I'll preface this by saying I haven't seen video, so I don't know how clear cut this call was... I was following along on social media my son's club at Regionals this week. It's not his team, but the National League PRO team in his age group was in the semis today at USYS Regionals today and it sounds like the winning goal was a PK in the final minute of extra time. My first thought was, "Man, what a gutsy call that was from the ref". Again, I don't know the play, so for all I know it was an obvious call, but I was curious about some of you veteran refs and situations you have been in.
Not super consequential because I don't ref super consequential games, but I gave one in the last minute of regulation of a big city rivalry boys varsity game that was going to send a team to the playoffs or not. It was 1-0 at the time, to the offending team. Cross came in, was flicked on from the near post and hit an upraised hand right in front of a player who was going to have an open header. Penalty was actually saved, but the rebound was tucked in by a teammate. The players on the field argued he entered early (he didn't, none of the defending team moved on the shot so he was all alone) but didn't argue the penalty. The coach came up to me after regulation and said something along the lines of "you comfortable with that call?" and I answered "yeah, he did it" and the coach said okay. There was a great picture in the newspaper the next day of the moment the ball hit the hand, and me in the background directly in line (it was a dual).
Oddly, mine was nearly the exact same situation as in the original post. At least the most memorable or immediately consequential one. I've awarded penalties at higher levels of competitions, but nothing sticks out as mattering more in that very moment. But yeah, USYSA regionals (somewhere during the Bronze age, after nationals expansion below U16s but before the reformatting with all the extra teams and prior to DA sapping away a lot of quality). U18B semifinals, 4th added minute of the second half of extra time. Penalty to tie the match 1-1 and send it to kicks from the mark (after a penalty was converted in the first extra time to make it 1-0). Foul occurred at 1:23:45. The decision itself wasn't even questioned on-field, which tells you how clear the foul was given the time and circumstances. But the amount of added time was, of course, a totally different matter. Add in 100 degree heat and the fact that it was the game deciding if I would go to nationals or not and, yeah, it's a a single call that I will never forget.
Most critical PK you've ever called? Oh, I wish you hadn't asked that! A few sleepless nights are ahead now.
I am a HS assignor. I get sent a lot of video. Last year in a local derby (Public V. Private) and the public school is the overwhelming fave to win. Unfortunately, for them, they aren’t playing well. The Catholics tie it late and it goes to OT. I had 2 decent (Not our best because it should have been 6-0 and a walk in the park) on the game. Now we are 20 seconds from the end, and the underdogs cross from the right into the box, and it is literally 20 feet over the attackers head, and the attacker is nudged by the defender and the attacker goes down like he was shot by Jason Bourne. Penalty. Converted. Game over. The video was in my in box about 20 minutes later. First victory for the Catholics in 15 years.
I don’t recall ever calling a critical PK late in a championship/playoff/title clinching game. The closest that I’ve ever come is a couple years ago. In a boys varsity game, two weak teams were playing with one team not having won all year. They were leading 4-3 with under a minute. Their opponents were attacking in the penalty area. A defender blatantly tripped the defender around the penalty spot. He got a yellow and their opponents converted the penalty kick. Game ended 4-4.
Well, I was at a regional event in one of the support roles, not going to say which. I was watching the end of a game where the gk under pressure made a mistake and the attacker got the ball. He had a bad angle so he tried to escape the penalty area by dribbling away from goal. The GK thought he could get it, but instead he went through the back of the attacker's legs taking him to ground. The ref summoned the courage of "The 300" and gave the pen. Correct. Courageous. 120+2. At the banquet that night he was honored with the "call of the day" and later that night an appointment to Nationals...