RefBlog

A gentile slope, but downhill nonetheless

The good news is that I made it to the first day of my games at the Midwestern Regional League, recovering from the pulled calf I picked up last week; the bad news is that the first game hadn't started before I hurt myself again, taking me out of the next day's games, and the rest of the week's.

I didn't even get the dignity of spraining my ankle during the game, but instead while running during the ceremonial net check. Me left foot found a hole, landed sideways, and I heard a pop. The good news, I suppose, was that I was able to get through my two games - but I had a good suspicion, which was quickly confirmed, that I wasn't going to be terribly mobile the next day.

Both games were U16 boys; the first was centered by a person I've mentioned several times, who's likely to be a National in a few years (he's a pretty constant Fourth Official in our local professional games, and works lines when they do exhibitions); he's everything the USSF wants in a National: fit, personable, forceful when needed, great at getting players and coaches to like him. He had a game at Regionals last year where he handed out seven yellow cards (and a few reds), and still wound up smelling like a rose to both teams - I was working a game myself when he was doing that - I would have loved to see how that was done (more)

31 May '05 - 00:19 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

Long sleeves splash more

I thought I was OK enough to go back into the middle, in this case a U15 first division game; I think I was, although my calf was starting to be tweaked by the end. I desperately want to be well enough to ref this weekend, with the Midwest League games going on.

The game was fine. It started raining heavily, the wind blowing it to an almost 45-degree angle, and when it stopped, the sleeves of my jersey (we wore long-sleeves) were flinging water everywhere. I'm still glad I wore them, but it was interesting, as it took a second to realize where the water was coming from.

As I said, the game was fine, but the parents were bloodthirsty. Parents amuse me, so this isn't a rant - I'm typing this with a smile on my face. Every call against the their team was unjust, even though they were the more aggressive of the two teams (it was the classic matchup where one of the teams, clearly outclassed, played a more physical game to take the other team out of their rhythm - for the most part, but not always, legally, too); every call against the opponents should be a card. Granted, if a coach was going on about it, I'd have a different opinion, but in this case, it's the usual (and understandable) favoritism granted to the team of your daughter or granddaughter. Fun stuff. (more)

27 May '05 - 17:29 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

Server Downtime Notice

Just a recurring reminder that the server will be down over the next weekend for a move. Qwest says that the old lines will be down on Friday, June 3rd, and the move is planned for Saturday. I don't have the best luck with Qwest, so if it's down longer, that luck would be continuing.

26 May '05 - 07:59 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

It's not a pitch, it's an ATV park

How do you determine unplayable? Good question, the field was dry (something rarely seen this month), the weather nice (also something rare), but the field was... well... I think the groundkeepers deliberately let the grass grow to two inches to cover up the scars on the field. Something was definitely amiss, because there were large bare patches in random locations, and the bare patches were the only flat surfaces on the pitch. It was like someone took an ATV on it during one of the rainy days and did figure-eights on it.

Playable, but definitely below the standards I had expected from the location we were at.

The game was pretty one-sided (it ended 7-1), so it kept from from running a whole lot, although what I did exacerbated a slight pull in one calf up to a moderate one, as my running looked more like a trumpet player's in the Ohio State Marching Band. There was one guy (there's always one, isn't there?) that was just a mouth on legs. He was more amusing to me than anything, but apparently I've been too soft - he own teammates said I should have booked him. He just picked stupid stuff to complain about, claiming that he knew the rules better than I, when in fact he's arguing semantics that he knows squat all about; I'm tempted to say that it might have to do that I'm Caucasian and he's from somewhere in Latin America, only because I've seen it happen with plenty other of good referees in similar circumstances (sort of the reason Chivas USA gets thousands more fans per game, including over the road, over an existing MLS team, because it being Chivas they know soccer better than the northern part of the continent, despite winning about 10% of their games). I'm tempted, but I'm not a mind reader, so I'll just leave it that he's an obnoxious idiot.

