If we can agree that at younger ages we don't give the Red Card here, then it is just a matter of deciding where that line is. Frankly, U11 is a bit soon for me. (Unless it was a state title game level.) Generally, I always thought "Big Field, Big Rules". But I've seen and done U12 games where the soccer was at such a high level that no one would flinch at a DOGSO RC. But average U11 game? Not so sure.
If I was setting policy for send offs in a league that used electronic passes DOGSO would be a half game suspension. Get it in the first half your team plays short the rest of the game and you get to play the next game. Get it in the second half and you sit the first half of the next game. Maybe for 2CT as well below U13. I never gave a red card at u11 but league policies being what they are if I did have a send off for DOGSO I'm sure I forgot to report it.
In general in youth games I rarely saw little kids but I don’t go total hardass with cards until 11v11 full field games which is at u13. But I had a few very high level U12 tournament games where the boys teams were pre-ECNL/NPL/MLS and I treated them as such, meaning having games with 3-4 yellows at U12 and coaches after the game thanking me for giving correct cards and not avoiding them because of the age group And I do the same for other sports. I ref another sport where U12 also plays on a smaller area with fewer players and I’m more lenient with players on some borderline things rather than giving power plays all game long and I usually get thanks from coaches for not ruining the game, while they yell at my partner who’s way too strict and ruining the game for the kids who are still just learning
When I was coaching, I had a ref tell me he'd never give a yellow card in a U9 game. The other team heard him and spent the entire game beating up our players. That wasn't fun. I'd agree with setting a pretty high bar. If there's any way to justify red instead of yellow and a talking-to instead of a yellow, great. But the option to go to the pocket has to be there. I made a U9 girl cry last year when I showed her yellow for PI. The coach was livid, saying I'd ruined things for her and all that. Maybe if he had been watching our game instead of the boys game on the next field, he would've seen that I had talked very patiently with that player and warned her that she had to knock it off, and maybe he would've reinforced it on the sideline to keep her out of trouble. Dumb---.
For the second time in forever, I'm actually getting a big tax refund instead of having to pay a bill in the thousands. Of course, it's because ref income meant I had to pay $7,200 in estimated taxes for the 2023 tax year, but still.
I always figured that if players could survive a tryout to get on a team, they could survive the horror of getting a card. Rec games, maybe they should be a bit older before getting cards. I think I gave one card in U12 rec in all my years.
Good for you for actually reporting your income correctly. I suspect there are plenty of referees who dishonestly avoid thousands of dollars a year in taxes. A guy I worked with on a college game one time told me his compensation was supposed to be slightly more than $600 but he asked them to reduce it to $599 so it wouldn't get reported to the IRS dodgy as hell
I definitely agree with this for cards where the goal is to correct behaviour, but in this case the card is about correcting an imbalance in match fairness. This attacker is on his way to go one on one with the goalkeeper toward the end of a close match and a defender accidentally trips him. Some may hem and haw and look for any reason to discount the obviousness of this goal-scoring opportunity, but the reality is that this is a bona fide Football Injustice and by not sending off the defender I would have allowed the Injustice to stand. Correction/rehabilitation is not the reason this kid needs to be sent off. Honestly, I'd prefer to see a Law 12 where the penalty for DOGSO is a penalty kick regardless of where the foul occurs (+yellow/red card, as the law is currently written) which would have resulted in a penalty kick and caution in my game — undoubtedly a more equitable and satisfactory outcome for everyone. Unfortunately, Law 12 says they get a direct free kick from a rather non-threatening distance and a 9v8 advantage for the few minutes left in the game. Shorting the visitors of that meagre redress would be terribly unfair. This is what went through my mind when I made my decision; the kid who got sent off doesn't factor into this decision-making process at all. His exclusion is simply a consequence of the way this sport is played and hopefully that's the lesson he takes away from this experience.
I started off my 25th year as a soccer official on the inaugural match of our state's newest cup competition. It includes NPSL and UPSL teams in the state, plus a team from our in-state Majors Division. The best part was being on the line opposite of our newest National AR, who I mentored starting 10 years ago when I added him to my NFHS playoff crew.
Adding a comment that I appreciate and enjoy the good-natured ribbing and think that this sort of harmless fun is useful for the forum. My "like" does not necessarily mean I'm taking a position on the substance of the debate.
