I had an interesting situation not too long ago while reffing a U-10 boys game and would like to know if/how any refs would handle this situation differently... The attacker on team A shot the ball which the keeper from team B inadvertently blocked with his face. The keeper went down and I chose to let the play carry on for another 4-5 seconds because team A had recovered the ball after the deflection and had an obvious goal scoring opportunity with an open net. (Luckily?) team A missed their chance and kicked it out for a goal kick. The keeper had not gotten up, so I whistled for a stoppage and turned to waive on his coach only to find that he had already run on to the field and was screaming at me because the keeper was his son and was acting as if his son was dying or something. I cautioned him for entering the field without permission (probably could have given him red for him screaming at me as well, but chose not to). The injury was not serious, as I had quickly assessed, and the player was subbed back on 5 minutes later. If it had been a serious collision, I would have immediately stopped play and restarted with a drop ball. However, I didn't see it as a reason to stop. I now question whether or not I should have done that for this instance. Would your decision be different based on whether you were doing a youth game or a professional game? Should the decision be different because it's the keeper involved vs. any other player?
these were u-littles. safety, safety, safety. a player goes down and doesn't immediately move, look up, make some sign that he is ok ... stop play and get to that player. older, more competitive players ... you let play continue "if the player is not seriously injured." you need to judge how hard they are struck, where, etc to decide if it nees to be immediately stopped. and then, as they get more skilled - dive, faking seriousness of injury, etc. to complicate your life.
I agree that you have to assess the situation depending on competition level, but I think you did the right thing in your case. 4-5 seconds is not unreasonable to see if the keeper would get up, especially if the attacking team still has a shot at a goal. If he was knocked out or something and not moving at all then sure, blow the play dead right away. Kids get hit in the face by the ball all the time (and if it was U-10, I doubt it had THAT much power behind it) and can usually play through it (it's more of a shock then anything when they get hit). As for cautioning the coach, that was fine too, but I doubt I would have tossed him unless he said something REALLY bad, because I can understand the parental protection reaction if their little baby gets hurt.
At U10, I agree with Ref47. Side with safety. Good coaches care more about the well being of their players than the score of the match. Had a coach at a prestigeous tournament ask me why I didn't blow the whistle right away. I said because you had a goal scoring opportunity. He turned and said, I care more about my players. Scoring chances come every game, but my players shouldn't have to wait for treatment. I understood why his players worked so hard.
For me, U10 is usually on the "every apparent injury is serious" side of the continuum. At u12 it goes to "most are serious, check asap", then to "serious is serious". Below that, at u8, we have "every boo-boo is serious". If the ball was going directly into the goal as a player went down (say it was a cross that hit the keeper, which deflected toward the goal) then I might let it go for a second or two before I whistled. But I'm disinclined to let players make more attempts at scoring while an opponent is down. And I'd manage the restart (presumably dropped ball) to see if we couldn't restore the situation as closely as possible to what it was before the stoppage. I've requested that the keeper or other defender distribute the ball to one of the waiting attackers, and usually they'll go along with you. All you have to do is explain it to them - that we stopped their scoring chance when we took care of the keeper, so let's give them another chance, OK?
Has anyone seen this happen at the professional level (ie. the keeper goes down after a serious injury leaving the net unattended) ? I understand the safety of the kids comes first and foremost at this level, but what about the pros?
I've seen it happen -- happened in the English Premier League a couple years ago. The keeper got leveled with a shot in the face and the ball deflected back to the attacker. The attacker hesitated a half second and booted the ball over the endline for a goal kick. I also seem to recall a situation when DJ Countess took one in the face, but didn't stay down -- he was clearly hurting though. The opposing team continued to try to score and he made another save before the ball was cleared. Then he went down. His eye swelled shut if I remember correctly and he had to be subbed out.
Hello, this is my first post on here, and I'm posting because I had a very similar thing happen recently with different results. I coach a U-10 team. The opposing team took a shot from inside 5 yards which struck my keeper in the face hard. He immediately dropped to the ground holding his face, and the ball fell nearby, not in goal. All of the kids on the field, both teams, immediately stopped playing, and after a few seconds one of my defenders reached down and picked up the ball. He shouldn't have done this, but no one on the other team was even moving to the ball which was sitting in front of the goal. The ref then blew the whistle, waived me onto the field to check my player, and awarded a penalty kick. After I checked my player and brought in a new keeper to replace him, I let the ref know, in a kind and calm way, that I thought he should have blown the whistle. Safety is the most important thing at this age, even the kids knew that.
I believe that in the EPL a few years back a player (Di Canio?) caught a ball rather than volley it into an open net after the GK went down with a knee injury challenging the crosser. He won some kind of sportsmanship award IIRC. I call gatting smashed in the face with a shot a great save!
Welcome to bigsoccer. It's been a while since I've called U-10, and I might have called it the same or I might have called a drop ball at some location - not in the goal area. In any case, it should be a good coaching point for the kids - what do you do when someone on either team gets hurt? The answer is kick the ball out of play, and the reason is to protect your team or to show good sportsmanship.
Thanks for the reply. You're right about the good coaching point. I don't think I have to worry about my defenders picking up any more balls.
Yeah lesson learned. If I was that referee, I would have simply done a drop ball because both teams stopped play and indicated that they wanted the GK to get medical attention. However, if the attacking team still attacks, I would probably let them finish a quick shot or something while I was assessing how hurt the keeper is. Again it all depends on the age and competition level.
They award PKs in U-10? In our U-10 leagues (AYSO, CYSA, PAL) we don't even award DFKs. The penalty spot isn't even marked out, nor is the arc. Play should be stopped immediately, with a drop outside the penalty area. Carding the dad/coach was harsh. The parents and coaches of the youngest age groups are the most irrational, as they are the least experienced at the game and how physical it actually is. Cut them some slack and give them a warning.
We had almost the identical thing in a U-12 game. Break away for white, red goalie comes out to around the penelty spot, A hard shot (OK, the hardest in the game) from about 4-5 yards out hits Red goalie in the face. The ball bounces outside the penetly area towards a trailing attcker as red goalie drops on the ground and is not moving. White attcker gets to the ball, first shot hits the cross bar, next shot is cleared to the side by a red defender, white crosses the ball, next shot hits the post, scramble in the 6 yards box, balls comes near the penetly spot a few feet from Red goaile (still on the ground not moving). The next shot goes in, I run on the field (red goalie is my son). The first 5-6 seconds I wasn't happy the referee didn't stop the game, the next 20-30 seconds where some of the longest of my life, watching your son on the ground not moving is very very hard. I can understand why the coach was on the field (right or wrong). It turned out my son was OK, but I could explain to him why the game wasn't stop, I keep telling that as a goalie he shouldn't be affraid to go for the ball since the ref is going to "protect" him.
I've got no problem with carding the coach - he knows the rules. They're in place for a reason. Furthermore, if he's screaming and carrying on then it will give him a much lesser chance of benefitting from discretion. He's screwed up twice there. Naturally in these younger games we'll err on the side of caution, and be a lot more likely to stop play than in an older match, regardless of OGSO. At the same time we're not going to stop play every time a player falls over - it will take at the very least a couple of seconds to figure out if he's hurt or just taking his time to get up. In my area (Australia) U/10 is where they start playing 11 a side with full laws (shortened goal kicks and corners though). Blueman - as the keeper is such an important position, and required by law, I think we may probably still stop play a bit quicker for the keeper than another player, but not always straight away. ScottnATL - I think in this case the referee should've used common sense and awarded a drop ball, especially considering the age of the players. Oh well.