I am not making this up. I have a JV/Varsity Doubleheader today. Dual with two separate partners. JV partner is a 67 year old guy who I reffed with before. First thing he says to me when we meet is “I’m not running very well.” I say “Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you, stay deep.” He follows none of that advice. Varsity partner is 30 year old who can move. We click. He makes a foul call in the corner as trail ref near the corner flag. He was 2 feet from the foul. We get handshakes from all the coaches, said we were the best they had had all year.
I'm going to be in your neck of the woods Saturday. OK, Atlanta is a BIG chunk of "woods," Sandy Springs, actually. Hopefully I don't run into that kid's older cousin there.
Great game last night. High school boys varsity. Two teams from the same, large school district. Both have traditionally been middle of the pack and a not all that great pack to begin with. Home school has just emerged from a two or three year total reconstruction of their school that included a great new stadium with a first class track and turf field. Home team is mostly tall white bread, playing long ball, try to run onto it but doing a nice job of actually passing it to a teammate, not just kicking it. Visitors are mostly Latino with some blacks and a random Caucasian. They're playing a beautiful one touch game at a level you just don't see in high school. Time after time, one of their guys is playing 1 v 2 or even 1 v 3 and gets himself open to pass to an unmarked teammate. So lots of fast play by both teams. This is well above normal standards of play for both schools. We go 28 minutes before the first foul! I knew the fouls would come because they would get tired but I really enjoyed the clean play while we had it. Visitors score with a guy dribbling past three or four defenders in the penalty area and gets wide open for a shot from the goal area line, keeper had no chance. About 12 minutes later, home player is off to the races from 45 yards out, with a much shorter defender trying to keep up with him on his right. I'm 10 to 15 yards behind and a little to their left. Defender tries to clear the ball away but hits the attacker's foot instead, enough to put him off balance. We're now five yards outside the penalty area. The attacker stumbles once, twice, three times, still going forward, as he closes on the keeper, who has come off his line, with the ball slightly in front of him. And, with his fourth stumbling, off balance step, he toe punches the ball under the diving keeper and it rolls into the goal. The crowd and players go nuts! I felt really good about being so patient. 1-1. At half, AR2 asked me, "were you going to call a foul there?" "OH YEAH!" AR1 says, "You were running with the whistle up real high on your chest." Final 2-1 (winning goal a rocket from 25 yards at an angle to the far post), a card for delaying the restart with 10 seconds left in the first half and a card to visitors for the only ugly foul of the game. A great game and the referee team didn't do too badly either.
Not a best refereeing story. The last two weekends all my games have been cancelled so I haven't been on the pitch for three weeks. After two or three days of rain, it was beautiful yesterday. I was forced to spend the afternoon doing yard work and playing with my grandson. Life is good, but I miss my time on the field! (Grandsons are the best; I may change my tune if I get a granddaughter.)
Passed my second (and last needed) maintenance assessment yesterday, also was able to get an up and coming referee his first line assessment on the same game - he also passed!
Past my State Referee maintenance physical fitness test. We still do the 12 minute run, 50 M sprint, 200 M sprint. All of my marks were better than last year. Just have to do the "written" test but that's not open until December, I believe.
It is going to be a month off of the field for me. One rain out, then the grandparents were supposed to come in and visit my kids this past weekend, so I didn't accept any games....but they canceled and rescheduled for next weekend. The other set of grandparents are coming the weekend after.
It is going to be a month off of the field for me. One rain out, then the grandparents were supposed to come in and visit my kids this past weekend, so I didn't accept any games....but they canceled and rescheduled for next weekend. The other set of grandparents are coming the weekend after.
Got my 14-yr-old son out for his first CR, U9B. Asked him how he liked it, he opined he's looking forward to U11/U12 since the field is bigger and you run more.
Sounds like he got trained well. From time to time, when I was scheduled to ref a U12 rec game, I'd encourage (with the approval of the assignor) an up and coming AR to take the middle. I remember at least one case where my pointers after the game were that she had to run more. She needed to get down near to the PA whenever play moved that way. She was used to smaller U8 and U10 fields where moving 20 yards up and back would keep you close to play.
My first full size field AR I was told the same thing, that I needed to run more. Four such games last Saturday and I was glad the whole second half of the last game the action was on the other end of the field.
I had a new referee as an AR on a U16 Boys game in the best intrastate league. I love getting referees who are willing to be better. The game didn't end up being too difficult, but I was able to give a couple of pointers about typical new referees, don't watch play too much. Don't reach out and stop a ball in case someone complains that you didn't try hard enough later. Positioning on corner kick.
