Decent "B" level travel teams on field far too small. CR hits whistle for foul and ball is set about 40 yards out, right on line with goal. Attacker times run from about 2 yards back of offside line, and breaks plane of offside line (about 25 yards out) dead on with striking of ball, which is not driven, but trying to get by wall to attacker. Ball arrives at wall as the attacker is about 5 yards past wall and I say..."well someone is not going to be happy" to myself as the ball defects off defender in wall and flips into the air. Defender deflection slows ball enough so the attacker turns, having gone about 10 yards past the line by this time, and comes back to the ball. I can pop the flag and no one is going to complain. After all, he is 10 yards past the line AND coming back. But hey, I had 5 kids over a space of 20 years so I like to live with some fun...but I know that it just LOOKS BAD. RECAP: Attacker 1 was onside at kick. Ball deflects off back line defender toward attacker 1 who then comes back to collect ball. (attacker does nothing with ball anyway) National CR stands me up at halftime, gives a look (same look I gave my teenage son, now 35, when he backed into my car in the driveway...) and asks the question. "Umm, are you sure about that no call offside?" No matter how many times I say, the "attacker was onside at the kick and ball deflected off defense" he just keeps saying, "you must be thinking of another play...this guy was coming BACK." So, did I blow it?
from your description: no. though so much of our answer depends on us being there. but if he was onside when the ball was played, and it was not played again by a teammate, he should be onside. sounds good to me
Sounds like you were correct. Tell the CR to focus on his job and you will focus on your's. (Not that I would say that, but you can be sure I'd be THINKING that)
It seems like you know this was NOT offside, based on how you described it. I hope you aren't actually suggesting that maybe you should have put the flag up simply because that's what some/most/all the people who were there expected it, or because it would have made things easier on you?
Bear in mind that most of the time the AR will be the only person who was fully focused on the offside line and the relative movements of the attackers and defenders. The general tendency for everybody else there is to be focused on the area where play is going on. Usually they are surprised when the flag does go up for a player coming back from an offside position, but it's equally likely that you can have a player who will appear to have been well offside by the time he becomes involved but was not offside at the point in time that matters. But only the AR was focused on that moment. I did a men's O-30 match this morning, followed by a U-12 girls game. As I headed back to my car, I ran across the winning men's team still enjoying a brew (Irish pub team). Hey ref, come have a beer. I normally don't, but the season's over, won't be seeing them till spring, so what the heck. So ref, would you explain the offside law for Matt (caught offside a couple of times)? Yes, it's easy. If the flag goes up, he's off....cheers!
Yeah you blew it. You had a chance to tell the CR (regardless of badge) to either trust you and accept your calls, or they can take the flag and do the whole darn thing from the center of the field. You were right. Sounds like the NR needs to learn a bit more about working as a team.
No. I agree with GOOOOOOOAL, you made the right call. You should have just told the center that, regardless of badge. Even if he were Piurligina Collina he couldn't make an offsides call without positioning. He should know better
No-I will never take the easy way out. But more than once I have said to myself, "oh hell, this is not going to go easy..." Anyway, those who know my posting know that I like to be introspective and see the game as a whole, and the includes being open to feedback. I would rather listen and think and potentially learn than be a ref that ignores everyone and everything around them. I did take away something from the game. This guy was tight with the whistle. Great whistle skills in conveying what he thought about the foul. There are so many ways to control a game and sense the feeling of the teams, but this was the best whistle I have heard in communicating more than "foul."
OK, I've read it a couple of times, and I think I get it now. You should have told the ref, "Yes, he came back to get to the ball. But before he did that, he passed the 2LD [just as / immediately after] the ball was kicked. Because the kick was short, he had to come back to get the ball. At the time the ball was kicked, he was onside."
I've had a number of those situations, generally resulting from being off and coming back, perfectly timing a run, or being on the attacker's own half before breaking. While I think Law 11 is relatively straightforward, there are some situations that just don't look "right," and in those situations I prepare myself for the sure-to-be-lobbed comments even when I'm confident in my decision.
stand firm on your decision, regardless of who tells you otherwise. We've all had the training and read up to the point where if we're going to throw the flag or blow the whistle, its for a good reason and spectators, coaches and other refs need to realize this. Even yesterday I was doing a U11 game and at the end of the first quarter, another ref in the league trotted out to me and said that an assessor in the crowd (who wasn't officially doing the game) noticed that I blew a call on a goal. It was a busy breakaway into a crowded penalty area where a player was in an Offside position but i deemed them not interfering. How anyone could have made that call from anywhere but my position is ridiculous. like when a coach at the halfway line thinks he has a better viewpoint of offside 40yds away at a diagonal
In fairness, if the CR sees a player seemingly way offside, it is a legitimate point to ask the AR about at half time, especially if he doesn't know the AR. For all he knows, you could not see the play, or thought a defender played the ball, etc. And if he thinks that you are confused about which play he is talking about, he can ask you a second time. But if the AR says he saw the play clearly and the player was on, what else is there to say, end of discussion.
I agree. This weekend, a player was called offside for a play very near the midfield line. He insisted he was on his half before the ball was played and couldn't possibly have been offside, my AR saw it otherwise. At half, I asked - where was he?, she replied on the attacking half. Discussion over, I told her good call and we were done. The player asked before the 2nd half started and I told him my AR saw you on the other half. We're done discussing it now. He wasn't thrilled, but knew that was the end of the story and that we had at least talked about the situation.