Things we See

So, I saw something today that I had never seen before. BJV game closely fought 1-0 for the home team. My partner is a college freshman with lots of youth experience, but in his first season doing HS games. He calls a foul for visitors at about 40 yds out. Ceremonial restart - gets the defensive wall set at 10 yds and after he blows the whistle, the 2 players in the wall charge forward 2-3 steps and jump and block the kick. I am the trail ref and start jogging up to card someone, but I see he is right there with the card out and now I am switching to recording who the YC is on. I see he is sending both players off (HS rules). I asked him if he was carding both players - he said they were both guilty of FRD.

We talked about it after the game and he asked if that was correct. I told him that I could not fault his logic, but just that I have never seen it done. He then asked why we would not card them, even if they did not block the kick. Again, I can see how the rule could be interpreted that way, but it's just not done. We ended the discussion talking about how you would call attempting to strike or kick, but not attempting to FRD.

Anyone think there is anything very wrong with carding 2 players in this situation?

 

Middle School games are often very weird animals. Some schools in our area only use 7th and 8th graders and others go from 5th thru 8th grade. This can lead to massive differences in player size, which adds to the challenge of reffing.

I was doing a doing a game between 2 small schools out in the boonies and as I walk into the field area, the person I thought was the coach with a bunch of minions, turned out to be a player. He was at least 6'2" and as much as 2 feet taller than some of his teammates. I was a little worried about how this was going to play out and then I saw that he was the goalie, so much less of a concern. And he very much kept his team in it with a lot of saves that were due to his height. Score is 2-2 and coach decides to put him on the field. Within 2 minutes, the other team scores 2 goals over the head of the much shorter new goalie and I'm hearing multiple kids wondering out loud why coach put him in.

Big boy is unstoppable when he gets the ball, but does not get it very much. I'm watching much shorter players bounce off him as they try to get around him. And on defense, he just ran over a couple of kids. Not in a mean or bad way, but just due to huge difference in size and speed. He got some decent opportunities, but generally shot the ball FAR over the goal. His team lost.

Then yesterday, I do a MS game that turns out to be a co-ed league. Each team is at least 40% girls and there are no special co-ed rules. 11v11 game and the field is one of those horrible 120 yds by maybe 40 yds wide shoehorns. So lots of running for me.

And we still have the same disparity of size between near-men down to petite little girls. I was very pleased that I did not see any testosterone fueled macho behavior or the female equivalent from any of the big girls towards the smaller kids. Both teams had a couple of obvious premier players who were very skilled, but the majority were just kicking and running. A couple of girls scored goals and it was generally an enjoyable game. One of the better players had a play where he collected the ball about 30 yds out and calmly assessed the situation and blooped a beautiful shot over the head of the keeper for the goal. As he and his teammates are running back for the kickoff, I hear one of them say, "showoff".

 

So this is about something I did NOT see and then something I definitely saw.

Highly competitive BV game with lower ranked home team up 2-1 in middle of 2nd half. Visitors/white have been pressing hard ever since home scored go ahead goal. White player collects the ball as it moves towards the sideline and heads downfield towards me. I am the lead ref in dual system and right on the sideline, even with 2nd to last defender. I quickly look left to check my offside situation and I hear the visitor coach go "ohmygod" and I turn back to look to see a bunch of home coaches with their hands in the air indicating out of bounds. So I am very sure the ball went out, but I did not see it. He must have only lost control for a split second because all I see is him coming down the line inbounds. Gotta play on.

About 10 minutes later, White is still pressing hard and getting shot after shot and running beautifully into play, past the defense from long crosses and Black is holding on for dear life. White finally connects solidly on a cross and striker has a great opportunity to score, but is slightly off center and subtly sweeps the ball into the net with his upper arm/bicep. Very few players on the field saw this as they were mostly facing the wrong way and Black thought they had been scored on, but I was looking right at it and immediately called no goal for the hand ball. Goalie even threw the ball back up for the kickoff. Heard some grumbling from White bench, but they were behind me and probably saw the same thing I did.

Gonna try to find the video. Game ended and I am exhausted and satisfied with a job well done.

 

I did NOT caution. It was not flagrant at all and I'm sure it was just a instant reaction to being slightly out of position. And it was a huge game changing call, which ultimately decided who won the game. Now, if he had tried to argue the call, but he just quietly went back to his position. That's part of how I know I got it right.

 

Dang, another thing I didn't see.

U14B Comp game between 2 quality teams. I assigned 2 up and coming 14yr olds, but was not quite ready to put either of them on the center of this game that I expected to be intense. And of course, I could not find anyone else and ended up deciding to do the game myself.

Home team usually wears red, but the visitors were maroon, so home team went with black. I did the typical pre-game with the "call fouls you see, but give me a chance to call anything in the box" spiel.

Home is up 1-0 and we have a play where they are attacking and ball in pinballing around inside the 6 and keeper is way out of position and I see AR1 waving his flag. I blow whistle and not sure what he saw, but assumed it was offside or oob or something similar. I go over to talk to him and he says he saw handball. I asked him on who and he said red. My mind went, ok, on the offense and we're coming out and turned to go back out and then I realized red was the defense. Crap, he is calling a PK. I asked him if he was sure and his response was "if that's not a hand ball, I don't know what is". So I decided to trust him and pointed to the spot. A little bit of grumbling, but it was silent sideline weekend and it seemed to be affective here. Home team converts the PK to go up 2-0 and eventually won the game 2-1.

So, this was the winning goal and I was not really happy that this call decided the game. After the game, I brought it up again and AR2 pipes up with "oh yeah, defender reached up and swatted it".

Now I feel a lot better about the call, but have to question my eyesight.....

 

I did tell both of them that next spring, I expect both of them to be doing centers of this level. So I don't have too.....

I rarely do youth (<U15) games anymore. If I do, it is just because I could not find someone else. I have done so many HS games lately, that in this U12 game, when the first goal was scored, I caught myself doing the X thing with my arms to stop the clock