Yeah, if a national referee with years of MLS experience doesn't know the law, it's not shocking that 22 players wouldn't know either.
This is something that the people who run PRO would expect the referees at this level to be fairly automatic with, and so likely do not spend time talking about it in training sessions. It points back to the type of (or lack of) instruction and training that went on at the professional level prior to the onset on PRO, which was the reason for the introduction of PRO in the first place. PH
First, I agree that this absolutely has to be done right, not just at this level, but at any level. Almost all the controversy about refereeing is that there is SO MUCH judgement and opinion in decisions ("advantage", "trifling", etc) that we simply have to get the black-and-white stuff correct. With that said, I've made this same mistake. It was a fairly competitive amateur match and I succumbed to what engineers call "task saturation" when dealing with an IFK in the box. After the kick was taken - and saved - a player from the attacking team ran by me and said "wrong line ref". Odd that he didn't bring it up earlier... In any case, I don't think that PRO, US Soccer, CONCACAF, UEFA or FIFA will make this a point of emphasis. Almost every mistake at this level is made by someone who should know better, because if they didn't know better, they wouldn't be there. I don't think it's possible to eliminate technical error - you can minimize it, but it will always be with us. Pilots will fly into the ground and surgeons will amputate the wrong leg - it's just how human beings work. Let's not give him a hard time about it - he screwed up and I guarantee he knows it better than anyone. There but for the grace of God go I... (OK, I already went there once)
I was glad to log in here and see that I probably wasn’t the only one sitting at home last night screaming at - OK, maybe just complaining to – the tv. That was bad, especially at this level. Heck, as an AYSO referee assessor, if I saw this in a game where I was assessing for an Intermediate to Advanced upgrade, I would have complimented the referee for getting the call right and then marked him down for blundering the restart - in two ways. In the debrief, I would have asked, “So, on the pass back to the keeper and subsequent free kick, what did you see?” I can’t imagine a response that would convince me to recommend for upgrade. And this isn’t even for AYSO’s top level badge. So thanks for your efforts, you’re just not ready for U14s yet. And also, what’s with the no caution for the blatant hold by Opare, who was already on a yellow card. Maybe Chapman didn’t want to send him off? I hate when we referees give a player more leniency because they already have a caution, when they should get less. Opare should have been gone. This coming from a Galaxy supporter.
Ok, so we have a correct call (I think everyone agrees), an incorrect spot of the restart (that might cross into judgement, if he says "that's where I saw it") and an illegal wall that if you understand basic field measurements you can't possibly say was 10 yards. At what point with this, if ever, does it cross into illegal restart and bring the game into question? We've had WC qualifiers in the past replayed after a protest due to an incorrect restart after a PK infringement( law 14). Does this violation of law 12 make it pro-testable? I think much would depend on the referee's answer to "where was the infraction?" If he says "outside the GA" then the location is right and you are going on wall position. That I believe might be a judgement call, same as "was the trip inside/outside the PA?" I do find it hard to believe that 4 officials at this level all had the same, incorrect, understanding. Then again, I constantly am reminded, that as an instructor and assessor, I get more steady a stream of reminders for details like this, basically discuss it endlessly in any grade 8 class, whereby a referee hears it once at that class and maybe never again. I would hope that if anyone spoke up on the headset, it would "jog" the memory of Chapman, or others, and at least quickly discuss. Kind of like "Oh &^%*, you're right, thanks!"
No. A protest would have to be handled by MLS and they would never do it because every non-referee fan would go "the refs do stupid stuff all the time and THIS is what you're doing a replay for?"
I think if the referee lies through his teeth, he can chalk it up to a judgment call rather than a misapplication of the laws. But I think referee at that level would rather admit he had a brain fart and missaplied the laws than admit that he is incapable of seeing where a goalie touched the ball 15 yards ahead of him, and of judging how far ten yards is when there is a 6 yard marking right underneath his feet.
I think you can stretch the ball placement to a judgment call, but putting the wall at the post is absolutely an error in law since that's a standard distance. This is 100% protestable. Hopefully Chapman owns up to his mistake.
