keeps jogging and throws his shoulder into the keeper's shoulder (didn't really knock him down or anything). I sent off the attacker off. The send off (well the additional game suspension) was later overturned by the league (we were a small town local league). Funny thing is, the attacker was part of a family that I was friends with and lived about a block from me.

[IASocFan]

My first red cards were at a U19 boys match. The ball had just moved from midfield to one attacking end. I turned my back on the players behind me, and then heard a commotion behind be. Two opponents were pushing each other. As I turned back, one took a swing as the other one tackled him. I blew my whistle, ran straight at them, and showed them both a red card.

[spectre013]

Was doing a U-16 Boys game when one team had a corner. The ball came in and was headed straight up in the air when the keeper moved in under the ball with his arms stretched up to catch the ball in the air.

As the ball was coming down one of the strikers for the opposing team moved in and kinda did a sideways kick trying to time it for when the ball would be there and kicked the the Keeper straight in the stomach.

[gosellit]

Heck, I have a tough time remembering send-offs when I go to right the match report much less remember my first. Must not have been very dramatic.

[Gary V]

U10 boys game. One of the players took offense at something an opponent did. The opponent was on the ground at this player's feet - I saw no foul play that put the player there, nor if he did something to the standing player. The standing player passed off the ball, and then stomped on the downed player. At this level of play I had left my cards in the wallet. In the moment it took me to get my wallet out of my pocket after the whistle, I reflected - red, not yellow.

[gildarkevin]

If the incident I'm thinking of was, in fact, the first straight red I ever gave, it is most memorable perhaps because I never even saw it.

U19B tournament game, ball played forward, sweeper cuts it out with a one time clearance but the attacker is slightly aggressive in the challenge. Still, there's no contact, nothing immediate in terms of retaliation and the ball is flying upfield. So I make a motion to my AR to keep an eye behind me and, sure enough, the ball goes right out, I turn back and see him flagging me.

I come over and he says "you need to give a yellow card to the sweeper and a red card to the striker (he does give me the # of each player). I said I believed him, but asked that he tell me exactly what happened so I can decide for myself. He says that striker lingered a bit after the challenge and the sweeper gave him a little shove to move him away. The striker threw a punch but missed.

Sounded good enough for me and when I showed each card, there was no complaint by the striker or his team for heavier punishment. I think he was just surprised we caught it.

[ants4200]

My first RC was in a HS scrimmage.

A blue player had kicked ball toward touch line. A blue teammate, trying to save ball from going over touch line, came flying in like a bat out of hell. By the time he got there and went into a slide tackle the ball was 1 yard out of touch.... along with the red team player who was going to take the throw in. Blue players went right into the back of his legs.

Blue coach went off on me saying I was biased. :rolleyes:

[ctreferee]

I have ejected more than a few coaches, terminated a match, and been part of a referee assault but i have never given out a red card.

[campbed]

U14 Boys Premier level, attacker breaks past defense just outside the center circle, goalie comes out and takes out the attacker just outside the PA. Felt bad for the kid, send off for DGF. Of course, I'm AR1 the next day for the final, and in this game the poor kid gets his knee ripped open. He had a tough tourney! (send off, suspended, out with injury)

[Wreave]

Mine was on a U19 coed game at a rec tournament.

It was a hot day in South Carolina in June. Green team up by one with no subs, Red team trying hard but just outplayed. Green is trying to kill some time in the final minutes, I'm keeping an eye on it and adding time as necessary, but it's still frustrating Red. There was a no-foul injury about the 84th minute that took almost five minutes to clear the Green player, adding to the frustration even though I added time.

Red was pushing the attack in the 93rd when Green got a quick counter. Green star player driving the ball down the center of the field with one Red player challenging. Red fouled Green at about the 35, no advantage, so I blew the whistle. The Red player felt like she was being held or otherwise fouled, though I was very tight to the play (five yards) and didn't think so. After I blew the whistle, she gave a hard two-handed push to the Green striker, and I sent her off.

The foul itself was tactical at a minimum, and deserving of a yellow. One could have made an argument for DOGSO, though I didn't think so at the time. However, given that the push was after the whistle, I was leaning towards a red. The Red player's frustration and intesntiy level made me believe she should not stay on the field, so I sent her off.

