On Thursday of this week I ended up being the only referee to show for my 6:30 p.m. U-12G game. It wasn't too surprising, however, as constant rain earlier in the week jacked with the State Cup district games, so many teams and officials were scrambling to complete them by yesterday. I did the first half with two club linesmen. Luckily the State Cup on the neighboring field started at 6:00, so two of the referees stayed to take the AR positions for me. With that out of the way, does anyone have any advice on how to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed when handling the game by yourself? I felt obligated to run much deeper and to more areas of the field than I would typically with ARs. Because these U-12 fields are, in my opinion, too small I found myself constantly sprinting after keeper punts (it wasn't uncommon for punts to go keeper-to-keeper on one bounce), which sometimes left me feeling as if I were out of position or at least struggling to get wide enough to give me a chance to catch offside, yet still be in a central enough position to see the action all jumbled. There has to be some "tricks" to be more efficient in these situations which, thankfully, don't occur too often in my experience.
My best advice, as it has worked for me in the past, is to have a discussion with the coaches before the game and discuss the problems that are going to be created by you working alone. Make sure that they undestand that you will do the best you can, but you are not Superman. You will do the best you can judging offside, and you will do the best you can keeping up with the play, but they need to give you some leeway because you are working alone, and you only have one set of eyes.
Agreed. the key is to inform the coaches of the problems inherent with running solo, especially if the lines are not clear. 1. You will do your best with offside but without an AR you will need very clear indications of offside before you can call it as such. We can only call what we clearly and actually see... 2. You will take a quicker and harsher view on dissent, especially from the bench since you are still calling 100% of the game, minus 66% of the staff. 3. You will only call what you see. Period.
Agree with above. Let the coaches know ahead of time, and remind them that the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacker. Ask them to be reasonable. If I'm alone I tend to flatten out my diagonal and run more towards one side so I have a better shot at catching a side view for offsides. I generally choose to run the bench side so I can keep a handle on them. U10-14 you should be fine by yourself. 15 and up it can be a lot of work. Good chance to get in some fitness. Try to set the tone early, and don't take any crap from the benches.
That flat idea is a good one. There is nothing harder than calling a player offside from your position around the middle of the field.
If the players are a bit older, I like to ask the captains before the toss to be respectful of the laws and play like gentlemen especially on a day when you are gonna have your hands full. There's a lot of situations near touchlines were a daft player will try to grab the ball as though it was his throw in even if he knew it went out on him. If you've got CR/2ars its easy to thwart these shennanigans but you're not going to be on top of every in/out if you're running a large pitch. That, and a flat run on the coaches side is usually what I do on the chance that im shorthanded. I like to run though, so I dont mind being near the play. If I have 2 matches that day and one is shorthanded, I dont mind running a bit to try to get it right.
I tell captains at the coin toss about offside traps etc. I will do my best, but won't call it unless I am sure and I may not be in the best position for it at all times, so my advice would be play the whistle. I then have the same talk with the coaches since captains are not the best at relaying the message. Even with this you will need to repeat this several times in the game. I abandon the diagonal. It's a flatter run, but will shift side to side depending on play. Other issues, ball in/out while rolling down the touch line Oh, and run your butt off, you're gonna need it. This also applies to when only 1 AR shows up, however you can then give him a bit more leeway in that end, if he can handle it.
Positioning. I ignore the standard diagonal as it will put you too far wide to cover play in what is normally considered the AR's quadrant. Think about folding the length of the field in two (sides bordered by the touchline); the mental "fold line" is rarely more than 30 yards from the touchline. My goal is to be on the same "side" of the field as the ball, behind and to the same side of play that is "closer to the fold line. " From there, I can be 15 yards from play, and still be able to recover on balls crossed to the opposite side or to cover counterattacks with a modest sprint. You give up being near the touchline. That means you may need help on ball in and out of play. I find that club lines are not helpful. I usually try read the players and coaches for clues that the ball is out of play on crowned fields where it is difficult even to see the touchline.. Offside. I try to note who is always in an offside position. They will give you an opportunity to make an early offside call. This will cause the strikers to adjust their runs rather than keep testing (if they think you will call the close ones against them, they will cause fewer close ones.) You must be in position to call fouls and have to give up perfection on offside calls on the counterattacks. But, rather than focus on the second to the last defender, I focus on the closest attacker. if you know generally where are the one or two attacking players who are candidates for offside calls, it is easier to look for them as the counterattack develops and then find the defender. Gifts. Throw-ins are a marvelous gift. The referee gains 2 to 3 seconds to move to a better location for where play will develop. I love it when attackers turn with the ball during a counterattack. If you keep sprinting forward, it gives several seconds for you to catch up and get a good angle. You catch your breath when you can watch play develop around you. Angle is better than distance on counterattacks, but sometimes the best angle is on the right side of play. It's hard not to try to cross behind the ball and get on the left side.
The local men's league has a summer season, but only pay for centers. You get pretty good at predictive positioning after your second game when it's 104 here in central Texas. I do recall a game in which someone on the sideline was complaining that an attacker had been a step offside when one of his defenders cleared the ball to him. I can only hope that the look I gave this person as I sprinted down field to try to catch up with play conveyed my exact thoughts.
When I've been in this situation, I do something I virtually never do otherwise -- make a speech. I gather both teams together and explain to them about the early days of soccer when it was considered a "gentlemen's game" and the referee wasn't even on the field. He was only there to provide answers about the rules and settle questions when the two teams disagreed. Otherwise, the "gentlemen" called the game themselves. I ask them to be honest and hold up their hand when a ball hits them last before going out and to do the same if they know they are caught in an offside position. That, along with some admonishments about fair play and understanding that I'm not going to catch everything, brings a surprising result. The teams actually seem to treat each other better as well as lay off the dissent. The whole thing takes about two or three minutes. It really works.
A lot of good advice above. One caveat is that going deeper really depends on who you are and who they are. That is great for U-12G on a smaller field and you are in good shape. Try the same thing with U-14 premier boys or high school ages on a big field and you will be left in the dust unless you are really in elite shape. On those games I will try to run a relatively straight diagonal slightly to one side to give perspective, and try to get peeks at who might be offside before they pass. But I will give up the deeper run so that I don't get 40 yards behind, because then you are toast. Once you have done enough solos and 1 AR games, you actually get some perspective on these calls. I would like to thank my last assignor, who gave me so many short crews I feel like I don't need ARs....:+)
I really appreciate all of the responses so far. I love how much of a resource this forum can be. I did this and, for better or worse, when I was soliciting club linesmen I even quickly mentioned this to the parents. That didn't stop one groups of parents from giving me grief on a goal scored by a player who, according to the club linesman, would have been one step off at most (in his opinion). Oh well, you can only do so much, right?
A lot of my games are by myself. Our local "travel" league only has lines for playoffs (for U14 and below). (though I do some higher level games too) I always try to trail the play, so as to be able to see the offside and to be able to see any late hits. I usually tell the teams that if the ball is close to the line, keep playing until I stop you, if it goes out by a few feet everyone can see that, but if its close keep playing. If I see it out I will call it, if not then the game continues on. (I miss a few, especially looking into the sun on fields that are not marked real well - or the lines have faded.) Once in awhile a parent will complain, I sometimes (at the half or after) have them step onto the pitch and see how close to the lines they have to be to actually see the lines(especially looking into the sun). The bigger problem is the endlines, because you have to get so deep to see if the ball has crossed. Usually you can get a sense if the kids stop playing. I had one coach come up to me and tell me his team played an offside trap. I just smiled and told him he did it at his own peril, cause I can't look at two places at the same time.