As the referee your the timekeeper. We have all been to tournaments as officials where 1 field gets a bit too far behind. But ill beg the question. How much time do you really need to take the PK? maybe 10s max... ??
In my state, that would be taunting, a possible RED card offense. Covered in the pre game statement. The words are “could subject the violator to ejection”.
Just to show that players do appreciate when us referees make a soccer move . . . U16 boys center. I've officiated both teams in the past and have good relationships with both teams. I'm looking for an escape route as I start to get near play, and the ball is coming right at me as I pick the wrong route. I do the classic "Mike Dean dummy", letting the ball go between my legs. With play still going on, Blue's midfielder calls out, "Wow, sir, that's quite a move!" At the next stoppage, I told him, "Yeah, even at my age I still have a little bit of quickness left!"
I've gotten a few of those. Love it. I also defused some tension recently when I got hit and had to do a drop ball. I said, "Sorry, you hit the slow ref."
Always funny to hear them yell "Leave it" when it is rolling towards me and no one else is around. I usually turn with a confused look on my face and ask them, "what did you think I was going to do?" lol
Had a men's league game where I jumped to let the ball go under me. The player who had kicked it said to me, "Come on, ref. I was playing a give and go there." We both laughed.
I've had a couple martix-like backwards leaning avoidance moves work out for me but the last one I tried I ended up on the ground and completed a back summersault, picking up my book that had fallen out of my shirt in one continuous motion as I stood up. My favorite show off play though was when I was an AR and foot trapped a ball that came from about 40 yards away and another 40 in the air to an immediate dead stop right where it landed outside the touchline. Hardly had to move my foot from where I was standing. I just backed away and left it there for someone to come take a throw in. I love it when it looks like maybe we know what we're doing.
In a HSB Varsity dual last year I took a big risk and stopped a really high ball after it left the field. Luckily, I controlled it perfectly. I hear claps from behind me from the home team bench. I turn around in time to hear one sub say to another, “See, I told you this ref was good”. It’s the little things, right? I usually just leave the ball alone, but sometimes I can’t RESIST!
i forgot if it was Esse Bahmarst or Herb Silva (maybe bob evans) they mentioned that players back in the day would kick the ball at the referees while they warmed up for matches At midfield. If the referees kicked the balls back to them or trapped the ball like they played the players would be like “whew we have an actual referee now!” If the referees threw the ball back or rolled the ball back with their hands they knew they were in trouble. Also, as a side story. When I first started out I was an adult doing youth rec matches. I would juggle the ball at midfield while I waited for the teams to take their halftime. (Of course before a mentor suggest I don’t). Always got funny comments from players like “woah, this referee can juggle 10+ times”.
One of our referees, a National AR, was doing a USL Pro game. Ball came towards him, in the air. He headed the ball back onto the field, and signaled for the throw-in. Got a cheer from the beer drinking end of the stadium. The assessor? Not so pleased.
I am glad I am not the only one. I'm sure I have told this story on here, but a while back I had my first whistle at this particular college, and it was a Conference Tournament game. D2, but one that regularly has teams in the top 10 nationally, including this team. So these players and home coach had not seen me before, in the middle at least. I am warming up on the touchline by the corner flag before the game, and one of their players near the bench (about 15-20 yards away) fires a ball at me on the ground. There are no other players around. I can't remember now if I trapped it first or just fired it back at him first time, but he trapped the ball, made a slight grin and gave a couple of head nods. Then turned back around and went back to his team. I do not know if that idea came from him or his Coach, but in that moment I knew I had been tested, and at least passed that round.
That’s great! “We often lose the trust of the teams way before we ever blow the first whistle.” The moment we step out of the car. This piece advice was super impactful to me (and obviously you and the rest of the posters). When I was first starting out. It’s funny how at the higher levels teams still do the little things to get an idea of what to expect whether it’s a referee that has kicked the ball around before or the same referee giving the pregame to “tuck their shirts in”.
Exhibit #493 showing how we can't win as referees sometimes. U18 boys State Cup game. I'm on the line. The game is getting pretty physical, and the crowd is calling for a card on every single foul. U19 boys President's Cup game. I'm in the middle. I give five cautions in the first half. One for a SPA/tactical foul, one for a retaliatory shove after the first caution, one for a reckless, two-footed challenge that got a little ball but a lot of player (would have considered red if it was slightly more from behind). One for coach's dissent arguing the call after he continued his same line of arguing after I asked him to stop. One for a player dissent after another foul. Parents from the sideline wondering why I'm so card happy and wondering why I'm giving out so many cards. (Admittedly, I think the parents for the last one thought it was for the foul and not for the dissent where he argued the call with "I didn't touch s***" loud enough for those of us around to hear, but certainly used the swear word.) The cautions must have worked, because we didn't have anything close to a card in the second half.