But it's hard to argue when a teammate says after the game to me, "We love the guy, but oh god, he does this every game. He needs to get carded."

I thought that was going to be a witty place to end, but I have to add a postscript - I pulled myself off of the next day's games because of the calf strain. I have more in a couple of days, but let the assignors know of my condition - they elected to wait to hear from me to see how it goes. (more)

24 May '05 - 22:49 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

A little reverse order

I'm going to start a little different, by talking about what I got after the game. One of the reasons I love doing USSF games (and conversely, why I hate doing High School games) is because of the amount of support you get as a referee - not just positive encouragement, but observation by other experienced referees who are there to help you get better. Yes, you have to go out and look for those times when they do it, but it's also pretty well advertised, and at least here, happen very frequently in the two biggest youth tournaments in the state. High School, if you'll allow me to vent once again, does squat - for the last two years they've promised to have a personal evaluation for every referee that applies to work the High School tournament, but it's a hot air; the first year, they evaluated a grand total, and this is from their own mouths, six games. Six games is not understaffing, it's a lack of commitment, and a lack of giving a damn.

But I could rant about the NFHS and High Schools in general all night (more)

22 May '05 - 23:11 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

Ehh day at the semi-finals

I had a line and center, both fifteens, at the State Cup today. I lined a boys match, and had a state referee that is probably very close to getting a National Badge (he does USL exhibition matches now). The game was kept well in control, and I didn't have a whole lot to do other than the usual running off of the tail that comes with 15 boys. We had a couple of National Referees watching, and they commented on how great an offside call was, but the far-side assistant was, even though the coach was howling.

My center was well... one fluke goal kept us from going into what would probably be a fruitless ten minutes of overtime and then kicks from the mark. At half-time we all agreed that if either team make it to Regionals, they'd be savaged. There was just no aggressiveness by either side; the 13-girls I centered last year at Regionals would probably have beaten either of them, or at least given them a good run for their money.

By the way, I decided not to apply for Regionals this year - with the wedding coming up, and the house on its way in just over a week, there is just no time to take a week away from home; with USA Cup, I can arrange my schedule to just do mornings and afternoons, leaving the evening to work on other things. It took a day for the SYRA to get over the disappointment, but it's been made clear that he expects me to apply next year. In the meantime, he's asked me to referee a pair of Midwest Regional League games (just like it sounds, it's composed of teams in the Midwest that travel to other states in a league - the state's Elite youth clubs). I'm excited and hope I'm up to the task.

I ran into problems with positioning again; I had good advice over half-time (by the future National), which was that I was giving them too much credit (this was in response to my saying I was mis-reading the play), and that their play couldn't be read (again, they would be killed in Regionals), and I just had to back off and let them go it on their own. It's frustrating, because in higher-level games, you need to read the play to do justice to the game, and I don't think I'm at the level where I can turn it on or off; I want to be able to practice that in lower level games - but it just can't happen, and it's causing as many mistakes as a failure to try to read the upper levels. Something to work on.

22 May '05 - 00:45 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Trickle down didn't work here, either

I was going to write about my game tonight, but apparently it was rescheduled, and everyone knew except me. I even called my assignors and they said, yup, it's on your schedule... but I think the game was rescheduled. You don't work for us until next week.

That's OK. It was a hell-day at work. Could use some quiet time.

19 May '05 - 20:56 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Should of booked him

One of the youth clubs I work with also has an in-house league - many of their traveling players also play in this league, so even though it's technically recreational, the skill of play can be higher than you might expect. Nonetheless, it allows kids to play who don't want to go onto travel teams, and those who might not make a travel squad to play every week.

