Elizondo when I first saw B13 I was worried it was gonna be one of those silly parent involved matches. That actually sounded like a lot of fun, and it is also great when you meet a brand new referee who works their butt off doing their job. Great story, maybe you aren't everything that's wrong with refereeing after all...watching you closely though O_O
What do you guys think about the use of instant replay? read this article http://www.sortsofsports.com/index....to-pass-the-ball&catid=131:general&Itemid=516 I really think its about time.
What an awful, elementary-school level english article. Even misuse of "your/you're" which I have no tolerance for. Soccer will never get clock stoppages/manager challenges for the reason alone that if we do, we'll have to give Sir Alex Ferguson 2 more challenges than any other manager.
Had 3 7v7 games last night for coed/040 and on one particular game, I dont normally do it, but I like to encourage players in these games "arms down, -good shoulder challenge, good work" type calls. Anyways, a player goes hard in on another and gets 100% ball. The former attacker trips, recovers and then flops over in a heap. 2/3 of the field, including myself, stopped play to laugh. Also in a coed game had a team losing 5-0 late put a cross into the box with an older lady on the far post. I guess she lost concentration, or really wanted to score but she put up both arms and sort of basketball dunked-swatted it into the game. I apologized to her for disallowing as she was playing with a lot of younger players and I could tell she didn't get a lot of field time. Used Law18 even though attempting to score with a hand is a cautionable offense.
New to the forum and thought this would be a good place to start. I refereed as a teen for 3 or 4 seasons and then stopped after High School. Now, post college, I'm in my second season of re-learning the ropes. I did two U11 games this weekend, the first was rec level, the other was district. Had run-ins with the coaches in both games. In the first, the coach approached me at halftime and started the conversation with "Hey Ref!" from about 30 yards away. I let her ramble on about how they were pushing and shoving off the ball, threw in a few, "uh-huh" and "okays" and then finished up with an "I'll keep an eye out for it." None of the kids were complaining about anything, so I didn't do anything different in the second half. After the game, she told me that I did a much better job after our discussion. In the second game, this was the district game, I had two assistants. They were probably 15 years old and for one of them, it was the first AR of his career. On one offside call, a coach bellowed over the crowd that it was not offside and demanded that I explain to him what had just happened. I jogged by as they were setting up the restart and gave him my standard answer of "when the ball was kicked, the player was in an offside position." He demanded to know which number player I had called for the infraction. Unfortunately, I didn't catch the number (silver numbers on white shirts!) and I told him that it didn't matter and kept on jogging by him. Similar issue about 10 minutes later. He hollers at me after the restart demanding to know who was offside. I stop play and jog over to talk with him about it. I told him that I didn't appreciate his bellowing at me from across the field, nor did I appreciate him questioning my team's calls with such a negative tone. He demanded, again, to know which number player was offside. I told him that it wasn't football and I wouldn't be announcing "offside, number 10, offense" for each stoppage in play. I said that if I had to come talk to him again he would be asked to leave the field. He sat down on the bench for the rest of the game and didn't say a peep. As a general rule, do you engage coaches if they're yelling at you from across the field? or ignore them? Also, how do you work with new assistants? Trust their calls unless it's obvious that they're wrong was my plan for the game... seemed to work OK. Any thoughts on how I handled this would be appreciated. Thanks!
ChelseaSounder, I think you did well. Personally, coaches who scream publicly about offside at my ARs are a pet peeve. I don't take any guff from them... using Ask, Tell, Remove from USSF, this is an immediate Tell from me. Not necessarily a public reprimand, but I will go over and quietly tell them that if they let loose with another public outburst of dissent against an offside decision, they will be dismissed. As I've said in other parts of these forums, it's exceedingly difficult for an AR to always get offside correct, but they're the only one on the field concentrating on the five elements needed to make the decision. The coach most certainly isn't. Especially if I have a 15-year old AR in their first year, incidents like this can make or break them. If they see a fellow referee stand up for them and put a coach in his place on one of their decisions, that kind of experience may make them be excited about being a member of the referee community that sticks up for one another. On the other hand, if the referee allows a coach to berate a young official because "they have to get used to it," odds are that kid will be out of refereeing within two years. If a coach is yelling across the field in dissent, especially in a youth game, at the next stoppage I recommend you halt play and deal with it. Don't yell back... take your time cross the field, keep your voice low and calm and advise the coach to cease his/her behavior. Kids watching that will think they can do it too if it's not dealt with... it degrades your game and influences future behavior in a negative way. As for young inexperienced officials, let them make the obvious calls and back them up. Let them gain confidence by allowing them to do their job. If they miss a possession call in the middle of the field due to judgment, hey it's not going turn the game, go with them. Obviously, you can't let a game-critical decision go wrong, and if they are making consistently wrong calls because of poor work rate, it needs to be dealt with... but do it at halftime or after the game, not during the game. Work with them, not against them. I think it's fantastic that you are back in the game as an official. We need more people your age ready to give back and show players they can still be involved after their playing days are over!