Maybe the referee was just disoriented and confused as to where the goal was. The restart was 100% correct, after all… assuming you rotate the goal 90 degrees.
I had a match once where a GK was being a real jerk about waiting and waiting before picking up the ball on thru balls. Then, he had one that he picked up, set it back on the ground, got challenged and picked it back up. All inside the goal area. I mention this because AR 1 kept insisting that my spot of the ball should be halfway between the goal line and the six yard line. And he was out on the field telling me this! Weird things do happen.
Probably missed it but how should the wall have been placed? Lining up on the goal line, going away from the ball? (not a ref)
Defending players cannot be within 10 yards of the ball unless they are on the goal line between the posts. They could have lined up on the goal line going away from the ball starting at the near post.
When a team commits an IFK offense in its own goal area, the kick is taken at the point on the goal area line parallel to the goal line nearest to where the offense occurred. So basically roll the ball directly backward until it his the six. All defensive players must still be ten yards from the ball, unless they're standing on the goal line between the posts.
Essentially (with the reminder that the positioning of the free kick itself was a separate error that creates an unusual set up on the field). The opposing team must be at least 10 yards away from the ball, except that they may take up a position in the goal on the goal line even if it it less than 10 yards. So, with the ball 6 yards and a few inches from the front goal post, the defending team could have lined up on the goal line starting at the post and back another 4 yards or off the goal line anywhere else that is at least 10 yards from the location of the kick. In short, draw a circle with a 10-yard radius as you would for any regular free kick, but allow defenders to stand on the goal line even if it's inside the circle. With the ball in this particular location, my initial inclination would be to put the GK at the near post to defend against any immediate shot (perhaps with one other defender to charge the ball if tapped short) and then with another defender or two on the line behind the GK for cover and the other defenders either marking opponents or at the 10 yard mark ready to pressure the ball and/or opponents when it's played.
I'm hoping everyone in this thread that called it a passback isn't actually an official and just a curious party interested in the play. If not, it's no wonder the rest of us have the eternal struggle of convincing players that there's not such thing anymore as a passback.
Wait, are you referring to the word "passback"? Or are you referring to the rule? Assuming you're talking about the word (gosh I hope I would have seen that directive had the rule been abolished) persoanlly, as someone who is a referee, I use the word passback coloquially because it's only two syllables and "when a goalkeeper deliberately handles the ball after it has been deliberately kicked or thrown to him by a teammate" is a bit of a mouthful It's the same reason I coloquially call it a handball, not "a deliberate handling of the ball", obstruction instead of "impeding the progress of the opponent", and dangerous play instead of "playing in a dangerous manner".
So we've all determined Chapman screwed up. Now I'm thinking in terms of management for an IFK that is LEGITIMATELY just outside the 6 along the side there, say at 6 1/2 yards. How in the world do you keep players from encroaching? They encroach badly enough as it is on free kicks that are at the top of the goal area. If set up properly, you'd have this weird broken semicircle thing going where a couple of players might be on the goal line but then there might be a wall set up at the ten yard radius, but probably starting at least two or three yards back from the last player on the goal line. That's if it's done right, but the players are naturally going to want to form a continuous wall connected to the last player on the goal line because that seems logical, even if unlawful. It's going to be a giant mess. I feel like almost every goal area IFK I've ever seen has been managed terribly anyway, where the referee allows players to take a couple of steps before the ball is tapped by the initial kicker. So I'm just trying to picture it in my head and it's a complete cluster-you-know-what. Any ideas? Edit: I added diagrams since it's really hard to explain. Legal setup: Illegal (but what players may think is right) setup.
This seems like something that should be helped out quite a bit with the vanishing spray. Draw the wall mark at 10 and connect it to the goal line.
I'm resurrecting this very old thread since the focus is on the where the ball is placed after a pass back is whistled (I will keep to myself my opinion on the actual call). It's another example of the ball being misplaced for the restart. This was during yesterday's exhibition between Juventus and Chivas. The play begins at 6:38 of the video: As a side note, it takes nearly 2 minutes for the indirect free kick to take place once the whistle is blown.