I had a line and a center, and for the most part, both games were pretty mellow. There was one kid on my center that I really should have booked, but I had second thoughts and held back; the reason was that the league just enacted a no slide-tackle policy, which was news to us, and to the kids. I'd been doing no slide-tackles all winter, with the adults indoors, and most of them handle it just fine; they either have played without slide tackles for quite some time, or immediately adjust after the first whistle (I can only think of two players who needed a second whistle, and never a third). But in the kids case, it's a bigger adjustment, especially if you've never played that way. So I let one particular player slide by with four whistles for slides; the problem, and my failure, is that he also fouled twice in other events, and considering the game was only 65 minutes long (ended because of darkness), I knew I missed doing my duty.

18 May '05 - 21:29 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

That's not the correct answer

Warning: this entry might be seen as an ego trip, a writing about a bruised ego, or an (insert appropriate adjective) look into what goes into a well-oiled referee team, or perhaps not. Read it, or don't.

Let's start with the quick summary: I'm pissed at the center referee. I've never been pissed at a referee in my team before; yes, I've disagreed with some of their decisions, positions, whatever - but then again, I'm sure plenty of people have has the same feelings about me. But in all the games, we've worked as a team, sometimes not a great team, but as a team. Referees like to refer to their crews as teams, because we all have different responsibilities that we place emphasis on, but we're also there to support each others decisions and help each other out. After all, we're all nuts to do this job, why make it harder on ourselves.

Well, by the end of this game I was wondering why I was there (more)

16 May '05 - 23:28 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Just realized something important

Actually, two things:

One, I've been writing in here since June of 2003 (which is mind-boggling for me). Two, there will be a period of downtime during that anniversary when the server is moved.

So, if you suddenly find the site offline in early June, don't panic - (hopefully) nobody spazzed on the field and tried to kill me. The move is planned for the 4th, but it'll be down as long as Qwest takes to move the DSL connection.

15 May '05 - 22:20 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Not my best game, not my worst

I had a pair of U16 boys games at the State Cup today, the first a center, and the second a line. On each game, one of the up-and-coming referees (quite justifiably) was with me (he centered the second).

It took me about twenty minutes to settle into the first game; definitely too long, but the other ref provided some good advice that kept me from restarting the problem in the second half. I let a couple early fouls go - and I know why I do it, they're light, almost ticky-tacky, but it sets a precedent on how the players see me, and one of those ways is as inconsistent. The other problem I had was that one of the teams dinked around with the ball at their end to a fault; on several occasions they gave up goals when they turned it over deep in their own end. I was told to, when they got the ball, just be positioned for where they ball would be going if they didn't screw up, and if they did, let the ARs handle the calls before you got back - since they didn't screw up as often as they cleared (although they did it enough - it cost them three goals), I was overcompensating with my own lack of faith in them.

The second half went much smoother after following his advice, I was in better position not just vertically, but also horizontally (which has been a problem for me so far this year), as I could see the play develop more.

The AR was comparatively easy; the score was much tighter (2-0 final, instead of a blowout), but one team dominated the play most of the game. The other team (playing up a division for the tournament) had some nice chances, and nearly tied up the game earning a PK in the second half, but shot it wide.

Tomorrow I AR a team from the last adult center. I emailed the assignor asking their opinion (since the game was physical, and I wasn't happy with one of the calls, although it was the best one we could have made at the time); I was told to go ahead and do it - that they should understand with me being on the line, and it being a week since they last played.

15 May '05 - 22:11 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

One says U10, one says College

If anyone wonders why referees in general (because I don't think it's just me) tend to be ambivalent when it comes to coaches (if not downright aloof), it's because of two things: first, we're taught to be that way; and second, because one coach can hate you, and one can love you.

Take tonight, I had a State Cup U18 girls game that one AR said had the potential to be "a bloodbath", and I have to say that we came out smelling pretty darn good after the game; one coach said that he also coaches college soccer and said that I really should do that level. I really can't take either seriously; I think I have to develop much thicker skin (let alone skills and experience) before doing college ball, and I think the coach that wanted me to do U10 was just nuts (and more than a bit spastic).

