Three years ago, my son's team was in a tournament. Their first opponent had a defender who, when he gained possession of the ball, kicked it as far down the field as he could. My son's team had the defenders gather the ball and build the attack again (his coach at this time was the current head coach of a local D3 men's team - every time I watch my son play, I'm grateful this guy was coaching him at age 8 and 9). It took about 15 minutes for my son's team to score, but once they did the goals came in droves. I think the game ended 8-0 or something close to that. Possession had to be 90%-10% in the game with the ball in my son's half of the field only when this kid boomed the ball deep.
I did a U10 game once. Home coach is in my Sunday School class. His team lost 2-1 to a team that employed the "boot it" strategy, only because the young keeper misplayed the ball twice. He said "I can't believe we lost to a team who could do nothing but boot it." His kids got much better as the season went on.
Here's something that I haven't heard before .... It was at a U12 (or is it 12U) boys indoor game with no offside. Red team takes a shot on goal. The ball hits the blue goalkeeper's hands and rebounds to another red player who chests the ball into the goal to score. One of the blue defenders says, "The keeper had the ball!" From the sideline, his coach says, "He didn't have control. Stop relying on the ref to save us from our mistakes!"
I had a good day yesterday with the spectators. No problems and some fun bantering with some. U10 boys rec game. Keeper makes a save and I say "Equipment time out. Keeper, tie your shoe, please." "While wearing gloves?" Good point. I tie his shoe for him. I slowly stand back up and I say "Usually it is youngsters refereeing this age." A lady asked how old I was and I said "I recently turned 40." No one seemed to believe me. I then said "I more recently turned 45." That drew lots of laughter, except from the lady who asked. She gave me a look like my wife gives when she wants me to stop omitting things. I finally said "OK, I even more recently turned 50." Edited to add - Last game of the day, U12 league (non-rec) game. I'm AR2. White scores to make it 7-0 with ten minutes left in the game. White changes keepers who share gloves. While the new keeper puts on his gloves, a Blue team parent asked "Are you adding stoppage time for this?" I said "At 7-0, he better not add stoppage time." Blue parent said "Good. I'm ready for this to end."
Speaking of timing.... Yesterday's men O-58. Ball goes out at midfield and I hit the whistle. One of the older players asks, "What was that?" A teammate tells him, "Half time." The older guy turns to me and says, "Already?" We both smiled. Yes, 45 minute halves. Before the game, one of his teammates, a former fellow referee, was telling me about their last game, "We were talking about not playing if we get that guy again. He wasn't calling anything. I got hit here (pointing to just below his knee) and he didn't call it." The oldest guy on his team, who's putting on his shoes, lifts his head and tells him, "You're always the whiner." Their goalkeeper's name, according to his player card and the roster is "Gerry (Spider) [last name.]" His player card picture has him wearing aviator goggles on his head with a big white mustache and a giant grin.
[QUOTE="gaolin, post: 38503495, member: 334388" I should have gone back with a yellow but I just told him to zip it. Coaches...[/QUOTE] I often wonder about how much refs comment of coaches/parents comments and what to do about it. I know being half deaf is a great advantage for me, but I do still hear stuff. And I ignore 95% of it. The comment mentioned here just does not merit a response. Now, if it is the 10th comment of the match, that is a different matter altogether. I will give you an example - 17UG premier tournament game last weekend and white team is excellent and a notch or two better than red team. But only 1-0 at the half. Possibly first outdoor game of season and girls (and me) are getting tired. Players are working really hard with a lot of shoulder to shoulder contesting for ball and girls are getting hurt in non-foul situations. Red has a through ball into the PA and attacker is trying to turn the corner and start to lose the ball and then defender clips her leg from behind for a clear foul (therefore PK) just as the ball is going OOB. I don't "want" to call it as it was not going to result in a goal, but it was hard and clear and ball was still in, so in about 2 seconds I blow for the PK. PK converted to make it 1-1. I am sure there were comments, but I heard nothing. 10 minutes later, there is another non-foul injury near the white team bench and now I hear the coach saying, "c'mon, you gotta call that. You called the PK on less than that". No swearing, no yelling, not demonstrative, just an unhappy comment. So I could card him, warn him, talk to him, or what I did, ignore him. I know he is unhappy about the PK call (I am not thrilled either, but was right call). Nothing further is said, game goes on and ends 1-1. Works for me.
