question about the backpass rule (R)

If the player was not intentionally trying to play the ball to the keeper. Usually the refs let that slide, because they notice what the player was trying to do and play it like that was not what they had planned to do. I assume that you are referring to the clearence in the MLS Cup game today. There was no intent to play the ball to Hartman on the play, it was just a bad clear, so the ref let Hartman do that.

 

Actually it's not a matter of whether we are "letting them get away with it."

The rules explicitly state that the pass must be done intentionally back to the keeper and by the foot. In the case here the defender was attempting to clear the ball completely but mis-kicked. The keeper is 100% legit in catching a ball off that kind of play.

 

Don't forget to look at the spirit of the law as well. The rule was originally instated to prevent defenders from wasting time by passing back to the keeper. The defender in this case was clearly not wasting time and as mentioned above there was no "intent", so it was a good non-call.

 

I've called a backpass twice this season, once in an adult match, once in high school. Hilariously, the player that played the ball back always says "It wasn't intentional!". Well, nobody wants to intentionally have an indirect awarded against their team in a dangerous area. Lacking mind - reading skills, my standard is if the player is facing his goalkeeper, the ball goes that way, he picks it up, it's intentional! Yes, he was playing it back to get out of trouble, and no, he didn't want the keeper to pick it up, but sorry guys!

 

What do you say when a defender dribbles left to right across the top of the PA and her own keeper simply comes out and picks the ball up off the defender's foot in the midst of the dribble? It is certainly not an intentional pass by the defender. Is it an evasion of the rule and, hence, a USB yellow on the keeper with an IDFK to the attacking team? Or, do you let it go?

 

In that case, I would blow the whistle. Even though it is not, technically, an intentional pass by the defender, the goalkeeper is, indeed, intentionally going after a ball the defender has full control of.

It's no different than two attackers who run crossing paths, and one attacker "steals" the ball from his teammate to confuse the defense. Even though the attacker who originally controlled the ball wasn't intentionally passing the ball to his teammate, nobody would disagree that the result of the play is, indeed, a completed pass.