Just saw this thread after not being on here for a while. This past week was really the first time that I realized how much I miss refereeing. Not only is the pay better than my current job, I also get to run around outside and get my exercise. Looking forward to getting back on the field within the next few months.
It's definitely not new, nor is it unique to soccer. I was taught about angles a lot as a baseball umpire. If we were ruling on a caught or trapped ball in the outfield, we sacrificed distance to get a good angle. Same for calling a steal play at third base with just one field umpire. We were supposed to not run toward third base, but to take a few steps diagonally toward the mid-point between third base and home plate to get an angle to make the call. Occasionally, a coach would complain about me being 40 feet from the call, but most coaches knew my angle was better.
Our adult league is solo and I use that to work on angles all the time. When I mentor younger refs I talk about times how yes, you want to be closer to play and how there are times you can’t and how important angles are.
Interesting info. It seems to me that most baseball umpires have all the mobility of an oak tree, seldom moving from their fixed positions. It is certainly not a job requiring almost constant running as in soccer refereeing, so the comparison is not truly valid IMO, (except for coaches complaints). PH
I will agree with you on how many baseball umpires actually operate. Goodness knows how many times I grumbled on the way home from a game about how an umpire wasn't hustling and making a guess because of being in poor position. I won't agree with you on how baseball umpires are supposed to work, nor on how I umpired. Let's just say I umpired baseball like I refereed soccer. The older umpires behind the plate used to hate it when I was on the bases, because I'd run out into right field to rule on plays and force them to actually move into the infield to call plays. I also will disagree and say that sacrificing distance for angle/field of vision is very important in baseball. The sight of this young, fit guy sprinting on plays sometimes didn't sit well with the older guys.
U18 boys game, the center is running fast covering both his duties and offside. I was able to mostly keep up as AR1, but he said he was keeping up "just in case."
My wife is scheduled to have our first baby in the next few days at the primary COVID hospital in our region which has a seen a huge uptick in COVID hospitalizations in the last week so pretty anxious and nervous at the moment including regular cases popping up in the Labor and Delivery unit. I was once AR2 on a high school game and in line with the 2LD and all the attackers were clearly onside during a transition towards me. All of the sudden, I hear the center whistle the ball dead and call offside from 20 yards back. I asked him at halftime what the deal was, and his response was that he liked to call offsides as the center even he had AR's. I was too confused by that logic to even be too mad.
I'm relieved that I'm not the only one this has happened to. I was AR1 on a U12 boys tournament game. My son was playing (it was a game with no implications for either team's placing for trophies, and they were short officials). Less than two minutes left, and I take off on a through ball timed perfectly through my son's team's defense. Suddenly, I hear the whistle. Confused, I turn around and see the center with his arm up for an indirect free kick. I look back at my son's coach who is behind me, and he shrugs. I look down the sideline at the other team's coach, and I just put my hand up discreetly in the "I don't know" gesture. Following the game, I went to the other team's coach and told him it wasn't offside. He responded, "I know. You have been in perfect position to call that the whole game." I've worked high school games with the center, so it wasn't like he had no idea who I was or didn't think I could do the job. It was just a really weird situation. After the game, even my son said there was no way that was offside. Let's just say the center and I had a pretty direct conversation after the where I told him he's worked with me enough to know that I'll get offside calls right in a U12 game.
One of my friends, formerly our SDI, was doing a dual. Play was coming his way and his partner, the trail official, whistled for offside, from 30 yards back. I was AR2 on a small college men's game. Visiting team has figured out that the home team's defenders were going to man mark the whole game and never push up. They positioned the left forward (so opposite side of the field from me) waaaaaay up front. The other forward was up near the halfway line, much closer to me, but on the attacking half. Long ball to that "other forward." Center whistles for offside. He just assumed that I was out of position. Visiting coach very not happy.
I once had a center in a club match whistle offside from the circle of trust when AR2 kept her flag down. I was AR1 and, in order to stave off coach mayhem, had to run onto the field to convince the center that the player he had deemed offside was in fact a defender.
I made a brain-fart call of offside as a center late in a U12 or so game. Not that I didn't trust my AR's - they were good youth refs. My only excuse was that the field was on a diagonal, not NS/EW, so the skew with the fence line made it look offside to me. My AR just looked at me with a somewhat disappointed look on her face - at least she didn't shake her head in shame. It could have been the tying or winning goal, I don't recall which except that the score was close.
I was an AR in a very high level match with a multi-thousand crowd. The CR whistled for an offside, which the other AR had not flagged, but the CR had not noticed a defender behind himself who kept the attacker onside. The AR shook his head but it was too late. The match assessors reamed the AR saying he should have supported the referee with a late flag, even though he could see it was wrong. PH
That assessor should have never been an assessor. I felt bad enough in my game when I should have raised my flag and said, “He wasn’t offside. We should have a dropped ball for an inadvertent whistle”. I’m not putting a late flag up to support a wrong call. I have always told my ARs to tell me if I have made a clearly incorrect call. Last May, I was the center on a regional girls high school final. I had a total brain lock and awarded a penalty kick when the fouls happened outside of the area. AR1 raises his flag and starts to call me over. I knew right away it was outside the area, and confirmed it. I thanked him for his assistance and restarted with a direct free kick. Why should my AR1 support my call if it’s clearly wrong? I was happy he set me straight.
I love these stories. Here's my version: I was AR2 on a U18F game. First game of the day. Attacking team is flying down and I go right along with them. They get to the goal line near my side and the attacker starts to dribble it towards the goalkeeper while having a defense on her back. RIGHT before they got to the touchline, I slammed into the corner flag knocking it down HOWEVER I still keep my face up. (This I remember.) Anyway, both teams are dancing on the goalline towards the goalkeeper, the center blows the whistle for what he assumed was a goalkick. Both girls were visibly confused and one of the (attacking) parents "Whoa. how you going to call that when you AR didn't even lift his flags? Can't even get this right??" I was put in a not-so-fun position to say the least. During HT, I asked him about it. He relented that I had my head down when I crashed into the flag and had to make a judgement call. I let it go cause he's a tournament director. They were never out-of-bounds, though. Oh well.