Varsity boys, dead ball. "Hey ref, can I ask you a question?" "Sure." "Is it in through the nose, out through the mouth, or in through the mouth, out through the nose?" "Uh. Hmm. Let me think ...."
I have a calendar on the refrigerator I print out every month with high school football and baseball games I do the radio for and soccer games/tournaments I am assigned. I noticed the April calendar is still behind the magnets. I told my bride "I forgot to print out the May calendar." She said "Why do you need it?" Um...good point.
During this time of no games, I have one from last fall. I’m AR2 on a U14 boys game. Blue is comfortably ahead of White. Blue team has some very good Bosnian players. One of the dads is coaching his kid in Bosnian (I used to live in this town and can pick up the language a little). The kid gets frustrated and yells back at his dad in Bosnian, and the dad quickly quiets down. At the next sub, I smiled at the parents and said, “Did that mean ‘Dad, I got this!’?” The dad laughed and said, “It was a little stronger than that!” We all had a good laugh about it, with the dad admitting to others he needed to be quieter. His kid was really good, so he was doing just fine on his own.
U17 boys today, Red vs. White. Red attacker was a minimum five yards offside. He was off by that much earlier but said he was off and pulled back, allowing White keeper to gather it in. This time he challenged for the ball and I raised the flag. A player on the White bench said "He was so offside that he was offside when the ball was kicked." I screwed up my face trying to make sure I heard him correctly when his coach said "He's not offside until the ball is kicked at him."
U12 boys game, doesn't matter. High school girl AR2 and college freshman boy AR1. At halftime, AR1 said he looks on Facebook to see who he is working with if he doesn't know them. He points to me and says "you are on Facebook." But then he points to AR2 and says "But you aren't." AR2 says "There are too many creepy old men on Facebook." I said "Hey, wait a minute." She said "Not you. You aren't creepy." I said "Thank you. Um...wait a minute. Are you calling me old?" The players started getting back on the field and she ran back to position without answering.
https://t.co/wl3ausVjsA— Zen Caminiti 🧘♂️ (@PlanZ33) August 22, 2020 Gotta say, this was very well handled by the referee...typical foul followed by a head stomp...scary stuff. https://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2020...nds-cosmos-sembroni-for-the-rest-of-the-year/
From a parent at one of my Sunday games as a player runs onto the ball from two yards onside to score on a breakaway: "How can that not be offside?" (This was his fifth or sixth time erroneously thinking that if you are in an offside position when you play the ball, regardless of where you are when the ball is initially played, that it's offside). Since it was my 13th (40-minute) game of the weekend, I broke my silence (which I know is wrong, but by that time I really didn't care). "Sir, I would advise you to read Law 11 so you understand what offside is, because that wasn't offside. We also have an online referee registration course this week if you're interested, and I can get you that information." Silence the rest of the match.
good for you! A well timed rebuke can sometimes do a world of benefit, for both your game and the ever mystical “next week’s referee”.
A year ago, with parents right behind me (AR) ... Minor foul right in front of us. Parent of attacking team is aghast that I didn't put up the flag. I give a "wait a second" hand gesture his direction. Goal. Me: "And that's why we wait." Parent was most appreciative.
Some parents get it, but not always when it’s their kid who was founded. When I was coaching, I had a dad come unglued on an advantage call that led to an easy open shot by another player (who shanked it). I could not convince him—as the team’s coach!—that the ref was right to play advantage. (Though I did think the R should have gone back to caution the reckless foul.)
I had a similar situation as AR1 in a girls high school match. The center was trapped deep in a penalty area scramble and, shall we say, a little older and less likely to keep up with play. Keeper punts, and the team's best player beats the defender on a turn after settling the punt. Attacker is held, and she starts to look to me for a foul. I was close enough to put a hand out somewhat discreetly and say, "Play it!" since I knew the center was 50 yards (at least) behind play. The girl scored even after the delay looking at me. After the goal is scored, I looked at the coach. This coach is a neighbor of my parents, a referee himself, and coached my cousin on the same school's boys team several years ago. I just smiled at him. Me: "You know what you're going to say to her about that, right?" Coach: "Yes, I will talk to her about making sure she knows you understand how to call advantage."
