I'm AR1 at a tournament game, and a U12B's team is playing a very high line and getting absolutely destroyed by it. The other team is playing dump and chase and breaking away with every possession. The attackers have scored 3 already by the end of the first half out of 6 breakaways. Several 'hold the flag' moments as on side attackers run on to the ball and the one that finally got the coach was when 3 attackers were played on side by the right back even though they appeared to be yards offside. His comment: "I thought we were getting good refs today." His team gave up 20 goals in 3 games.
U12 boys. Home team tackles cleanly, visitor trips clumsily over the tackler. Visiting coach calls out "how is that not a foul?". I, AR1, say "that wasn't a foul." Visiting coach: "if you don't think that was a foul, you've got problems." Too bad I was the CR for his u14 game, which was immediately after!
Yea some coaches, all they know is to try an offside trap by having the defenders push up to midfield but they dont really understand how to teach this to the kids and they dont understand enough to quit using it when it isnt working. Sometimes when I am AR1 I find myself almost giving the coach suggestions. I never do unless they ask and sometimes the rec league coaches will ask.
I've pondered the "how does someone who seems to understand soccer not get this" at times, and here's what I think happens frequently on OS calls re coaches and fans. The obvious is that they aren't standing on the OS line -- but I don't think that is the biggest problem in their perception. The biggest problem is they are watching the ball and turnign their head to after the ball is played forward -- and that delay in timing is sufficient to make easy OS calls look onside or clear clean plays look badly offside, especially when there is an attacking team that times its runs well (and can be further heightened if the defense really doesn't get it and keeps moving forward once the ball is kicked "see coach, he was way behind me, he was obviously offside).
These are, fundamentally, poor soccer coaches. Very few, if any, of them have actually played the game. Substituting offside trap for actual defending at these ages is something that the newbie coach can understand (and they assume that they will have their little robots do it perfectly every time) but it will not develope the players' skills in the long term.
I used to be put in the situation of having to be the AR of the games that my son played in. I tried to avoid being the center as much as possible, we just didnt have enough refs I would show up prepared to watch but also have my gear knowing that I would probably be asked. My wife if she couldnt attend would ask me how I thought my son played and usually my response was I didnt see him too much becuase I was watching the offside line. You just cant watch both the game and offside line if your the ref or the coach.
Exactly. I often try to reassure my younger ARs by telling them, "A well-timed run on a through ball is always going to look offside to everyone in the stadium — except you. You'll be right, and they'll be wrong, and I'll know."
It was a mid level tournament with a couple of skilled teams, but the level of the coaching was appalling. Everyone has a soccer academy! IN the first minute of the first game with the high line team, the coach is complaining about the other team's tactics. He described it as dump and run. He said, "we could do that too." They lost 6-3. All six coming on breakaways. You are relying on 4 12 year olds to all move up at the same time in the same line and stay there! Not a chance. Not too many u12 teams of that stature can put three good passes together, but the defense let them hoof the ball over the top and run on to it, time and time again. Same coach in the second game of the day after attending to his player who went down after barging in to the attacker: "You're restarting with a dropped ball, right?"
Been there, done that. When my son was a high school freshman, he was playing JV2. I knew his coach as a player in the men's league. So I show up for one of my son's games, sitting way up in the stands by myself. I don't really need to have a conversation with the other parents about referee decisions. I see the (solo) referee arrive, a guy I don't know. He hands an AR flag to the coach, who turns, without saying a word, to my son and hands him the flag. My son trots over to me and, also without saying a word, just hands me the flag. So I go over there and take some of the loose stuff out of my pockets and I'm just standing there, enjoying a very pleasant afternoon, with a gridiron football team practicing over to my right and a cross country race passing 20 feet behind me and life is good. The referee comes over to me and, very kindly, inquires, "Thank you for doing this. Have you ever lined before?" I was a bit flabbergasted. "Ah, NCAA Division 1 men........" I may have also muttered something about high school championship games. Since I'd been the instructor for his high school pre-season training, I think he was a little embarassed. I might as well have just watched my son while holding the flag because the referee never looked over at me anyway.
A former Grade 4 and longtime MLS AR once showed up to watch his daughter play in a middle school game I was assigned to work solo. I so wanted to hand him a flag and say, "You know, you can only call ball out of play, right?"
Highest level U13B that can be had around here. I am in the middle and have two very experienced ARs. Nice competitive match with great skills. Unbelievably, the parents are quiet as church mice. There is a mild little scramble in the PA. A home attacker, near the six directly in front of the goal, and in a fit of exuberance to get to the ball and through the three defenders in front of him gives a two-hander in the back to the nearest one. He goes down, and like a bowling ball through the pins, takes out the other two. I blow the whistle, tell the attacker no more of that, and to please use his skills from now on. Best part? The coach. "Refereeeee!! What was that?" "A two-hand push in the back sir." "I did not see anything." "That's why I am here coach ..." ;=}
Absolutely! Our former SRA, National Emeritus, now a member of the USASA National Referee Committee, once was pressed into service as a club line on his son's game. The referee told him, "Eric, you're a club line, so just the in's and out's today." Eric was insulted and calls me the next day to complain about the referee!
One of my assignors had a u14 quite a few years ago where he was short a line. The AR that he got to pick out happens to be a national ref. My assignor said that he didn't turn to move up or down field the whole game.
Yes, except from the reverse situation for me. I have adults come up to me, be it youth or adult game, and start telling me things to watch, or how I can improve. How about I watch your workplace for 90 minute, then tell you how to do your job, ignoring your training and experience. When I get this, I just do as vetshak's penguin would do: "just smile and wave [boys], just smile and wave"
My son's club team was playing in the last game of the day at a local tournament some years ago. The coach of a younger team in our club hung around to watch the game. He is also a busy referee when not coaching (high school and adult games out of club season). Only 2 refs showed up for the game, but they both knew the coach/ref in question, so they asked him to help out as AR, even though he did not have his ref gear and was wearing our club kit. In the first half, he called the opponents offside a couple of times, and after they complained he agreed to call ball in/out only. Naturally, in the second half, our team scored from a pass that may or may not have been offside (I thought it was, but I was out of position). He looked at the center and just shrugged his shoulders.
Great advice. With or without your permission, I'm stealing that. Had a similar situation - involving the midfield stripe, no less - and the disadvantaged coach blew a gasket - walked across the midfield stripe, across the opposing bench, to yell at me that the call was "awful", etc., etc. (Why the middle didn't toss him, I don't know). But I just wanted to put my arm around the guys shoulder in a really brotherly way and say, "Sir, please, for your own sake, with all due respect, and to spare yourself the embarrassment of showing everyone within a half-mile that you don't know something that any soccer professional would know - shut up and go read the offside rule. Specifically, the part about not being able to be in violation of the rule if you're in your own half when the ball is played/touched by a teammate. " Obviously, not something to do, but the thought ran through my head. Oh, and this was a competitive tournament. Ignorance has no boundaries, apparently.