I didn’t know anyone actually counted?! Anyone dying on this hill has lost their ever loving mind. This can be handled completely by feel. A simple “let’s go keep” has all the implicit warning necessary once the R feels the time is getting unreasonably long. (While I think there needs to be some push back at the top levels where the time gets ridiculous, this should never, ever be called after anything close to 6 seconds.) That’s not what the book says, I know, but that’s the flat out reality of what is expected at all levels of soccer. (Frankly, IFAB made an unforced error in adding 6 seconds in the first place. The Laws always had a reasonable time limit on GKs releasing the ball, even back with the 4 steps. All they had to do was keep that, since that’s what they meant. 6 seconds should have been I guidance rather than in Law 12. Maybe they will quickly realize their mistake, as it’s on,y been about 40 years since the mistake….)
Back when I first started officiating high school soccer in the late 90s, the NFHS had both the four step rule and the six seconds to release the ball rule. It was hard keeping track of two things at the same time on my math-limited mind! I usually count in my head to 6, and when I reach 6, I’ll say to the goalkeeper, “Let’s go!” Then I count another 6 seconds in my head. If they haven’t released the ball by then, I’ll blow the whistle. 99% of the time, the goalkeeper releases the ball before I get to 6 in my count. When that doesn’t happen, they usually release the ball just as I’m about to say something. I can’t remember the last time I’ve made the 6 second call.
4 steps changed to 6 seconds sometime in the early 2000's. Not too long after I started reffing. But long enough that I sometimes still found myself counting steps after the change.
40, 20, what’s a few years among friends . . . But then, 4 steps wasn’t really enforced as written either . . .
I had four steps called on me for moving my pivot foot, IFK at the top of the goal area. "you must be kidding, that's not a step"!. Circa 1973. Officials did wear white knickers, zebra stripes and white hats back then.
I dimly remember a weird thing from the 70s where rolling the ball with your hand counted as a step, or something. But then everything I remember from the 70s is weird and/or dim!
Yup. For a while a bounce or a roll counted as 1 step. Going back farther (before my time), I believe there was something like you got 4 steps, and could bounce to get 4 more a couple of times. (My dad was a GK in college—could have been a college rule.) Sounds like HS refs wearing their pointy ball uniforms. (Those same guys who would call 6 seconds immediately today….)
That's probably why it either NFHS rule or explanation it specifically mentions that goalkeepers can bounce the ball as many times as they want within the 6 seconds. At least I think it's there. I don't have my NFHS rule book with me.
Very valid question. The instruction from our State Rules Interpreter was that this is treated the same way as managing encroachment. If you have to caution for this, the restart did not happen properly, so you go back to the original free kick. There is not a mention in the NFHS book about the ball being put into play (as in IFAB) that defines when this offense occurs. To me then, logic says that this misconduct happens prior to the free kick being taken. Not sure what the educational purpose was for making this one issue different from the LotG.
Nope. 12.7.1 "From the moment the goalkeeper takes control of the ball with the hands when playing as a goalkeeper within his/her own penalty area, he/she has six seconds in which to release the ball into play. During that interval, he/she may hold the ball, bounce it, or throw it into the air and catch it..."
Striking or attempting to strike is a foul, punishable by a direct free kick. It doesn't even require a yellow card. Violent conduct is a red card. If you want to show a red card for the swing and miss, call it violent conduct.
Good luck to you if you call a foul for striking and don’t give a red card. I’d like to hear you sell that call.
If I give a red card, I won't call it striking, I will say it was striking with excessive force. Or I will say it was violent conduct. If it was NCAA I would say it was fighting. But you won't find striking on a list of send off (DQ) offenses.
This doesn't mean to not give a red card if a player punches someone. It's that there is a different reason for the red card in NFHS rules. If you look at the list for reasons for yellows and reds in the NFHS rule book, they are different (and differently named) than the reasons in IFAB's LOTG.
12.8.2 "A player, coach or bench personnel shall be disqualified (red card) for: a. exhibiting violent conduct...."
1. Reasons for cautions in NFHS (Rule 12-8-1): entering/leaving the field without permission, persistent infringement, dissent, incidental use of vulgar/profane language, use of electronic communication with on-field players during play, and unsporting conduct. 2. NFHS unsporting conduct includes (but is not limited to) the following: coaching outside the team area, unnecessary delay, holding shirt or shorts, deliberate verbal tactics, encroachment, deliberate handball to stop an attack, deliberate tactical foul, faking an injury, simulating a foul, reckless play, illegally equipped player, excessive/prolonged acts which focus attention on the player and delay the restart, DOGSO-H but the goal is scored, DOGSO-F but the goal is scored, commits a foul while attempting to play the ball in the PA and a PK is awarded, use of tobacco products 3. Reasons for disqualifications (red cards) in NFHS (Rule 12-8-2): violent conduct, taunting, 2nd caution, spitting, offensive/abusive language, leaving the team area for a fight, and serious foul play. 4. Serious foul play includes: direct free kick foul with disproportionate and unnecessary force, DOGSO-H and the goal is not scored, DOGSO-F outside the PA and the goal is not scored, DOGSO in the PA while not attempting to play the ball and a goal is not scored Misconducts are similar in NFHS but not identical to IFAB's list.
Back to informing-the-coach (my mind has been elsewhere) ... in my experience, most (good) HS coaches like to know whether the card was for something the player did, or something s/he said.
So far this season: 2 VAR middles, 2 Red Cards issued. One for CRAZY obvious DOGSO on a GK, somehow coach thought it should be yellow. One for SFP... defender points out attacking player who has NO chance of getting to the ball, and when said attacking player attempts to run past defender (as GK collects ball, 7 yards away), defender lowers shoulder and smashes attacking player to the ground. REALLY more of an orange card, but we're supposed to be focusing on getting the unnecessary violence out of the HS game, so BYE BYE! Here's my conundrum...I feel like I'd have gone YC in any other match. This is a "pre-season" two-week-long tourney and defender's team was already losing 2-0. No, wait, I'm not sorry about it.
If it makes you feel any better technically it should have been VC since there was no play for the ball based on your description. So you gave them a break either way.
The description described reminds me of this clip from the recent NISOA series starting at 1:10:59. When they ask the poll, they still get a decent number of refs saying SFP which leads to the big dog Paul Tamborino getting on and expressing that this must be VB (or VC outside of college).