Had a fun day of mentoring and reffing and heard all kinds of funny stuff. With 2 days notice, I was asked to assign for a rec league. I managed to fill 17 of the 18 slots and 5 of the refs were doing first game ever. I decided I needed to be there to get them started off right. First rec games I have seen in a few years. We have the usual fun with earrings that can't be removed and bracelets that are tied on, and a plethora of fitbits. And since we are not doing player checkins, the newbie refs are not spotting the problems.... I am standing near some 10U girls and the ice cream truck pulls up. One of the girls immediately wants an ice cream BAAAD. I told her the truck would be back at least 10 time that day, but no. She says no fair, my sister is getting one. She starts yelling to her dad (across the field) DAD, I WANT AN ICE CREAM, DAD, I WANT AN ICE CREAM, ....repeat at least 5 times. I could not take it and started to walk away. Her coach finally takes notice and says, no ice cream now. And he should have left it at that, but then he says besides, wouldn't you rather play than get an ice cream. No hesitation, she goes, I would rather have the ice cream..... I finally finish with the rec games and leave to go ref my own 12U premier game. Really fun game and these boys played incredibly physical with almost no fouling. Blue team has David and Goliath as mid-fielders. Big kid has a 12+ inches and 50+ pounds on his teammate. And a rocket for a shot. 10 minutes in, Big winds up to take a shot from 25 yds and just before he shoots, Little yells, don't shoot!. Shot goes wide right. Big turns to Little and says, "why did you say that, you are my teammate and you should want me to shoot". Cracked me up. 2nd half, Big takes a shot from about same distance, and mishits it and sends a 20 hopper that eludes everyone and goes in the net. He says, "I finally got one." Little just says, "I thought it was going to stop before it went in".
U15 girls game. Home team's player comes in late with a foot up. Away team's player follows through connects with the outstretched leg. Away goes down holding her foot. I come in and caution home for the late challenge. Home coach (who claimed to be a referee before the game when we were talking about training during the pandemic): "How that can be a caution? The other girl swung her leg into our girl's foot!" (My internal voice - "If you use that logic when you're refereeing, your game control is probably suffering.") Second center, U15 girls game: Home team's player is fouled about 30 yards out. I don't give the big advantage signal or call out "Play on!" loudly, because fouled player's pass goes right to a teammate in space and it would distract for the big advantage call. I call out "Play it!" loudly enough for the players around me to hear it. Fouled player looks up at me as the second player passes to a player who hits it on the second touch into the net. Me to fouled player: "That's why I waited and didn't call the foul." Fouled player to me: "Thank you, sir."
U11 boys. Best player on the team scores three goals in the first half of a 10-0 blowout. He dribbled past defenders and scored on his own while his coach is yelling "pass it." After the third goal, his coach yelled "You're greedy." The kid says "No, I'm a winner." The coach subbed him out and he didn't play the rest of the half. He played defender the second half.
The coach's execution was not the best (probably not best to call your player "greedy"), but I do commend him for showing the player that no one is above the team. He probably should have just pulled the player and had a quiet talk with him on the sideline. However, the kid was definitely acting in a bratty manner. I try very, very hard to not talk about the game with my son after games are done except to find 1-2 things he did well and compliment him on those items. If he were to ever pull a stunt like this, the conversation after getting home (not in the car) would be very different. This does bring me to a fun story about my son from Labor Day weekend. For the last three seasons, he's played striker most of the time. However, at a 2019 Memorial Day tournament he guest-played on a different team. That coach put him at the 8/10 position (9 v 9), and he looked so natural in that role. This season, he's playing for a new club (not enough numbers for the old club) and the coach is playing him in the 10 role. In one of his games last weekend, he had the ball on a 2-man breakaway. He drew the keeper out, then squared to his striker who tapped in. The parents of the kids who played with him the last 2-3 seasons were all like, "Wait, he just passed up a scoring chance??" I saw it as fully embracing his role as the playmaker and setting up his teammates. Pretty fun as a dad to see him change his mindset from being a finisher to a creator and distributor.