The game was physical, with one team a tendency to challenge late, but I think I was able to keep them in check - a couple players came close to getting cards, but didn't quite cross that threshold. The assignor, who's daughter (who I reffed with earlier in the tournament) normally plays on the team but is injured, thought I should have - but she's also very aware of her own biases (the running gag in the referee tent was that I needed to card her daughter right now, just to get it out of the way). Her team played without a regular goalkeeper, but the one they did have did a nice job of playing to her strengths, namely her feet and position outside of the penalty area; she played like a field-defender, which probably prevented far more goals than if she played it more traditional (as it was, they lost one-nil).

I felt really good while running today. I think partly because these two teams were very skilled, and it make it easier to put myself in good position (as opposed to boom ball, where it could go anywhere); and as the girls play wider than the boys (nor as much boom ball), I didn't do much heavy sprinting - just a nice constant run with occasional breaks.

I have to admit, I was feeling a little run down before the game. It was Friday, I wanted to go home, and I had a headache, but now I feel great.

13 May '05 - 21:41 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Nobody went crazy tonight

My fiance thinks that the reason people have been so cranky this week has been because of the weather. We had a warm winter, and a very warm April, and this week has been all overcast, wet, and cold. Really cold, 39 degrees fahrenheit at game-time cold. We got a cell call from our assignor telling us that the league has a rule about hypothermia: halves are cut by five minutes each when the temperature hits 40F.

I had a pair of lines, for a 13 girls game and a 17 boys. They were both on the parents side, and as I said yesterday I find them amusing more than anything, and thus I always find that side much more peaceful than being the senior assistant.

The girls game barely moved in either direction. It was so cold that, when I actually needed to move, it was awfully difficult to force my legs into it; in contract, I was moving pretty constantly with the older boys, so I felt warmed and faster, even when it started raining on it (I actually hoped, when I felt the first drop, that it was a bird taking a dump on me, but alas it wasn't so).

Because it was so overcast, we ended up cutting the game short an additional ten minutes (technically abandoning it, since the first five minutes were cut in advance), because there wasn't enough light to play safely. The clouds were just too thick to let in enough light.

An hour later, even having the car heater on full blast, and some good snuggle time with my fiancé, I'm still a tad chilly. Good thing I haven't packed away my blankets yet.

12 May '05 - 22:40 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Week of the Living Wingnuts

Something is most definitely in the water this week, because I've got people in both of my jobs going nuts over stupid things. With the job, it's not just stupid things, but things that are absolutely impossible to put one-and-one together to make a duce; but they rant rave, and insist, and I charge them $150 an hour for it (it's actually not as good as it seems, because I end up having to neglect my other clients just to placate these bozos).

I was asked by my assignor to help out on a game today; it was right before my schedule game, the next field over from my scheduled game, and I was the closest to the field. I've heard it's really bad manners (and signs of a terminal ego problem) to turn down games because they're "beneath" you; and I figured, hey, a U9 would be fun, especially after the last game.

Unfortunately, for me, there were major similarities. Fortunately, it involved a parent, not the coaches - and even the coaches were on my side. How can you screw up this game? The kids don't know, let alone are cynical enough, to foul - I think there were a pair where a kid's eyes were so focused on where they were going that they didn't realize they just plowed over their opponent. If there's any such thing as a milk run for an adult referee, this is it. In this case, the antagonist was a rather large male, either a father or grandfather, who fancied himself a coach rather than a spectator. He was loud, obnoxious, condescending to his own parents, and thought he could be an AR while in a lawn chair Can you just see my eyes rolling, even though the text? I thought so.

So in the second half (more)

11 May '05 - 21:50 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Quick addendum, or good timing - take your pick

Just ran into my daily email from Google on soccer refereeing, and this article profiles a 20-year referees who's quitting because of abuse.

We've lost a number of good referees to abuse this year; I'm still thinking of quitting doing high school. While I haven't had a situation like Wayne Davies, I can certainly see why, and see the downward trend.

If something like that happened to me, I think, even though I love this game, it'll be time to leave it.

