Tokyo 2020 Olympic Referees & Discussion [R]

This review takes too long. But, yes, you have those pictures, you should give a penalty.

 

If you have to watch it from multiple angles in slo-mo to see a small touch, it’s not clear and obvious.

 

AR1 signals a Foul against Canada on 90'.

Whether or not you think this is a foul isn't the point, but here, the foul wasn't egregious and I don't think the referee would call it. And without it being a reckless situation or clearly out of the view of the referee, should this situation be treated similarly to how they withhold the flag for offside which would afford VAR the opportunity to check the APP if there is a goal, and go back to a delayed foul if a goal doesn't result?

 

So, find the right angle first and you only have to look at one. Lol.

 

What a defensive sequence there by Canada! Oh my.

 

The TV director is doing his/her best Judge Smails impression.

"You'll get nothing and like it!"

 

the referee really needs to put her foot down over Labbe's games

 

I wasn't able to watch this one (sounds like I missed a good one), but over the course of the Olympics, I thought the production values were awful throughout. They didn't replay things I really wanted to see again, but had some odd replays. And they seemed more interested in the stands than the games at key times. It often felt like US soccer broadcasts from 20 years ago where you got the sense that the producer choosing the shots to show didn't know anything about soccer.

 

The Olympics has a huge broadcast operation. But I expect that especially in this odd year they're using a lot of local contractors. The J-league has been going on for a long time though. So there should be enough soccer-knowledgeable producers and directors. However the Olympics always spends a lot of time of atmospherics

 

The IOC run OBS (Olympic Broadcast Service) to generate all of the coverage of the sports, but they usually contract out the production to national rights holders that have experience with the sport. For example, at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics, CBC people produced and directed the hockey and curling coverage (because let's face it, there aren't many that know how to cover those sports better than Canadians). That footage is then sent out to all rights holders for world-wide broadcast.

I've always assumed that similar arrangements take place for the Summer Olympics, but I'm not sure. Obviously, Covid-19 has complicated things and it may well be that everything is being produced/directed by Japanese companies.

 

This ref really did not learn. She failed to stop Labbe from intimidating the Pk takers so she had to come close to move Labbe back everytime. Doing so, she was too close to the action so after she blew the whistle to allow the kick to start, she kept having to walk back a couple steps or she even wandered left or right from her position. I think between Labbe and the ref, it was very distracting to the pk takers.

 

Sorry to chime in from outside, but I didn't get a proper answer in the other threads, so I considered getting to the source: what exactly the Laws of the Game say about what a GK can or can't do before a PK? Has Labbé done anything that was clearly not allowed? In that case, what should have been the course of action by the referee? Can a player by cautioned with a YC (or even RC) during a penalty shootout?

For reference: I was very young when I saw Bruce Grobbelaar's antics during the penalty shootout of the European Cup between Liverpool and Roma in 1984. Was actually his performance allowed by that time's standards? Would it be allowed today? To me, his behaviour remained the landmark in years for "goalkeepers taunting penalty-takers", so I can't help mentioning him.

 

There is nothing specific in the Laws about GKs at PK except encroachment on the kick itself.

What is acceptable falls into the general USB bucket, and the Rs tolerance. (During a game, but during KFTM) it can also fall under delaying the restart.) so it’s entirely up to the referee to the extent the referee can use presence and management to get the Gk to behave or reaches a threshold where the R will pull a yellow card. I think the practical reality is that GKs at the pro level often have a goood sense of R tolerance and aren’t likely to pull the same level of shenanigans with a ref who would be willing to pull the card.

 

I thank you for your answer, but, not being an English native-speaker and not being used to the referee-forum lingo, I have to ask what you mean by "USB bucket" (I get it's something regarding the general behaviour of the players and not specifically related to PKs, but I need the acronym to be spelled out).

 

USB= unsporting behavior

There's a helpful glossary of referee acronyms here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/referee-acronyms.1977799/

 

Thank you.

So, if I get it right, Labbé didn't specifically break any rule, unless the referee had decided that she was delaying the restart of the game by walking towards the penatly taker at each PK or that she was showcasing "unsporting behavior" (how much room refs have in defining that? One could have being rubbed the wrong way by Labbé's antics, but who decides if they're "unsporting behaviour" and how?).

 

I’m guessing nobody ever watched Oliver Kahn to get tips on unsporting behavior, which included head butts punches, shoves, and studs up kicks that didn’t get cautioned. YouTube has several compilations of his antics. At least once he chased a guy completely out of the penalty area, screaming and gesturing at him.

a lot of the fuss was caused by the announcing of Arlo, who concocted a story. Labbé didn’t do anything Lindahl didn’t do.

watch Lindahl stand four yards in front of the goal and then slowly- more slowly that Labbé , walk backwards into goal before the very first kick by Fleming. No mention whatever was made. On other kicks she also danced side to side, a conduct that is expressedly allowed by a keeper, yet Arlo insisted this was “antics” when Labbé did it.

Keepers haven’t had to stand still for a kick since the days we played with straw-stuffed goat heads.
Maybe that’s the last time Arlo played.
And smiling and holding your hands in the air isn’t USB in any definition of it. If the referee saw misconduct ( delay, for instance) , the procedure is warn, card, eject. The ref didn’t do even the first of those. There was a feeble attempt to motion both keepers to the line, but no more. Once the keeper is on the line the kicker is in control of when the kick is made, as long as THAT isn’t deemed delay. The law does say the kick should start on the refs whistle.

there is one curious thing about the kFTM. On every kick when Labbé was in net, the ref positioned herself IN THE 6 YARD BOX with her back to the kicker, so in stumped as to how she could have seen a violation by the kicker or if the keeper jumped early. Sound is slower that sight.
On some kicks where Lindahl was in the net, she did the same. On others, the positioned herself so she could see both the kicker and the keeper.



That had to be a distraction to both players ( Lindahl looks off her line here, and Labbé isn’t on he field of play (no eligible player may be in touch) so the made kick by Lawrence should have been retaken)
Maybe that contributed the poor success by both teams.

normal positioning has the ref to the side, about even with the spot, where she can see both players.




and I didn’t see she checked any kicker to see the ball was entirely on the spot as law 10 requires.

if you want to delay there are other ways to do it the ref is powerless to prevent. For example, Law 10 allows the keeper to exchange roles with any eligible kicker at any time, so Labbé could have gone to the center circle and a player could have taken her position outside the penalty box during Canada kicks. When it was her turn in the goal, she could then have exchanged again with the other player. The kicks could have gone another half hour.

 

Well, that's only true if you were playing with goat heads only 25 years ago, as that is when (roughly) the goal-keeper was allowed to move his/her feet.

Absolutely no reason to retake the kick here, based on that photo. The 'keeper may be off her line, but the ball has been kicked, so she was almost certainly fine at the point in time when it was kicked. Besides, a goal was scored, so any infringement by the 'keeper is irrelevant. The position of the non-involved 'keeper is fine.

There is no Referee, at any level of the game, who would allow this. That provision in the Law is to allow for the situation where a 'keeper is perhaps injured (like a hand injury) and can no longer participate as a goalkeeper, but cannot be substituted. He/she can be replaced by a teammate. But they can't flip back and forth. To suggest on a Referee forum, that is read by non-Referees, that a Referee at any level of the game would allow that, is frankly ridiculous.