Great weekend for me. Four DA games, two on Saturday, two on Sunday. The first two games were U14 and U15 girls. I had the whistle for the first game, and although the game finished 5-1, it was still fun to referee. I only issued two cautions--both for UB--but the command presence required for the game was more than one might expect from a U14G game, DA or otherwise. The second game of the day was also a blowout: 5-0. I was an AR on this game, and there was quite literally nothing to write home about. Boring, one-sided play throughout the game. On Sunday, the real fun began. I had two lines: U15B and U16-17B. The only notable things in the U15 game were the two goals scored by the home team, each outstanding in their own right. The first was a dipping free kick in the 47th minute from 25 yards out which flew into the top corner, while the second, only two minutes later, was something else entirely. The ball was played down the right wing and whipped in. Red player bicycle kicked the ball, but it wasn't wide enough to find the corner of the net, so the keeper parried it out. While standing about twenty yards out, one of his teammates, #3, (facing away from the goal) volleyed his shot into the top right corner. The U17 game was a far more intense one. There was an incident involving the keeper that I, at AR2, couldn't get a good look at. From my angle, it looked like the red goalkeeper accidentally punched white's center forward in the face while challenging for a high ball. After the game, the referee told me that the ball skimmed off the keeper's glove and the side of his glove made contact with the attacker's face. In the same game, a penalty was called in the 78th minute. Red #29 was pulled down in the box, but the ball, still in play, had already gotten away from him, so no DOGSO. After a few offside non-calls that some spectators thought were wrong, I was called a cheater and corrupt. Because obviously, when one wants to be corrupt, the most consequential place to do it is in a youth soccer game. Great logic .
At a tourney a couple of weeks ago a coach, post-match (after a kiddo on his team gave up the game-winning PK with a volleyball style overhead spike of the ball in the PA [broke my heart, should have ended in a tie]), accused me of being biased against his team. Both teams were U10, sloppy, grabby and from out-of-town. Because, you know, I have a shirt color preference. Only his team got YC, one for dissent, one for PI on red #9. Maybe they thought I prefer KC BBQ to Chicago BBQ?
Well, c'mon now. His team couldn't possibly have lost unless you were biased, could they? It's a problem. Referees keep refusing to take responsibility. Sad.
Random notes from this morning's U14 boys: Assistant coach: "He got the ball!" Me: "Yeah but he got the player too." Coach: "Yeah he did. Good call." Assistant coach: "He can't pass the ball back to the keeper!" "Me: "He hit it with his knee. That's OK." Coach: "Yep that's right. Good call." Then one I'm not so proud of. Kid is in my ear. "He got the ball." "Got it blue, let's play." "But that's not a foul. He got the ball!" Yak yak yak. So I did my "Just for my clarification, are you arguing the call?" Headlights. "Um. Yes?" "Wrong answer." Yellow card. And then I felt guilty. I don't think I'll pull that one on 13-year-olds anymore. 17-year-olds maybe. Maybe not. Then another one I felt even guiltier (more guilty?) about. Waning minutes of a hard-fought, 1-goal match. Active run of play, I'm concentrating on play. Left ear: "Time ref?" "Hold on." I didn't want to look at my watch. "How much time ref?" "Hold on." "Time ref?" "Hold on dammit!" "Well you don't have to curse." Sigh. His mother will probably report me. But the real highlight was when my Bibi-Steinhaus-commemorative bright yellow Fox 40 did exactly what I hoped it might do for me if called upon someday. Whistle hand gets nailed hard by a kicked ball and the whistles go flying - where? "Oh sh__" I'm thinking as I look around on a beat down turf field with lots of field pellets, small trash, leaves and other junk littering it. And there it is, gleaming like a lighthouse on a dark and stormy night. "Here I am!" Scoop it up and off I go - just in time to blow a foul.
I had a tough U12B game, made tough by doing three games yesterday, U10 solo, U14 line on a full size field and a U12 center. Today was a U10 solo, U11B line, U11B center, then finally the U12B center. This game was quick paced and well coached. My legs were tired and my mind wasn't fully there at times. I relied on my ARs more than I normally do. One was fantastic. The other, less so and it caused issues in the second half. In this game, when Blue keeper made a save, a Red player would run just outside the PA and stand there. The keeper would run up to the edge of the PA to punt and have to move one way or the other to avoid the statue. The Red player would not jump nor run toward the keeper as he was punting. Just stand there. After a few times, the keeper complained that the Red player was interfering. I said he was not as he was just standing there and getting to that spot well before the keeper was. Late in the game, the keeper looked right at the Red player and punted the ball right at him, hitting his opponent in the head. It was not a hard punt. He seemed to take a bit off the punt and the red player barely flinched when he was struck. So I gave the keeper a yellow card and restarted with an indirect kick for Red. Red was down 3-0 at one point, but in the 50th minute Red scores. Then in the 55th minute, red scores again. Because of injuries, the yellow card and conferences with the AR who was struggling, I gave three minutes stoppage. That turned into four minutes because of another conference with the AR and time wasting by Blue's keeper. With 15 seconds left on my watch, a Red shot on goal was handled by a Blue player in the PA. When I didn't blow my whistle right away, the Red players and spectators went ballistic. One Red player kept his head and banged the ball into the net. I blew my whistle, pointed to the center circle and watched the Blue team and spectators now go ballistic. Blue coach complained that the three minutes of stoppage ran out "six minutes ago." I am taking the rest of the week off for personal reasons and to rest this body. Hopefully I'll be fresh mentally and physically for Saturday's games.