10 May '05 - 23:24 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

What a flaming nutjob!

You know, I've had games where I've tossed coaches, and I've been in games where the police have been called, but I've never felt compelled to write a letter of complaint to the State Referee Administrator before. But this guy really was nuts (I almost wrote "took the biscuit", but realized that I'd been watching far too much Doctor Who lately).

I took the game for an assignor I don't normally work with - basically if I have a free day, and she's looking for a referee, I fill in. It works out relatively well for both of us; I get a game, she gets a referee. So I filled in a gap in her schedule, taking a U13 girls center, and a U15 boys line. The girls center was easy, no real issues: one team had a tendency to reach a little high with their hands, but didn't grab - it was like they were just drawn up there, but didn't know what to do when they got there.

The assignor warned that the U15 boys played the offside trap, but actually neither team did it, they ran a lot, but it wasn't excessive.

So what set the coaches off? One thing: their keeper, in a desperation slide to stop what could have been a break-away, missed the ball, and took out the player, outside of the penalty area (right-corner, with the player going down the flank, so DOGSO was iffy at best). The ball went the total opposite direction of where the keeper was going, and the center made the call; easy call, I should have flagged it myself, but didn't need to. So the coaches started going off on me saying I knew it wasn't a foul (trust me, I was 15 feet away with clear vision, it was - not malicious or anything - if I was the coach I'd tell the keep that he was smart to do it outside of the penalty area, but I'm not a coach so oh well). And it would be OK if they just vented for a moment, but they both kept on... and on... and on... and the center came over to get them to chill out - vainly.

So they changed their tactic. Since the center warned them about yelling, they decided to start out-and-out insulting me when I was right in front of them. How stupid do they think we are? I asked the center to boot the latest offender, and he graciously performed the duty.

Following the game, the other whackjob of a coach follows us back to our bags, publicly insulting and trying to humiliate me. This is bullshit; I don't care how bad you thought I was, there are still codes of ethics, which he broke; decorum, which he broke; and human decency, which he broke. Because even if I was as bad as he said I was (and I know I'm not), I'm still a better human being. (more)

10 May '05 - 23:19 - - default| three comments, already - § ¶

One call out of a hundred

There were three other games going on around mine, and mine turned out to be the shit-kicker of the bunch. One team was all Irish, and the other your stereotypical Americans (meaning white, with varying degrees of body types - although you'd be surprised by the mobility of the bigger guys). The game started out physical by the Irish side, and the Americans had a tough time adjusting, or rather, decided to retaliate instead. The problem was that both teams were coming into challenges rather sloppy - I know it's early in the season, but they're second division and I was rather surprised.

Things came to a head in the 20th minute, when I booked a player on each side after the both started shoving each other. It really turned out to be a gift for me, because it really let me put my stamp on the game, and didn't have anything that came close to needing a card the rest of the game - although there was plenty of man management to be had.

Against the run of play, the Americans scored two goals within five minutes, both off blown defensive assignments, followed both by fouls, and followed both by advantage calls before the ball went into the net. I thought there was going to be a third, but the defender pulled the shirt of the striker - I had to retract the card after failing to look at the assistant - I got too caught up in the game.

The Irish team quickly equalized (how quickly? The American goals were in the 68th and 73rd minutes, the Irish in the 75th and 79th) after pressing everyone up, and with some really risky, but effective, field play by their goalkeeper, as the American's came inches away on a couple of counter-attacks. All the while it had been a physical game, with plenty of foul language (I decided early on that this was NOT a battle worth fighting), and hard challenges.

Then the hole of dug (more)

09 May '05 - 21:44 - - default| four comments, already - § ¶

Calm down, it's early

No serious issues in the unaffiliated games, which really surprised me - I mean, there's always problems in that league. But it must still be early enough that the players haven't become permanently surly.

