The dumbest thing I ever saw a player do

I think I have you beat.

I had a HS varsity goalkeeper try to stop play with the ball in his had to tie his shoe. He holds the ball for close to 6 seconds drops the ball to pretend to tie his shoe and then takes off both gloves. As a player approaches him he picks the ball up. So I make the call for IFK.

He then proceeds to tell me that "the AR gave him permission to tie his shoe." The coach then tries to tell me that it is a "safety issue" and what is the gk suppose to do??

 

Oh, you know, wait until there's a stoppage in play on the other side of the field

 

Throw the ball as far as he can. Then call his defender over to tie the shoe.

 

Play was stopped for a sub, so the FK was going to be cerimonial anyway right? I'm curious what you cautioned her for. Dissent?

 

I think I may have you beat.

I whistle a foul on red. A red player comes up and stands less than a yard in front of the ball. I caution him and explain loudly so that both teams can hear that they have to give 10 yards -- the kicker doesn't have to ask for it; the defenders have to give it. Usually, teams get the message and this problem won't happen the rest of the game.

A few minutes later, I whistle a foul on gray. Believe it or not, a gray player comes up and stands less than a yard in front of the ball. I caution him and explain loudly so that both teams can hear that they have to give 10 yards -- the kicker doesn't have to ask for it; the defenders have to give it. Surely, they get the message now.

But wait... a few minutes later, I whistle a foul on red. THE SAME RED PLAYER comes up and stands less than a yard in front of the ball! I can't believe it, but what can I do? I can't caution twice for the same offense and not caution this third time. So I show the yellow, then show the red because of the two cautions. The red team goes ballistic.

 

My first year as a ref, a defender is escorting a ball that appears to be headed out over the goal line. Tall grass stops the ball dead, still a foot or so inside the pitch and well inside the PA. No attacker nearby. Once it comes to a complete stop she picks it up and tosses it to me.

Full disclosure - it would have been a real shocker but this was a U9 game, first of the fall season which means it could have been her first ever competitive match. Lucky for her (and me) state ROC specifies all kicks are indirect so no PKs. Phew.

 

My advice, take it if you please, is that this is something you can manage with your personality in most cases. This is obviously something that we don't want to be sending players off for. I think you could have talked your way out of the first caution but made a big deal about it just like you did. Then the first time the other team did it, once again make a big deal about it and say "you've both got one, no more freebies" or something along those lines. Then you would have had one caution instead of three, which in my opinion, you got nothing out of anyway. Once again, just something to think about next time. As we get into higher level games, this is obviously something that will happen a lot and you're gonna be handing out a lot of cards if you don't learn to manage it.

 

A month ago, Varsity Girls. A girl is shielding the ball out and it stops on the line (not even hanging on the outside of the line). She then bends down and picks it up.

 

Yeah...I can't add to this thread. I will likely have seen a lot of what you guys post. But 95% of my games are U12 and younger. When you have those in their upper teens and older doing these things...

*facepalm*

Now have a thread describing the dumbest things you have heard a coach tell a player to do...

 

I can see the case for a public AC w/o the card for the first instance, but really once you caution a player for something then they clearly and obviously to everyone do the exact same thing over again, you have no choice. If you do not send them off you have failed your MOT. Remember we don't give cards, players earn them. If they will only stop when someone is sent off, his game likely would have had the same 3 cards after the first two ACs.

 

In no way should Nashvillian consider this as a "use your personality" exercise.
He might have chosen to give a pass on the first instance. I believe the vast majority here would assert that there should be no pass on the second instance. (Not one per team... one per match!)

"Use your personality" is not "let things slide more than usual". It's a much more refined thing than that and is used way more often than it should as advice. My job is not to be the most popular person on the field.

He should briefly consider if his message was clear enough to everybody involved during the first two instances. "Could I have worded it better or louder?" If the answer is "not really" then move on. The twit earned his second caution.

 

One of those twerps would have earned a red no matter how much game management was employed.

 

Thanks, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that.

If the play was stopped, then why would you caution her for stepping closer to the ball "during a time the play was stopped"?

Sounds like the title of this post may need to be changed.

 

I can see what you mean, but IMHO we need a little more to this story. Specifically the age of the teams (and maybe the play level). If it is U-9 or so, or maybe even up to U-11 non-competitive, meaning players may have just started or only played a year, then I believe some discretion should be used and rely more on this being a 'teaching moment'. Now, U-15 competitive, that is a whole different story. Sorry, folks, but you KNOW better.

 

Most of the dumb things seem to involve surrendering the distance. I had one in a varsity game not too long ago. Free kick for white about forty yards out. As I approach the spot, a black team player stepped about four yards in front of the ball. Not so bad, so I gave him the stare and waved him away. As the first player was moving away, another player from black jumped in less than a yard from the ball. The kicker for white looked at me quizzically. I just shrugged, smiled and pulled out my card.

 

It was an adult game.

 

U7 Indoor game last weekend. A kid gets the ball drilled at them from about five yards away. They do a twisting get-out-of-the-way move while throwing their arms up over their face to protect themselves. Of course, the ball bounces off of the arms. No way am I calling handling. I even let out a loud "No foul, keep playing!" Everybody keeps playing for several seconds until one kids comes running from across the court and grabs the ball and hands it to me.

We had a little chat about playing to the whistle. They are so cute at that age when they think they are helping...

 

And old dogs can't learn new tricks?

 

That's the problem! They can! Especially tricks that involve doing things when we're not looking!!

 

I'm with the others that mentioned things along these lines, but I'll post anyway. If a player gets cautioned for a very specific act, then does the exact same thing later in the game, that is completely out of our hands. There's no management issue here, IMO. The referee's job is to enforce the LOTG, not to let guilty players slide and call it "management."

 

This^^ I don't know where the philosplophy came from that a 2nd caution should be "worse" than the first but I hear way to many referees take it to heart and them criticize others for just doing their jobs.

 

Talking about players repeating their stupid acts I watched my son (who is a referee) do just that a couple of weeks ago. The setting was water polo (soccer in speedos) and while polo does have the yellow/red system but they also have a 3 major fouls and you foul out rule like basketball. My son generally plays keeper but loves to play the field and had the opportunity in a tournament a couple of weeks ago. Because he is not out of goal often he can get a little aggressive and picked up his first foul within the first 2 minutes. Fast forward about 5 minutes and he tangles with another player, drawing the foul on his opponent but then gives back as much as he got and picked up his second when he could have just let it go. At this point, during a restart, I see the ref call him over and give him an AC and his hand motions tell me he is getting the "one more and you are gone and I am watching you" lecture. On that very restart, not 15 seconds later, he jumps the player with the ball and fouls him. I think the argument could be made it was a minor foul and should not have been his third major but after he just got the lecture you couldn't fault the ref for going big with it.

It was a long second half of the game watching from the bench but I think, when he looks at it, he can see where it will help him in his referee game management.

 

The kid I 2CT'd the other night got the first yellow for immediately doing again what I had just warned him not to do again. And then he promptly got the second for the way he expressed his opinion of the first.

 

Had a fellow referee who said that, when he was in another state, he gave a caution to a high school age player. The kid is complaining about how unfair it was, yahda, yahda, yahda, as Tom is just recording. He gets through writing and the kid is still talking about it. Tom just asked him, very calmly, "Is there anything else you'd like to say, before I put all of this stuff away?" The kid figured it out and shut up.