I was working as a ref assignor in a tournament last weekend and had the opportunity to observe a few games during the weekend. I watched one particular ref doing a superb job as a CR during the pool play stage of the tournament. He used crisp clear whistles, confident signals, and an air of control that gave all the participants a sense of confidence in his abilities. Based on my observation, I had no qualms about assigning him to do an U14 girls final later in the day. The final turned out to be two teams that had faced each other in pool play with one team winning the group and the other advancing as a wildcard. Both won their semifinals to force the rematch. The final was an intense battle with the one team able to get one past the keeper early in the second half and then punch in another one from a goal mouth scramble about 10 minutes later. This is when I noticed something about the CR that I've been guilty of myself. The foul calls started to obviously favor the trailing team. In an effort to appear impartial, the calls became 'extra fair' for the trailing team. I've recognized this characteristic in myself at times, but I was wondering if this is more widespread among other refs. Anyone recognize this in their own games?
I usually try to keep track of which team the close fouls are going against. With a collision where both have some culpability, I may try to favor the team the last close call was against. I also, try to determine if one team is just more consistently over-agressive. I have noticed that when one team controls the game and the ball for more than 75% of the time that it is the team where I'm calling most of the fouls. The reason is that they're more aggressive going to the ball, and the other team's fouls usually don't result in controlling the ball. I will frequently be calling advantage and if the weaker team's fouls start affecting the stronger team, I'll call the fouls.
The problem with this is you start making what fans call "make-up calls". A lot of refs will call a close play against a team because the last one went in that teams favor. I'm strongly against doing this. I try to make the correct call every time, even if what fans deem to be close calls do not come up even. Fouls aren't like jump balls in college basketball that are determined by a possession arrow. One team may commit 90% of the game's fouls. I'm not acussing IASocFan of alternating calls, but by keeping tracking of the close calls for or against a team, a ref might subconciously (or conciously) try to even them out.
I knew I was on the edge there. First priority is to get it right. Some 80-90% of foul calls are clear. It's when I start hearing the "call it both ways" comments that I become more sensitive to direction of fouls. And you're definitely correct that sometimes one team commits most of the fouls. In that case, you call it like you see it, and may even be prejudiced against them, because they're the team that's usually fouling - which you absolutely want to discourage.
I think that the tendency to overcompensate for one team when they are seriously down, is nearly unavoidable. Particularly if it is a blow out, there is no reason for the opponent to be excessively agressive so you tend to tighten up a bit on the leader. You try not to let them get carried away. The game is decided so let's make sure no-one gets hurt. I don't think this is wrong in most situations. This, however, is not a good practice in a close game or when the team who is down still has a chance of pulling it out. Then, imbalance in your officiating could directly influence the outcome of the game, so you must be concious of this. Another aspect of this which is seriously risky, is rather than tightening up your calls on the leader, you loosen up your calls on the trailing team. This can lead to a loss of control and hard feelings by both teams.
First off, it struck me as a problem that you noticed this behavior after just 2 goals. Five goals in the first half or a true blowout, maybe I can see it. As for how you call the game gets altered -- it can actually go either way. In the younger age groups, I may TEND to call things a little tighter on the team that is dominating. In other words, make them play better technical soccer and rely less on physical play. However, in the older age groups, where you generally need to tighten it up is with the team that is getting thumped. You'll frequently see them start tackling harder or doing little things off the ball due to frustration. You need to whistle those little things right away even when the attacking team maintains advantage. In those cases, they're already blowing the team out -- what's the big deal about taking away advantage and the management of the match is much better served by clearly indicating that you're not going to let it get out of control. As far as IASoc's comments about evening things up -- there's one situation where I've done something similar -- and again I felt it was necessary for match management purposes. Blue team is dominating possession and white team is getting frustrated. It's not a blowout or anything, in fact, it's 3-2 blue at this point. It's just that white has stagnated and is getting frustrated at not being able to get things going again. In their frustration they've committed fouls and I've blown about 5 or 6 fouls on them in the last 3 minutes. At this point, their frustration is getting even higher (now partly with me too). I decided at that point that the next time a white player even barely touched a blue player I was whistling a foul on them. I did it and got to whistle another foul about 40 seconds later on white and blue settled right down. By "looking" for a foul to call on white, I let the steam out of a kettle that was about ready to boil over.
I try not to call a foul if I am not sure it is a foul. If it is legit, then there is no reason to "keep track" of what you are calling accept in the context of persistant infringement. When a team is losing I look for them to cheat to regain the lead. When a team is winning you look for completely different types of fouls usually aimed at wasting time and controling the ball to prevent a goal.