My first non-college affiliated adult match is this weekend and it's a 90m O50 solo! For those of you who have worked that type of game, what adjustments [if any] should I look to make for the ~30+ year age gap?
I have a walker to match each shirt color and put some nice flames on em to make it look like I get around the circle of excellence quicker
I've found that having some white on our shoes makes us look like we're walking much faster than all-black ones.
The game ended up going very well; my black walker with orange flames ended up making it 6.2 miles and there was only one situation of note. Early in the 2nd half an away team CM goes down near midfield, clear careless foul so I give it a tweet, but the guy just keeps sitting there exclaiming "HEFEREE ITS GOTTA BE A YELLOW, LOOK AT MY CHIN." I check on the player and see a small scrape right in the center of where his shin guard should've been. He was upset enough to walk off towards the home bench, say god knows what in some non-English language, and then continue towards the stadium fence exit to go to his car with a few riled up Home team players in tow. I'm far from big at 5'8 140, but luckily getting in the middle of a few big dudes, blasting eardrums, and escorting him off the playing area was enough to mitigate any regrettable choices from the players during that incident and for the remainder of the game.
I mostly ref high school games and U16-U19 competitive games. Since I've been having knee trouble this season, my game load has been pretty light as the season winds down. This weekend happened to be crazy due to the state tournament and weather-rescheduled games, so I got assigned a U10 and U12 game. Initially I grumbled about being assigned such low level games, but I like to be helpful and did them with full enthusiasm. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun on the field. A bunch of kids who just wanted to run around and play. Coaches who just wanted the kids to have fun. Parents talking about the point of these games is to keep kids active and let them run off some energy. The best part happened in the U12 game. Attacker kicked the ball toward goal from outside the PA. The girl defending in the PA should have had time to head the ball or just get out of the way, but her survival instinct was to protect her face with her arms. Very slow developing, but the ball hits her arms and all play stops as the ball slowly rolls over the end line. I've got the whistle to my mouth, sigh slowly, and call for a corner. Expecting the worst, I hear a parent start talking behind me. "Good call, ref. Nobody wants to see a penalty on a play like that."
Around 80% of my games this calendar year were on the small size fields. Four this past Saturday, all U11 & U12, all girls. Except for one parent who insisted that a foul inside the PA is an indirect kick when the ball is outside the PA, the rest of the day was fun. I made one girl's day by pronouncing her name right (Vada, and I happened to referee with another Vada. So I pronounced it the same way). One game was a track meet, but they played mostly clean. Maybe four fouls tops, all in the first half. Another game with a normal goal each and two converted PKs each. I think I am allergic to PKs at this age, but these I couldn't let go. The game ended 3-3 and a parent said, "At least you called it both ways." So much laughing, giggling, even one girl coaching on the field. U12 girl telling her teammates where they needed to be and then when the ball went out of play, explaining to her teammate why she needed to be there. Her footwork lacked, took many bad first touches, but she was right almost all the time about positioning. It was a fun day.
My operating principle was, and I'd tell the players if they asked me: "If it's a hard shot and you are just protecting yourself instinctively, you're OK. But remember, *I* get to decide what is 'hard'." And generally, if they had all day to camp out under a high lobbed ball and decided at the last minute to put their arms up over their head to block it - well, sorry, you should have either decided a better way to play the ball, or ducked. My cut-point on it was around the U14 rec level; U12's got more latitude on the definition of instinctive. Travel teams - no way. If you could survive the tryout process, you could survive getting a foul called on you.
Sometimes it's better to have no clock operator. After visitors scored to go up 2-0 last week, I noticed the clock didn't restart after the kickoff (I even did my fancy NFHS windmill!). No bother, there were 10 minutes left in the half and I had my watch going. The guy eventually realized he was asleep and started the clock about a minute late. The next time the ball went out of bounds I blew the whistle with the "stop clock" signal and yelled up at the guy to correct the time. Home coach lost his mind, "The stadium clock is the official time! You aren't allowed to adjust it!"
Last week of the season for U12 girls rec, and I get a team that's 0-8 with a minus-21 goal difference (5 GF, 26 GA). They're up against one of the top teams. But they're having a blast. The goalkeeper is the loudest player but not the only cheering when they do little things like getting a throw-in or getting the ball past midfield. The coach has promised that anyone who scores a goal can dump water on him -- if they win, the whole team can dump water on it. It's clear early on that no one's expecting us to do a lot. No one's fouling. No one's yelling "handball" every time the ball hits a tucked-in arm. The only time I saw a player in an OSP who looked like she was going to get the ball, I heard her coach say, "Abby, you're a mile offside." In retrospect, we should've called a double touch on a goal kick when the keeper (of the favored team!) scuffed it and sent it maybe two feet before kicking it to safety, but everyone on the field was so stunned that no one noticed. That's not the only mistake by the favored team. The schedule is strange -- they have seven teams, so one team plays twice on each game day. This is their second game, and they were just eliminated from the title race, so they're not really up for it. The underdogs gain confidence. The favorites bunch up, and the underdogs manage to switch the field. Breakaway. Goal. The favorites make it 1-1 a bit later, and it stays that way until there are maybe two minutes left. A mad scramble in front of the favorites' net. Finally, the ball bounces out 10 yards from goal, and one of the underdogs rips it. Literally. The ball went through the net, causing me to hesitate long enough that the center ref, a high school senior calling her last rec game for the foreseeable future, comes over to ask if I saw something. Nope -- just wasn't entirely sure the ball had gone in, but everyone else was. Final whistle. Cheers. A drenched coach. Fun game.
