Could be just a short film if you want, even sub 10 minutes. Depends on what you want to do, whether it's making a larger point about women officiating men's games, or about soccer and how it brings people together in general regardless of differences. Or specifically a slice of life story from this woman in particular. Definitely interview her and film it, and see if she's compelling or tells any specific stories that could be interesting. Than you can decide whether just to get interviews from other female officials today in the game (might be difficult). Or you could consider casting someone, getting a film crew, writing a 10 minute script, and making a short film based on a story or something.
haha...excellent point. I'm hoping Front Row Soccer will publish an interview shortly, also possible that Equalizer Soccer will do something on Betty as well. We shall see!.
While I was at my son's soccer game today (didn't offciate, as I had five high school matches in two days this weekend), my wife was at the store and ran into some friends of ours. They proceeded to tell her that their son's team had two very physical and challenging matches with parents and students directing comments at players. The wife of the couple then told my wife, "We needed (me) for those matches. He wouldn't have put up with any of that." That might be the highest compliment I can receive as an official, when someone says something to the effect of "that game was pretty bad, and we would have liked to have you at the game."
Drank 8 bottles of fluids today and still managed to come in down 4 lbs lighter than this morning. But it was my first games with no masks so it's not a complaint. Remember to hydrate!
After 4 Overtime games with 2 going to KFTM so far this season, I had my shortest varsity game of the season on Friday. With the 10 goal rule, we had a 16-0 girls varsity game that lasted one half. The timer forgot to stop the clock after 5-0, but we won't tell on him.
18.27 miles for the weekend. After doing a ton of HS varsity, MLSNext and EDP matches over the past year and older groups in 2019, I was helping out at a tournament and did a couple U-12 matches yesterday. Seems like this is the first time doing this level in a couple years. Game one - great - two town teams. Small feet, small ball, long grass. Lots of pushing, bumping etc. Both teams play hard. No complaints. Not a word from any spectators. Just the way you want a game to go. Game two - local 'premier' team vs. another high level team from about 75 miles away. Both teams are physical. Not to the point of dirty, but, you know U-12's learning the physical part of the game. Sometimes it looks a bit goofy and clumsy. We have our share of fouls, but damn here comes the vocal 3-5 of the out of town team heaping shit on me for 'missing' all the fouls the other team is committing. Meh, means nothing to me. By the second half, their team which started out well, have fallen behind. Now they are calling out the individual players of the other team. I issue a warning to the fans and let the coaches know. A few minutes later it happens again and at that point I have enough. Stop the match and tell the group to leave. They are now quiet except for their 'I wasn't us'. I tell the field marshall and their coaches, the game won't resume until something is done. They all go over and address them. Pretty certain, they were read the riot act by their coach. Don't think they left, but last 10 minutes were played in silence. Post game, players are all very nice, coach apologizes for them and said "our players liked how you called the game. You were the best ref we had all weekend. Our team is physical. They just aren't used to getting it back at them" Get me back to covid restricted attendance HS games ASAP! U-12 is crossroads of spectator stupidity and unrealistic expectations.
Agreed. The louder and dumber you are, the closer your foldout chair is to the touch line in an already unreasonably small spectator area.
Then there are U10s. First foul of my third game and White out of town defender stands with his toes touching the ball. I say "move back" and he says "No." "Move back." "I don't have to." Red out of town player kicks the ball right at the defender. I blow the whistle and card the White player for FRD. Parents lost their minds, but the coach, to his credit, quieted them down. Just for the moment. They continued to grumble about calls. Even those against the other team. "You aren't calling them fast enough." One even said "It would help if you kept the whistle in your mouth." The words "It would help if you kept a sock in yours" got right to the top of my throat before I pushed them back down. Last month I worked an academy playdate for Red's club. That very player asked me then about "asking for ten." "What happens if someone stands by the ball and I don't ask for ten?" "You can still kick it to a teammate. Or, if the opponent is that close, you can kick it at him and he will be carded for failure to respect the distance." Red player remembered. Smart kid.
Ah, you guys are talking about volume and proximity. I'm talking about the quality of the spectator stupidity and unrealistic expectations. At U-13, the parents have "graduated" from two and maybe even four years of Academy and their kids may have been playing for as much as eight years, so they've seen it all and understand it all, and now they're on the big field playing 11 v. 11, so it's "real soccer," and they want it played and called that way -- except they really don't because it's still their babies getting knocked down out there, and no they still don't know s*** about the game and how it should be called. In fact, some of them are just now encountering "real referees" for the first time. I don't really mind U-12, but I hate U-13. But admittedly some of that is on me too. It's easy to remember to call a U-12 match differently from a U-15 or U-16, because you're on the smaller field and there's only 18 of the little buggers, not 22. But I have a hard time remembering to call U-13 more like U-12 than like U-15 -- especially coming to a U-13 right after a U-17. Not to mention U-13 is where you tend to get into the coaches with the British Empire accents, who are resentful because they think they're cut out for bigger and better things and feel entitled to ask you if you ever even played the game. I hate U-13.
But you would still remember to issue red cards for DOGSOs at U13, right? I saw two blatant DOGSOs not called in the tournament I attended this weekend (neither against my kid). First one I saw sees a kid alone with the keeper. The defender behind the attacker, in a desperate attempt to stop the breakaway, sweeps the leg. Referee calls a free kick coming out for the defending team for a trip on the attacker (yes, you read that correctly). Yesterday, I'm watching as a different kid is clear toward goal. Defender is beaten and gives the attacker a two-forearm shove to the back in the penalty area. Attacker goes down, referee (who was 50 yards away) waves any foul off and pushes his arm out and down in the universal "he dove" motion. A different team completely unrelated to the two teams on the field was watching, and all of them were shocked that there was no foul. (I'm also still trying to figure out why a kid completely clear on goal would suddenly dive to get a penalty kick call when he's all alone with the goalkeeper, but maybe that's just me . . .) I was not in an official capacity in either match, so I didn't say anything at the fields. But one of the other instructors and I are going to talk about how he has some discussions with the two referees in question about how to let these two referees know that they need to recognize and sanction obvious DOGSOs.
Yes of course. And I would never ever let that pretty coach talk me out of it, like I might in a U-12. My main problem with how I call the first U-13 match of the day (as opposed to how I listen or don't listen to the parents and coaches) is adjusting my foul and misconduct thresholds.
And don't get me started on the well-accented U-13 coaches who yell "we'd take the advantage on that one" after a whistle for a foul in their defensive third.
I will agree with you on the following: 1. They may have graduated from the town club team to some bloke in a tracksuit with a British accent and cool haircut for 'Club XXXX FC Premier'. So yes perhaps, but that is also washed with them playing middle school soccer, so things are really happening. 2. Then there is the mature 5'5" 13 yo playing against the 4'3" 13 yo. that make the moms crazy and the dads complaining about the mugger on the field. Bravo