It got close in the first game, however. I had a couple early calls against one team, one of which was obvious, the second of which was correct, but easy to disagree with. A single player blew-up on the first one, then really went off on the second. I thought about going for cards, but it seemed just below my threshold, and I knew if I could talk him down, it would make my life much easier. It worked - not only way I able to explain my call (the reason for no obstruction was because the player was still going straight for the ball, was going at a reasonable clip, and didn't slow down) and implore him that it was still early in the game, and it wasn't worth it to get that pissed. I don't know if he agreed with my call (not that it matters if he agreed - it's do I agree with my call?), but didn't get a peep from him the rest of the game - and the rest of the game was calm as well (physical, but calm).

One thing that players are having to get used to is the lack of offside calls in that league. They exist, but the league's taken my philosophy to heart that, with one referee, an offside call can't just be obvious, but mind-bogglingly obvious. I tell the captains to not even expect a call, and if they get one, take it like a bonus. There's no ARs (or club lines), so there's no real way to get a good angle. In the four games I've done for this league this summer, there's been one that I knew I would call (one where the striker was five yards in front of the second-to-last defender), but the ball didn't go to him. Defenders are starting to get used to the concept that it just won't happen.

09 May '05 - 08:13 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

The night of many stoppages

The leg is still sore, but still not affecting my running; it also wasn't as cold, so it didn't seem to bother me at the end of the nights games. It did tend to bother me more after stoppages, which were many last night. In the first game, a 17 girls game I centered, was stopped when the wind picked up a tent (one of those canopy ones popularly used to block sun and/or rain on the bench) and tossed it onto our field; apparently it went over a bench and my senior assistant and then about 15 yards into play. Play had already been stopped or a goal kick when I heard the ruckus, and when I turned I caught my assistant getting up from the ducking position, and of course the tent. So we waited a few minutes for the tent to be returned, and the debris from its remains to be picked up, started, and a few minutes later had to stop again as the weather horn was being sounded.

It seemed odd that the tournament was being suspended, because none of the referees had seen a thing; it had gotten awfully windy like a storm was in, but that was all. But tournament headquarters has lightning detectors and lines to weather people, so it was generally assumed that something was awfully close.

The delay was only about twenty minutes, and once back, we finished the final 15 minutes of the first half, had half-time, then did the second without incident.

The second game, where I was the senior assistant, also had a number of delays, except this time it was for injuries. The game was a blowout, two teams from the same club, except one was in the premier division, and one was division one - the premiere side wiped the floor with the other. It didn't help that the other side was short-handed, and then had two non-contact injuries that left them short for most of the first half (in this tournament, there are limited substitutions: if you sub out, you can't come back in until the next half). The first was only 15 minutes into the game, with a player hyperventilating, the second was a back issue. Both had me scratching my head, because both players went down while nobody was around them; I didn't find out what happened until after the game (the second was brought on by being constantly challenged while she had the ball - I recall hearing the coach, prior to her going down, say that she needed to one-touch the ball to avoid the contact - I don't think anyone thought the challenges were excessive, but instead a large quantity).

The games themselves were clean; although the second half of mine really picked up the pace as far as aggressive play (but I think, even then, had they come in that way in the first half, wouldn't have been bad). I was rather surprised, for a state cup game some of the field-work was sloppy - a lot of dumped balls instead of calculated passes. I hate it when that happens, because I almost inevitably get caught too close to play, which I did on several occasions. But the reason for that is probably the same reason I'm rusty with my positioning: the biggest youth tournament of the year is at the very beginning of the season (nobody's fault, although it would be nice to see the southerners make some accommodations for a change - but that's my own personal beef from living there... and sorry southerners, not particularly liking it).

I have today off, then I'm doing a couple more unaffiliated games (nobody schedules much on Saturday, and I close on my house in just a few weeks). Usually Sunday's a big night for adult matches, but I don't have anything schedule for it yet (I very well might, too). It'll give my leg a few more days to pop.

