Speaking of state championships... It's my 3rd year doing HS and I still (and never will) get the culture. Home team is up 3-0 in their first round playoff match. Road team makes an incredible comeback and scores an insurance goal with 43 seconds to go to give them a two-goal lead. It's possible me and my partner missed it, but they accused a player of taking off his shirt in the celebration as the place went nuts with everybody climbing on top of each other. Instead of wondering how he blew a 3 goal lead in a state playoff game, this head coach is asking (politely) why I didn't caution a guy??? It wasn't even one of their top players, who would be substituted and no yellow card accumulations exist for the playoffs. In a USSF match, this simply wouldn't happen. As a former full-time coach, what would I do if I ever blew a 3 goal lead? I'd probably crawl into a hole and folks wouldn't hear from me for days, but this guy's first impression is to ask for a meaningless yellow card during a celebration.
My semi final a few weeks ago was 7:0 with 30:11 left in the second half. it ended 7:0. Yes, the winning team won the state championship in their division a few days later, but only 2:0.
I had this a couple weeks ago in a sectional semifinal. White team scores golden goal with 3 minutes left in double overtime, so game over. I do notice one player take off his shirt off to celebrate. As my crew are walking off, kid comes over to thank us. I gave him 'advice' for the future that he can still be (should be, I suppose) carded and that would be a really stupid reason to get a card at that point. No biggie, they lost in the finals a couple days later.
Got to watch a ref lose control of a U16B ECNL-RL game… ended with 6 yellows and 2 straight reds, there should have been 3-4 more yellows with a few more double yellows, and the other young but experienced AR agreed with me. Unfortunate experience
English non-league clash abandoned after alleged sexist abuse towards referee | Reuters Nov 16 (Reuters) - AFC Rushden & Diamonds' game at Coventry Sphinx was abandoned on Saturday after sexist abuse was allegedly aimed at a female referee, both non-league clubs said.
So let’s have the NJCAA Division III championship in Upstate New York in November. What could go wrong?
Back-to-back games (MLS NEXT U19 and Adult League semi-final) where I had to send a player off (MLSN, 2x UB, Adult, Dissent then DOGSO yellow) and both players had choice words for me as they were leaving the field. Wonder why people don't come back...
Good luck for them to care about your feedback about conduct from the players on your Fair Whistle post-game report.
same reason they played the NYS High School Girls finals in the snow at Cortland at the same time...the show must go on. My referee buddy who went was trying to purchase a red ball in advance, he had no luck.
The money they take in for high school sports at the gate for soccer playoff games and yet no one thought of an orange/red ball and spend $40 towards one (I know, I'm asking for too much).
Excellent. Maybe they’ll learn. I had a U19B ECNL-RL send off this weekend. One was dissent (I almost never give) after repeated warning to stop. He was a captain. I even told another captain to try to reign him in to prevent him from getting sent off. He did nothing. Screw all of them
oh and by the way...all State Tournatment Final Referees must have purchased the NISOA complete uniform kit in order to be invited. If those are now being used upstate during their regular season, it will only be a matter of time before us downstate folks will be forced to purchase more uniforms.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the HS association is getting kickbacks from OSI or capelli for that uniform scam then
sure, but I can also tell you that the referee association located just across the river many times had JV games with no referees assigned...if you mandate new uniforms for us to purchase you chase more referees away and then it only compounds the problem.
"But it is OUR turn to host the championships!" Welcome to MLS games at, say New England or Chicago, when the new schedule starts. They can clear the snow from the field but they can't put butts in the seats.
That would really be great if all your referees banded together and refused to purchase the NISOA uniforms so that the association would have to drop the requirement. Unfortunately, soccer referees are renowned morons who love participating in the soccer referee uniform scam and spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars having a closet full of uniforms because “it only costs x number of game fees, it’s not that bad”
not only that, the quality of the "new" NFHS uniforms that I ordered a few years ago (?2022?) from Official Sports are total crap...are the new NISOA uniforms going to be any better?
Where was this played? Herkimer? Wouldn't be the first time this has happened. There is a long history of the lake effect machines cranking up just in time for all kinds of playoffs in upstate NY (as well as Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, etc) In all honesty, that field didn't look too bad. Looked like barely an inch. No reason not to play. Again, not the first time. My kids school (w. players I used to coach) lost to Monroe-Woodbury a few years back in a lovely squall. Our regional group finally gave up and went to Capelli USSF (why Capelli? kickback,err, commission). And yes, the NYSPHSAA might get something for the uniform, though, most that are named are also college referees and already have them. As for an orange ball, we need to talk to the HSAA about how much the Spalding contract they have for their shit ball and why they don't have a high vis-ball. Aside from visibility, these balls hold no air in the cold. In my recent playoff match at 40 degrees, from the first game to my second game, we checked the balls, and they had lost 20% of the air they were pumped up to for the first match.
I wonder if MLS will strongly encourage teams to install heating under the grass in short order to melt the snow like the way NFL stadiums are going. Maybe I'm wrong though and we just get games like USA vs Costa Rica in Denver, for whatever WC qualifier that was, all of the time.
my understanding was that they were going to do a 2 month winter break (I imagine December, January) then start the season back up midway through February with most of the teams playing away fixtures. So their first “home” game is in March. But also… not sure how they’ll accommodate places like Colorado, Toronto, NY etc.
In due time all these fields will have these systems installed, in some sort of larger captial project at each arena. They are going to have to. Philadelphia's homefield has been an embarrassment in February and March the past couple seasons. And the Honduras debacle in Minnesota in 2021 showed that you can't just 'unfreeze' a field. They will need to be maintained during those breaks.
Hopefully, this brings in Real Madrid level grass growing and we'll see a move away from artificial turf! or at least hybrid systems
Yes, it was in Herkimer. The amount of snow wasn't necessarily the problem. The squalls that came with the snow and reduced visibility to near zero where the problem. There was a 15-minute snow delay in the 2nd half where the game was suspended.