Still one of my favorite highlights - Gregg Berhalter doing a Scorpion Kick in full street clothes and dress shoes coaching the Crew.
HSB Regional 1st round yesterday. Visitor get an indirect kick about 25 yards out. Ball is set. Kicker uses the bottom of his foot to roll the ball about 3 yards away and teammate strikes it into the goal. AR holds his flag up. CR confers, my son (captain of Visitors) goes over to find out was going on and told to step away (which he did). After 2-3 minutes of discussion, CR awards the goal. We asked son after the game what the confusion was about. According to him, he heard the AR say since the ball was rolled with the bottom of the foot, it shouldn't count. Before someone brings up other issues... the ref blew the whistle to start, offside wasn't even close, and there was NO physical contact between other players.
I just continue to be baffled at the lack of basic rules knowledge that some officials have. At a youth tournament this weekend, I watched stunned as a referee allowed a team to have an indirect free kick related to a dropped ball situation. The IDFK has never been a part of the IFAB/FIFA laws, and it is no longer a part of NFHS laws. The referee in question tried to justify that he was giving a dropped ball when asked by the coach, but his arm was clearly extended in the indirect free kick signal. I just bit my tongue. As an officiating community, we continue to do ourselves no favors when we don't understand basic laws. Unfortunately, many of these officials undoubtedly take the introductory course and then never do anything after that to continue their educations. I wish I knew the right answer on how to make this right, but I'm afraid too many officials just think since they've attended one course and have a patch that they don't need to keep current on the rules/laws.
"Wasn't that a DOGSO" asked a parent, even saying the acronym "DOGSO." Shot on goal bounces off the keeper at an angle and another attacker follows it up. He takes a shot and a defender sticks his arm out. The ball deflects off the arm downward, takes a spin and rolls into the net. The referee signals goal, then talks with the player explaining if the goal wasn't scored, he would have to dismiss him. I'm AR2 and a parent said "Shouldn't that be a red card? Wasn't that a DOGSO?" I asked "what does D-O-G-S-O stand for?" She just had a blank look on her face. I said "Denying an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity. It wasn't denied because the ball went into the net. The goal was scored." "Oh...you know, that makes sense." Yep.
On the brighter side of things yesterday, I was running a line in a U18 boys State Cup quarterfinal match (all State Cup competitions in Iowa this fall are straight knockout to minimize travel and allow for games to be played at sites other than in the state capital city). I'm right on the goal line and see the ball slightly on the line but not over on the other side of the goal. However, the center (who admittedly was deep in the corner and not blocked by a couple of players like I was) whistles the ball out of bounds and gives a goal kick. A few of the attacking team's parents are near me and start calling out that I hadn't raised my flag. As I come up the line to reestablish my 2LD position, one of the player's grandparents said, "We know you were right on the line - you are doing a great job." Like I said, the center had a good look, very likely better than I had looking at it from 60-65 yards away. It was just nice to hear someone remark that I was where I was supposed to be.
RefIADad's story reminds me of the time I was doing a D3 college game. AR2 and pretty informal setting. I don't think they even had stands for the spectators at the time. The game starts and after a little while, I hear someone behind me, talking about offside. I'm concentrating on the game, so I can't turn around, but I started thinking, "This guy really knows offside!" About 15-20 minutes in, there's a stoppage and I get a chance to turn 90 degrees to see who this person is. It's Gino, sitting on the ground with his kids (early teens), whom he was clearly trying to get interested in refereeing. He was the assessor. Gino had been a FIFA Referee in Italy.
Small school high school varsity co-ed game on Saturday. Big field and we're playing 9 v 9 because home team only has 10 players. Home team has a pretty fast forward and visitors have slow center defenders. If the forward gets the ball, he's going to beat those defenders every time. But he is always shooting from 12 to 14 yards out and missing, usually a yard wide. He then would end up face down in the grass, where he would stay for several seconds. My dual partner reported later that, after this happens the third time, one of the girls on his team, with a very gentle, refined tone, said, "Well, he is a bit of a drama queen."
Suggest you revisit tlotg with regard to passbacks to keeper. This offence is a keeper offence and not defender. The laws dont care what the defender's "intent" was in playing, or clearing, the ball, only the actions of the defender's GK, with one exception, in using hands to play the ball after deliberatly played by his/her defender.. Based on your description the Ref should have called for IDFK for attacking team