I have since regretted the decision. Was it justifiable? Sure. Was it necessary? I don't think so. A yellow and a strong word would have gotten us through the next couple of minutes, and the player could have then played in the afternoon game.

[DadOf6]

I had just started refereeing and I was assigned as AR2 in a boys top-level match. I arrived at the match and the other two (young) referees were also AR2s.

It turned out that the CR and AR1 were a father and son and one was sick. The assigner got two referees to cover but she had forgotten that I was very green. She said that I should take the whistle because the other two referees had never done a center and I had done two. She said that she hadn't had any problems with the teams so I would be ok.

We check everyone in and one of the coaches asks me to move the other team's spectators and bench to the other side of the field (in accordance with league policy) so I did that. Then the other coach told me that it was a good idea because of all the problems the team had had in the past. (Now I'm getting a bit apprehensive.)

About 2 minutes into the match I knew I was in over my head. I had never had a game move so fast and I was getting no help from the ARs who couldn't keep up with the 2LDs. I was calling the fouls that I saw but I knew that I was missing more than I was seeing. I showed a couple of cautions.

At a goal kick I turned to the drop zone just in time to see one player put an opponent into a headlock and throw him to the ground. Red card.

At the half I got both coaches and told them that I knew that they were seeing things that I was not seeing and that everyone was frustrated but if what I WAS seeing continued I would terminate the match. They were frustrated with me and I was frustrated with them, but if they would settle down and play soccer we could salvage the game.

We managed to play 90 minutes and after the game both coaches agreed that it was one of the worst performances from a referee they had seen. I could not disagee.

It was a long time before I would accept an assignment at that level and even longer before I would accept a center. Fortunately the support for new referees has improved here.

[intechpc]

My first was on a U15B Premier match, last game of the season between the two teams tied at the top of the standings (i.e. winner gets first place). The game was pretty physical but nothing out of control and it was a good match. In 65 minute with the score tied at 1-1, I awarded a free kick to Red 10 yards out from white's PA. Kick comes in and a white player (who was at least 4 inches taller than anyone else on the field, me included) goes up to header the ball along with a red attacker. The red player swings his elbow around and puts in right in the neck of the white player. Easy call, no doubt about the red coming here. Hard whistle, run in quickly get the red card out in and in the face of the red player and then check white for his injury.

Coach hated the call tried to tell me it was normal bumping, even tried to appeal the 2 game suspension his player received.

[Another NH Ref]

Mine was an over-the-winter indoor men's open match between a team of Brasilian immigrants and a team of Mexican immigrants. It wasn't a pretty match but it was staying in control, though the Brasilians were pretty much having their way with things. The Mexican sweeper, however, was getting more and more frustrated but not actually committing fouls, just grumping and showing unhappy body language. Suddenly, he goes from no fouls to throwing a striker down and stepping on him. Once I, and everyone else on the field, got over the initial "what the #*$& just happened", it was an easy card.

[jacoismyhero]

Two years ago. U14B Semi-Final in our State Cup. It was raining for days, the touchlines were essentially marked by mud, and it was a miserable experience. Stupid goalkeeper comes out, slides, misses the ball and the player, the player dribbles by, so GK drags him down by his legs.

Easy red card.

Our state cup rules say players sent off must be escorted to the administration tent, away from the field. The kid went off hooting and hollering about being arrested and was just generally obnoxious, and made a mockery of himself in front of the entire campus.

[nonya]

I should add that in my 22 years I have NEVER had to give one out in a girls match at any level from youth, to H.S., to college, to adult to semi-pro.

[aevange8]

At a premier tournament a 13 year old kid punched the ball away from the goal just before it went in. He wasn't the goalkeeper.

[GOOOOAL!!]

I should add that in my 22 years I have NEVER had to give one out in a girls match at any level from youth, to H.S., to college, to adult to semi-pro.

Odd because one of the worst, dirtiest and violent red cards I've seen (I happened to be on the line) was in a women's college game. At a throw-in, the girl came up behind an opponent who was right in front of the bench, while turning her around with the left arm she connected with a vicious uppercut with the right that dropped the opponent like a sack of potatoes.

I'd seen it building for a little while but with the personality of the referee in the middle, I was unable to do anything to prevent it.

I've found that if the game is over officiated, you never have any problems in girls games. If you let them play and allow the same kind of contact that most referees allow in a men's game, you'll end up the same number of cautions and send-offs as the guys.