Boys varsity, intra-city matchup last night. These are always (understandably) pretty spicy. I'm dealing with a cyst on my foot that I'm dealing with early next week, but was not sure if I'd be able to run until my warmup. We even had the assistant referee from the JV game stick around just in case I couldn't go. Warm up is done, I'm good to go. I had let both coaches know prior to the JV game (I was there mentoring) the situation. Both understood. At the coin flip, I told both coaches I was good to go. One of the coaches said, "That's good. You're the guy we want on this game." He coaches at my son's club, so I don't think it was a gamesmanship thing. 4-0 game, no cautions, the game was totally under control the whole night, and the foot felt great. Those are the types of games I like to look back on after a bad game and remember that I can do pretty well at this.
This weekend I was scheduled for my first-ever UPSL middle (D1 aka division two but nobody can be called second division anymore) on Saturday night and a UPSL premier division AR Sunday night between an MLS academy team and a local club notorious for being a handful. I took two GA games Sunday morning but declined anything else on Saturday so I'd be fresh for my game. We turn up on Saturday and find that the fields haven't been painted in what looks like two months. An hour of scouring local Home Depots for a field lining machine later, the away team opts for the forfeit win (and I lose my first middle). Sunday, I'm having a blast at my GA games. U15 AR is a breeze, U19 middle is a really fun technical game and I'm running for fun as much as I am for the game. I get back to my car to a text and three emails shuffling the UPSL crew around ... now I'm in the middle! Long story short (too late!) we played in the rain but dodged a lightning delay and after a slippy, sloppy 90 minutes we finished 1-0 with no mass cons, no reds, and a very tired me. I honestly think it might have been the best referee performance of my life!
As a follow up to this post from last May, as luck has it, I end up as AR2 for the U-14G "high level match" again this season. Same two teams. Game was much more calm, but I was on the parent sideline. Woman is moaning to me and her friends that the other team is nasty (she's not wrong, they play with an edge that me as a coach would be glad to have). She says "we had problems with this team last year. The ref kept stopping the game and had me leave the sideline." Without turning around, I said "I know. I was the ref. I threw you out." Needless to say, she didn't want to speak to me anymore during the match.
Does anybody else ever feel a twinge of gratefulness that a stadium chanting "Ref you suck!" is not for you on the line? I did refocus and feel guilty after the game. Heck, I feel guilty even now.
No because even if you suck as an AR it will still be directed at the center. And if you’re at a home stadium, any call against the home team will say you suck. Only team/spectator feedback I take stock in is when a losing team says you do a good job
So after a bit of back and fourth about who was on my NPSL game Saturday night, it was figured out I was being swapped into another crew to do the game. I get there and find out the referee is upset because he's suppose to have an assessment with the home team on Wednesday. He had tried to swap but the assignor said, "DaytonRef needs games as AR." (I don't actually NEED them, but if I don't say that, I won't work enough as an AR) He's a friend and I felt bad for him so I messaged the assignor that I was willing to do the middle and that's what happened. It is probably a good thing too since everyone else in the crew had done 3 PC games earlier in the day and I ended up putting in 6 miles and there is no way the original ref had that left in him. It has been awhile since I've had to do a higher energy game in the middle. I just wish I had known before I went to the gym first thing in the morning, I would have taken it easier on my legs.
LOL! That was supposed to be my center. I swapped off of it after I was given a U19B center at 5pm. Glad I made the choices that I did, because that U19B center sent me to regionals
It might just be me, but every boys team I check in these days has at least 2 players named 'Landon.' As a USMNT fan, this makes me happy, but then I realize this probably just a coincidence.
Don’t be so sure. One of my son’s teammates has Landon as a middle name. His older brother has Beckham as a middle name, and he goes by Beckham because so many other kids have some version of his given first name. His dad and I are pretty good friends, and he told me they absolutely named his kids after the soccer players.
I see a handful of Ronaldo’s. Smh. I can’t believe how many mothers signed off on that lol Also see a good amount of Cristiano’s too.
Drop "Landon" into this search. https://engaging-data.com/baby-name-visualizer/ LD was born in 1982 very early in the trend. The name really took off in 2000 (a bit in the 90's but not nearly as much) He came on the scene in about 2000.