06 May '05 - 08:20 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Play-ins, Play-Offs, and Faulty Memories

After giving up games yesterday, I had a real need to referee last night: My day was really crappy, and come hell or high water, I was going to run around and have some fun. And fun was had, fortunately.

We had back-to-back play-in games for the State Cup. Play-in, as opposed to play-off, because the winner of these games were playing to be added to round-robin round with the rest of the qualified teams in the competition. Both games went pretty smoothly; the first was a line on a U15 Boys play-in, and the center a center on a U14 Boys play-in. I was a tad worried about my leg, but it seemed to hold up quite nicely. I could feel it, but it didn't seem to hinder my running - it was also, in a change from the last few days, quite pleasant out.

My center, which started at 8pm, turned cold in the second half, and in the last ten minutes of the game, I was feeling the leg pretty good (or pretty bad). I was able to get through the game OK, which was good, because one of the teams brought up eight of their ten field players in an attempt to get a pair of goals to equalize, so I was huffing it pretty hard out there. Both of my assistants did a great job, but one guy (who said he's "only" been reffing three years - which makes him better than 80% of the rest), just a superb job. A ball where the defense was content to let it roll over for a goal-kick, was picked off on the goal line, and crossed for a touch into goal; the AR did a great job getting to the goal-line, to tell exactly if it was over or not (and selling the call!). When you're a center, an AR that works that well, just makes you look good, even though he just did all the work!

As for my faulty memory - I'm checking it twice over now. On my first game out this season, I was talking to he center, and mentioned the USSF memo on offside, which reiterated the new IFAB decision that said that any body part, except the arms, now should be considered for offside position, and not just the torso, as before. Not only did I forget to write about that, but now I can't find the memo! I have a feeling that it's being, unless I've been drugged and the memo is a product of a deranged imagination, purposefully under-emphasized, because of the innate problems trying to call a striker who's foot, but not torso, should be the difference in an offside call. Our SDI was handed the memo at my recert clinic, but the USSF didn't tell him about it, nor did they mention it at the pro clinic that the center attended.

I think the moral of that story is that offside will be called "as usual". (more)

04 May '05 - 08:05 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

Nada

I hate doing the sensible thing, especially when it costs me games. Right now, I want nothing more than to be out running on the grass; but my leg is hurting too much, and the last thing I need is to aggravate an injury. If I'm lucky, I'll be fine for tomorrow, which has two more games scheduled.

Getting old sucks (and I'm not even married yet - I'm just now getting my first house - and the gray hair is slowly growing), but I think I'm going to have to decided what I want to do more, and playing soccer against college kids is something I think that's going to have to go. The only way to play against them (at my speed) is aggressive, and that means injuries. Unfortunately, I'm too young to play on any of the "over" leagues (over-35, over-40, etc.), so I have to choose. Play once a week, maybe get injured and miss a month or so; or ref four nights a week, some double-headers, and not run the same risk of injury. As much as I like playing, I'm better at reffing, I can do more of it, and in many ways I enjoy it more.

I don't think I'm going to give up playing, but I'm going to have to be very careful in the leagues I choose.

02 May '05 - 18:33 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

More snow

My first real game of the season seemed more like winter than spring - cold, windy, cold, barely above freezing, cold... oh, yeah, and more snow.

It was the rec league's first division, I was on the line, and it was uneventful from a referee's perspective. The center really did everything right: he called some late fouls very early on, and the rest of the game appeared to be pretty much gravy. Us ARs were busy with offside calls (one team had a penchant for sitting offside as the defenders merely walked up the field), which was good, as it kept us warm.

The real problem for me game on the game I played, right after the one I reffed, indoors: in the last minute of the game, I took a knee directly into the middle of my left quad, which is still hurting me this morning. At the moment I've got some time, so I'm going to pop off to a sporting goods place, and see if I can find a good wrap for it. I've got two games tonight (line and center), at night. The forecast has a high of 47 F and a low below freezing; I'm going to be outside for a good four hours in shorts, probably in the snow again.

02 May '05 - 09:54 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