Little do you guys know I am the world-famous conductor of the National Symphony of Petoria. My musicians are truly world class! During a recital the other day, my French horn player went slightly off script and started playing "Mary had a little lamb" in the middle of a particularly important crescendo early in the piece. I stopped the recital and told him not to let the door hit him on the way out. I will be happy to show a carefully selected finger to any music critic, be they a composer themselves or not, who implies that this in any way reflects on my skill as a composer. That musician was responsible for their own action. The fact that he did it early in the evening does not change this in any way.
Currently I don't know. But in the first year of the mls many were let go. One from the metrostars who used to officiate in our adult league. If you think all mls officials know what they are doing. You better think again.
Yes, in the first year or two of MLS, USSF used a number of referees that were local, because the league didn't have any money to bring in officials from out of the local area, particularly not for ARs and 4ths. That didn't last more than a year or two. Referees are not/were not "from the metrostars" or any other team, however. Since you don't have the name of even one referee who was "let go" for "showing too many cards" and your surmise is about something that happened over 20 years ago, it seems that you don't have any personal knowledge, from any time period, of the specific reason or reasons that USSF went with different referees or the referees chose to not continue working at that level. It should also be said that there was a time when USSF was bringing new referees into MLS, they'd do a game or, maybe, two and things wouldn't go perfectly, as is always true of rookies. So USSF wouldn't use them anymore. It turned into almost a revolving door, with the older, original guys doing even more games. After a number of seasons, USSF realized that they had to be patient with rookies because the average age of the referees they were using was rising dramatically. I'm told that they pretty much told the owners that referees, especially MLS rookies, will make mistakes and they (the owners) were just going to have to suck it up. This was also about the time that the Italian leagues had the huge scandal involving teams lobbying the assignor for or against certain referees, so USSF could not allow the MLS teams to influence referee selection either. (As you may know, FIFA regulations do not allow 1st division pro leagues to schedule their own referees, for this very reason, hence the creation of PRO.)
There's a possibility he may be confusing the one referee who did his game with someone going all the way back to the original NASL. Although I admit it's a reach that he's confusing the MetroStars with the NY Cosmos. If so, there is truth back then regarding guys who cautioned star players being blackballed. Some did turn to amateur leagues in his neck of the woods when the league folded in 1984.
It's hard to remember a ref name who was let go in 1997 sorry about that. What I do remember about him he never parked at our home field parking lot at the verranzo sports complex Brooklyn Italians. He would park on the other side of the belt parkway. One day after doing another terrible game. Someone from the club saw where he parked. Before he could get to his car someone set fire to it. Things are a little different now then they were then. We were not as politically correct then as they are now.
Checkered history of the early MLS aside, we still have a national referee advising a rising young referee against an early caution, even though it was correct, well received, and had no adverse effects on game management. So it's apparently not a myth. Some very high level refs believe in this. I just don't understand the rationale.
Exactly. I've been doing this for 19 years now and I like to think a little better than okay at it because of the different times I've gotten it wrong.
Well this was in 2012 or 2013, probably retired from the national badge by now, since he was in his lower 40's at the time.
Too often I think "experienced" refs confuse learning man management with foul/misconduct selection. I think many get complacent because they become known in a league and the players begin to treat them differently, as such they don't have to give as many cards to control a game. When in fact it's more to do with how often the players see them than some mystical mind Kung Fu they have.
Agree 120%. Nobody should assume a referee is a bad manager just because he gave six cautions. There's not always a link.
I'll see your 120% and raise you 150%. Sometimes, I see a referee who is working games at a little higher level for the first time, as an AR, and they see the referee using the coaches' and/or players' first names, being very relaxed with them, etc. The new guy then thinks "That is so cool. That's the way to handle these games." What they don't see is the years of experience that the coaches and/or players have with that referee. The referee now has a pretty good idea of which guys need a smile and a joke so they'll behave and which guys need a card and an AC so they fall into line. There's no short cut to experience! A while back, Referee magazine had an article in which a mid-career Major League Baseball umpire talked about how he arrived in "the show," thinking that the players would all respect him, etc. He quickly realized that they paid no attention at all to rookie MLB umpires. It wasn't until he'd been in the league for three to five years and some of the guys that had seen him as a rookie were now base coaches instead of players. They'd now react to him with the attitude of "Yeah, I know, Joe. You're right." And you still didn't get the full respect treatment until those guys had progressed to dugout coaches and managers themselves. So it's just possible that some of those guys you have to caution are just trying to build their own reputation as hard nose, uncompromising guys that you cross at your peril. They're working you, playing the long game.
While it's not the approach I would take my guess is using this as a means to draw a proverbial line in sand. I believe what we do is an extension of Behavioral Medication which requires the establishment of boundaries. I believe being a Referee and controlling that behavior starts right out of the gate. I look at as a "Game of Firsts". FIRST WHISTLE, FIRST FOUL, FIRST MISCONDUCT. Personally, if I can nail these things, I've set myself up the be successful. I like to take a different approach but to each his own.
Key thing about player manager is it must fit your personality and also take account for team dynamics. I have seen some tactics that perfectly well for some referees fail miserably for others. The body language and other communications for me vary depending on youth, men's, women's, and even ethnicity. Some of the words I use in a men's game, would never say in a high school or club match. In women's game if a player is wanting to argue I smile and they feel obliged to smile back and they will usually drop their argument. Coed games can be the hardest to manage BC not all fouls are viewed the same in the eyes of the players. Perception is more important than reality in life unfortunately.
So in keeping with the OP's point, the referees in boys matches have no fear to show cards, not afraid to issue cards. As there is mention of state and other sports, it appears to me this is in relation to high school matches (games/contests, whatever the proper term is). There was some discussion on another thread on this forum that had some cards-issued data, http://bit.ly/1UlWewL From a quick look comparing high schools and club numbers seen in the age-wise heatmap of issued cards, there were three times more matches played at club level than high schools for similar card count - 148.115 club-matches with 17.983 cards and 49.869 high school-matches with 18.244 cards. Do other states and counties also show similar trends? I have been on hiatus and only just getting back into the swing of things, including this forum, so dont be fast on the trigger yet, allow me to don the asbestos vest first.
There was one match where I figured I was just that, a bad manager, on the ride home; I had issued 7 yellows, all in the second half of a B14 match. The coach of that team told me, without the post-match hand-shake, about how his boys will not be able to play. My response at that time was "Why is that my problem?" I fretted and frowned on how the events had unfolded, and eventually filed the match report. Earlier in the season, there was chatter over the grapevine about a couple referees who had shown 8 and 9 yellow cards, and at that time I had thought they must not have managed the players or teams properly. Later in the same season, when I met with one of them, I found out he was one of the confetti distributors, the other one also had penalised that same team. This was the same team where I had also emulated the card trick. You cannot be more consistent than this, could one? I mean, here are 3 referees, over the course of 6 weeks have thrown the book at this one B14 team. Referees must find ways to not take the emotional baggage with them - leave it on the field conveyor belt, it is the team, or player, or coach who should be carrying it. Let the club and league deal with it.
Comparing ejections in soccer and basketball. You should probably include players with 5 fouls who can no longer play. That is similar to getting two yellow cards - at least in my mind.
And yet, PRO gets the majority of its budget from MLS and shares the same office building. So independent.