In my outdoor game yesterday, a defender on the other team was under pressure and passed the ball back to the keeper. The defender miss-kicked it and it was headed towards goal away from the keeper. Out of desperation the keeper dove and caught the ball at the top of the six yard box. Now obviously this is illegal and results in a free kick inside the box. The ref called an indirect kick and issued a yellow card to the keeper. Is this the right call? It seems to me that it should have been either a PK or a red card for the keeper for conduct. But I was of course on the attacing team. Thanks.
The pass back to the keeper was invoked to prevent stalling - not to allow own goals. The infraction is an indirect free kick so a PK would not be appropriate. A red cards for "denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity" requires that the attacking team have possession or be denied possession. Neither of these is true for your situation. The referee probably was more strict that I would have been. I probably would have just yelled for them to keep playing - no call.
Anybody besides me wondering why the referee issued a yellow card to the keeper?? This just seems flat out wrong unless it was for dissent after the IFK was awarded. Scott
Thanks guys! The keeper didn't say anything to the ref. I think he issued the yellow card because he was inexperienced and we sort of influenced him into thinking he had to take some kind of action.
As the events were described, there was no misconduct, at most an infraction if the ball was deliberately played to the keeper, even if deliberately misplayed, though if misplayed by the foot and accidentally going to the keeper... nothing, in my opinion. I had one of these on Friday when a defender slid in to kick the ball, and the ball bounced up off his foot, directly to the keeper. There was some grumbling and even the keeper thought he was going to get called, but it was not an offense.
Defender passes back to the keeper but it is miskicked and it is headed towards goal. Keeper dove and got the ball inside the penalty area (18 yds). No infraction here since the ball was played with the head. Not sure what the referee was doing here. You mention the 6 yard box. That's only for goal kicks, not relevant to hand balls. Is this where the confusion is coming in?
Well it wasn't struck with the head it was kicked. When I said "headed towards goal" I meant it was "going in the direction of the goal". And I only mentioned the six yard box because the defenders obviously can't be 10 yards away from the spot of the foul thus given them a slight advantage over a normal free kick. Sorry for the condusion.
First of all, lets all agree that we are only talking about the fact that the keeper played the ball with his hands after the mis-hit. Let us all assume that this is in fact a clear "back pass" from the defender to the keeper for which we would all whistle it if he directly picked it up with his hands. I have a question on this one to the more experienced referees. Was this 2 separate plays or is this one continuation of the same play? 1) Defender plays it back to the keeper and keeper plays it with his feet. 2) Keeper plays a ball with is feet shanking it and collects it with his hands. Cleary part 1 is not an offense. Is part 2 and offense in and of itself? Imagine the following situation to imagine a part 2 by itself. Keeper goes outside the penalty area to one side of the field and collects the ball with his feet. As he is dribbling back through the penalty area, he attempts to hit is across the field to his defender. As he strikes the ball, he stubs it toe on the ground and mis-hits the ball and it is squibbed toward his own goal. He dives and pounces on the ball collecting it with his hands. I don't think anyone would argue that there is no infraction here. Now back to the situation at hand. Is it an infraction BECAUSE it was passed to him by the defender and he (eventually) played it with his hands? Or similarly, suppose he has picked up the ball with is hands. Then he drops it to the ground and is dribbling across the penalty area similar to my above situation and now mis-hits it toward his own goal. If he then collects it with his hands, is it a second touch?
If the ball were last played by an attacker, there is no offence. If the ball were last played by a defender, it is "passback" regardless of the keeper's miskick. Yes.
It is not illegal for the keeper to pass the ball to himelf, then pick it up. I've had this happen many times, and there's always a grumble or two because players think it's illegal. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with it as long as the keeper didn't receive the ball from an intentional pass nor already played the ball with his hands (except to make a save).
I'm fairly certain, based on the nature of the original post and the poster's lead in to his question, that the question was in regard to a keeper receiving a pass from a teammate, dribbling into the box, mishitting the ball, then picking it up out of desperation....IFK Scott
Back to the original scenario, I fail to see what the referee was thinking in giving a caution for this. I don't know how this could be construed misconduct.
No cautionable offense occured as I said before unless the keeper dissented. Boo-boo by the referee in giving the yellow. Scott
Without the additional scenario kevbrunton added, this question is even more interesting. Consider these two scenarios. 1) Defender passes the ball to a teammate behind him who attempts to clear the ball, but undercuts it with the ball spinning high in the air and gets blown back towards the goal. No offense if the keeper collects the ball, since it was clearly not an intentional pass (the ball's initial direction was more or less directly away from the keeper). 2) Defender passes the ball to the keeper who attempts to clear the ball with the same results. He undercuts the ball high into the air with the wind blowing the ball back towards the goal. Keeper can't save himself from the pass back infringement by his own incompetence? (At least that is how I would have to interpret it).
The keeper cannot "backpass" to himself -- it has to be from a teammate. If the defender's pass to the keeper is not a "backpass," then the keeper's miskick is not an infringement.