It's a game played by humans, who make mistakes. It's also a game officiated by humans, who make mistakes. Introducing non-intrusive technology, such as communication aides, helps the referee team do a better job. Improvements to systems of control help - witness experiments with additional officials. Introducing technology which would require stoppages, consultations, deliberations, etc. is not consistent with the SOTG and should be resisted at all costs.
hahaha got me there, very true. Just talking about and article I read on sortsofsports.com "Its time to pass the ball" about using instant replay in soccer.
No. The most important part is the "spirit" of the game, which encompasses saftey, fair play, laws, fun, sweat, industry and parents shutting up.
In regards to video replay. I feel that soccer is a global game, it's played all over the world in all sorts of ways, but all sorts of different people. I don't think it's in the spirit of the game to have it be played under drastically different circumstances that can't be duplicated outside of a stadium with millions of dollars revolving around it. It's the sport of all peoples, lets keep it that way.
Is getting an occassional wrong call corrected worth the pain and reduced enjoyment by all parties? There's no natural stoppage to do the video review and doing it during the game in any way leads to to many other issues.
I've always been taught that the referee, as well as presenting another human factor, is considered a pitch condition. You get what you get; deal with it. Sure there are going to be errors and sometimes simple physics make the abililty of the referee to be in position to make the correct call virtually impossible. It's all part of the game. When people start to realize that coming in, the will learn to chill out. RE: video replay - NOT!
The league my son plays in, and I ref in, has a strict requirement for volunteer time. In years past the fact that I was doing 15-20 games a season counted, but this year, not. So I didn't ref this past weekend- served as a 'field marshall' for a U10 game in the morning and a U12 game in the afternoon. I actually enjoyed it- got to observe all the conditions that are usually happening too far off for a referee to notice. Best part? My field marshall report sheet form was marked explicitly with codes and questions to evaluate and report on the conduct of the coaches, the spectators, and the officials. Were the spectators' comments appropriate, too loud, too critical; were the coaches making positive, negative, directional, negative at the ref, or no comments- did the ref crew start the game on time, were properly dressed...I was pleased to be able to tell a 15 year old CR after the game was over that mr green coach with the mustache (the other guy was fine) was being reported for his abuse and he (the CR) shouldn't have had to put up with it- he thanked me and I am sure he felt better knowing it was on the record.
Last night I did a HS District Championship game and got to add to my ever growing list of awesome things spectators say. At this particular HS the referee crew keeps their gear in the anouncer/timekeeper/press booth that is at the top of the stands. It's nice to have a dry place to go, but it does mean we have to walk past all the spectators to get there. After the fairly one sided game ended 3-0 we headed up to get our gear and have our post game chat. Right as we got to the bleachers a loud mouth, who I got to enjoy throughout that game, muttered something like, "I guess you were in over your heads." I guess his teams inability to handle the level of play meant we couldn't handle it either. We ignored it till we got inside and then all had a good laugh over it. This is definately one of favorite lines so far.
G 16 game. Even match, pretty slow. Field was on the top of a slope, so we lost a lot of time when the ball went out of play, even with extra balls. I add three minutes of stoppage time. Losing team ties the match at 2:55. Formerly winning coach is furious. Its like he'd never heard of stoppage time. Really, I don't just add time to last game of the day for the heck of it. Funny moment, B 19 D1 game. Player complaining about a foul: "we're 19s, you should let us play physical" me "physical is fine, but I don't allow bear hugs at any level." Crowd (both teams) loved it.
Double-yellow again yesterday. O30 Men. Handbags. Etc. Upgrade assessment # 1 later. Might not pull 'em both at the same time should the need present itself tonight.