#1: avoid the same mistake in half two #2: was it lack of communication? poor positioning? something else? knowing why the mistake happened so that you can improve those things in half two #3: teamwork #4: communication we're no different than the two teams of players. do you think coaches avoid mentioning first half mistakes because they're in the past? coaches make adjustments and reinforce what's working well. the referee team is better off with a frank and honest halftime discussion.
i agree, but only up to a certain point. there's a middle ground somewhere, neither at the endpoint that i am defending nor the opposite endpoint you are defending. certain ref mistakes are no more likely to be avoided by discussing at halftime than not discussing at halftime. there are certain things that PLAYERS do that i know coaches don't bring up at halftime, because there's no good reason to do so. a goalkeeper makes a bonehead mistake, ball slips through his hands and goes into the goal. what's the point of bringing this up at halftime? are you really going to tell the gk, 'hey that was a terrible error. don't do that again in the 2nd half.' what good does it do? i say 'none.' it's not gonna help him to NOT make the mistake again. it MIGHT affect his confidence in a negative way. that is the same point i have been trying to get others to buy into regarding refereeing.
Coaches point out consistent issues the team needs to correct, maybe using a specific incident as an example. They don't point out individual one-time mistakes. It should be the same for referees: If there is a consistent problem to correct, they should discuss how to correct it. If you're talking about one-time situational mistakes, that's being human and there is nothing you can talk about to correct. Sometimes a mistake is just a mistake.
I agree. Earlier this year I was SAR with a 16 year-old CR and it was his very first time as a CR. At the half he asked me about a call that upset one side. Instead of saying that he blew a big call I (sort of) blew off the question and said that if he tweaked his positioning a bit that he would be in a better position to get those fouls right and he wouldn't get hit by the ball so much. They were running everything up the middle and he was running penalty-spot to penalty-spot. I told him to run wide on the opposite side from his lead AR and when the ball changed direction to cross over around midfield behind play. He had a better second half, but I could have said that he blew the call and shaken his confidence. At the half I try to make observations that will help the referee team have a better half. I'll the the other AR what I saw (good offside trap, a certain player likes to camp behind the 2LD but gets back on before the ball is passed, etc.) and I ask if there is anything I should know.
My biggest fear in life has always been making a big mistake that everyone else knows I made but me. If I make a big mistake, please let me know. I am sure the first time CR did not expect to get every call right his first time out.
My experience is that if "everybody" knows I blew a call (which has been known to happen) then "everybody" lets me know about it. I agree completely with your theory on possible mistakes...I want to know as soon as possible (RIGHT NOW so it can be corrected is best) if I've done something game-altering that is wrong according to the LOTG or the Spirit of the LOTG.
As I've been following the development of this thread I'm surprised at the lack of discussion about the pre-game instructions/referee meeting. It seems to me that this is exactly one of the scenarios that should be covered by a pre-game and thereby a preventable mistake. I'm getting ready to upgrade to 07 (again) and need to work on my pre-game anyway...now's a great time for me to start. I'd be interested to know if there is audio/video of the pre-game before this match. "What happens if something happens that I'm not sure about?" is a topic that should always be covered...even in my rushed, altered and too brief pre-games with referees I'm familiar and comfortable working with, for some higher-level or important competitions I make sure that this situation is one I go over...if something "big" happens behind my back or in my peripheral vision before doing anything drastic I'm going to check with both of you by staring you down before pulling any plastic...y'all know the drill: above the waist for caution, below the waist for send-off, nothing if you think nothing is called for, or shrug your shoulders if you don't have the slightest idea what I'm asking about. If I didn't see the play and none of my crew feels a red card is necessary, we can prevent my looking like an ass for punishing something that didn't really happen (or did but since nobody saw it we can't call it) Although I think it is awful for a red card to have been given on a play where the referee THINKS they saw something, I don't KNOW what the referee SAW so I can't really criticize but it seems that a conclusion was reached without a good viewing of the incident. It seems to me that unless a referee is sure of what they've seen, a red card is difficult to justify. Like someone else wrote, I'd be interested to read the match report to see how the send-off (OK 2nd YC) was written up.
An interesting thing today. Petignat was the fourth official for the USMNT friendly against Switzerland. Obviously it's standard practice to have a home country referee as the fourth for a friendly, but I thought it was an interesting appointment considering last month's events.