In my experience over the last couple years, "travel" is no longer a good dividing line for quality. I see some really really low skilled "travel" teams.
I didn't say they were quality. I just said that they should know better. If they don't, that's the team and coaches' faults.
Our largest local high school's fancy new stadium clock has the hiccups... As it counts down, it will randomly stall for 2-4 seconds then take off again and zip through the paused numbers before resuming the normal countdown pace for the next 30-90 seconds until it repeats the process. Was like that all season and quite maddening when glancing at the clock's time to ensure it was running or with the ball in/near the PA in the game's final seconds, ... As AR2, I have seen the stall with 1.58 seconds remaining . A small school about 45 mins from here is notorious for clock issues on their HSGV games... apparently the clock operator videotapes his kid at the same time ... He often says, "I didn't hear you say stop clock.". We have learned to accumulate his foul-up's so we only have two or three "please reset the game clock to x:xx" each half. Yes, he's that bad.
NFHS Soccer Rule 5.3.2, "The head referee or center referee shall ... instruct the timer to correct the clock when necessary."
Oh man, I had exactly that this spring, similar large HS with similar fancy new scoreboard. We kept the time on the field, but they kept the goofy scoreboard clock running, which was kind of confusing. "Coach, that's not the official time. We've got that on the field." "Got it." "Coach ..." "Got it."
Which issue are you referring to? The VALID issue that there are only 2 referees?! Or the INVALID issue that only the overly fussy bring up that the two goalkeepers are wearing the same color?
Last HSBV conference final on Saturday night. Temp @ game time (7PM) was a crisp 48° and the sun had already set. thought the game was going to go the home side way and in the 3" they are up 1-0. Visitors surprise though and it is 1-1 in the 5". Guess we have a game! Both teams playing a high line and both are sending balls deep and running under them. So, I am not getting ANY rest and am longingly looking towards the Circle of Excellence. My AR1 has caught the home OSP about 4 times in the first half. players aren't happy about it. I tell then that she is right on the line and can see. Coach comes to me at halftime and asks and I tell him the same thing. He says his players are saying they are well on. I said that is his first mistake listening to what HS boy's say. He laughs and I say he will be able to tell in the 2nd half as they will be going in his direction. He agrees and says then he will just yell at them. Home team puts in 3 more and visiting team is out of gas. All of the home teams goals were off crosses. Either straight crosses or CK's they did the same thing every time and I just wanted to yell at visiting side not to run in after the first group runs towards goal because home team would have one guy delay his run and he was open EVERY TIME to slot it in the net... So it is now 6-1 and home team has a breakaway, he is fouled right at the PA line. I am following the play, and blow my whistle. and stand just outside the PA, home players run over and say it was a PK, I point to the turf field that has a big scuff mark JUST outside the PA, I say, "this is where it occurred" and they all nod there heads and say, OK. Thank goodness for scuff marks, I had no idea if that was THE scuff mark, but it really helped sell the call. We are just finishing out the game and as the ball goes OOB I hear a player say "He was coughing up blood". I turn around and do a quick scan of the field, all 22 players are just standing around waiting for the throw in and I see no one in distress. I turn back to get the TI and see AR1 running up the line with her flag waving. I stop the game and go over there. Visiting coach tells me her keeper is diabetic and told his defense he was coughing up blood, I look and he is just standing there like nothing going on. I let her substitute him and the trainer goes over and we finish the game. Everyone happy, even visiting team didn't seem too upset, they were pretty big underdogs even with a final. Put in 3.6 miles and I actually felt pretty good running it. With the big 50 a few weeks away I guess that is something to put in my hat. Game ended with a chilly 39° temp and concession stand left 3 hot chocolates for me and my crew. Until April.... better hit the gym.... I remember when I used to reff soccer to stay in shape. Now, I try to stay in shape to reff soccer.
I was going to bring up that it seems the refs are wearing different types of SOCKS! That and both teams have blue socks!!! MY GOD IT IS THE SOCKPOCALYPSE!!!!
One of her teammates said "We call her Darth because when she takes a shot she uses the Force." She wasn't very accurate, but she did kick the heck out of the ball.
No they’re both in the 2 stripe it seems. And this would all be solved if USSF just required colored socks like UEFA.