RefBlog

Craziness

What the hell was I thinking? Or better yet, what were they thinking?

I'm not even talking about teams, but referee assignors? We're at the tail end of the youth season, in the State Tournament - where divisions 2-4 play for state championships and promotion to the higher levels... and I'd been assigned four games. And now I'm dead dog tired. I'd be in bed instead of writing, except I'm waiting for my uniforms to get out of the wash, so I figured, what the hell. I'll stay awake, and won't have wet uniforms because I forgot to hang them up. What's worse, they gave me six tomorrow - I already sent an email saying I wasn't sure I could do it (I'm more certain of it now - because it got hot enough to shorten games again); and I can see myself saying, "I'm done." And I wouldn't feel too bad - the assignors had my email, responded to it, tried to reassure me - but ultimately, I'm not going to suffer heat exhaustion for their benefit. It's nasty shit that stays with you the rest of your life, and I think I know my body well enough to know when I'm done.

But, maybe some are fourth officials - I guess we'll just have to see.

I opened with a 3rd division 16 girls line, and a coach threatening to pull his team from the field. He didn't like one goal against his team, because a defender, running along-side an attacker moving closer-and-closer to goal, turned inward to try to poke the ball away - she failed, fell down, and the coach is screaming that the attacker ran over her - no way. She was getting beat, and tried a last ditch effort that, by design, was going to send her on her butt - good effort, but they scored anyway.

The second one he didn't like was a break-away shot (for his team) that the keeper stopped, but didn't control. I really wasn't watching this one, but apparently the attacker decided to push a defender that caught up out of the way - so the ball that was in the back-of-the-net was called back.

My center was pretty fun - 2nd division 16 girls - and both coaches came up to me to warn me about the other team! Apparently they played in another tournament last week, and the game went to penalties. The game was tight, it ended 2-1, but well controlled. I almost pulled out a red card, for a player taken out in the box, but as she went down, she managed to toe-poke the ball past the keeper. Card avoided - I'm unsure if the player knows how much that goal saved her.

I had another center, rather uneventful - but it was moved from another game, when the center, who was sent from another field, reported that he was far too tired (and by the look of him, dehydrated) to be in the middle. So I did that, did a line following, and here I am, wishing I could be in bed - because I have to be back there at 8am to find out what kind of hell they're giving me.

I was listening to an older Doctor Demento Show on the way home, the The Crusher is in my head. I feel like I've done the Hammer Lock right now.

30 July '05 - 23:21 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

"Do you think I'm a D4 player?"

Just goes to show that any game at any level can be a difficult one for a referee: I was doing a Division 4 adult women's league game (the lowest division, a "rec" league that only uses one referee and has no slide tackling - the later being a regular bane of mine). The first 75 minutes are a breeze; the game has gone back-and-forth; purple has one player who just dominates the field : she's fast, strong, physical, and a decent touch on the ball. The white team isn't as skilled or physical, but was able to take advantage of two defensive lapses, and scored two very nice goals to keep the game tied.

A couple notes before I go into "the incident" - just so you understand what's going on. The league has three regular divisions, 1-3 (there's actually a couple sub-divisions in 1 - not sure why, but there is a 1-A and 1-B) which uses promotion/relegation. Division 4 is strictly an elective division, and the league generally doesn't care that much if a player plays up or down on a second (or third) team. Obviously, they want to avoid D1 players playing D4, but as referees we're told to allow it, and contact the commissioner if there's anything that seems odd or unfair.

So when a white player slide tackles purple's dominant player in the penalty area, she may not have known that in D4, you're not allowed to do that. Sucks for her, but I'm not a mind reader, and it's not my responsibility to tell them of the league modifications that they've been playing under all year long. Slide tackles, in every league I've reffed that bans them, consider them penal fouls, and thus grounds for a penalty kick if done in the area, which this was.

What made this complicated is that both the defender, and the attacker, slid - but only one attempted a slide tackle. The attacker, slid, not toward the goalkeeper, but straight ahead to make a very tight-angled shot on goal (she just game into the six); the defender slid into her to take away the ball. The terminology makes all the difference here: a tackle is just the taking away the ball from an opponent - thus slide tackle is a tackle done while sliding. In no slide-tackle leagues, we often fudge it to include a player with possession who slides to keep others from challenging for the ball (my criteria also includes the requirement that the player is going towards another, risking contact). Thus, players sliding with no risk of contact, such as to keep the ball in play, or in this case, a shot on goal, won't be fouling.

But of course, this doesn't satisfy the team I just awarded a penalty kick against.

"Ref, you just decided the game." Well, if you're just going to give up with 15 minutes left to go, that's not my problem. Besides, I think it's the defender who slid into the attacker's fault - I'm just making the correct call. But as always, it's much easier to blame one's failings on the referee.

After the game, the player who I called the PK against tried arguing with me again, this time pleading ignorance. "Look at me. Do you think I'm a D4 player?" She's trying to tell me that because she plays in one of the other divisions, she should be exempt. Talk about an ego.

"You're playing in D4 today, so you play by D4 rules."

Nuances and semantics can be such a pain in the butt for referees and for players, but without them we'd be stuck on what to do in situations like these. As referees, we understand the differences, and use them to make the correct call, regardless of its popularity.

29 July '05 - 09:12 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

No game tonight

We came close to two inches of rain last night - which would have been fine if there wasn't lightning. We hung around for an extra half-hour, but the lighting was still coming. I got the captains together, because if the game was going to be called, I wanted it to be a mutual decision (I was willing to wait another half-hour, but it would have been with shorter halves). They agreed to call it, which is nice, because I'm not the bad guy.

28 July '05 - 08:28 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Back home... and more heat and humidity

It was like USA Cup, but with adults. I had a line for a second division adult "rec" game. The game ended up being a bit of a blowout (another 4-2 decision), as one team was short-handed for the entire game, and the other team had subs. But if the other team had a full squad (or even two more players to be up to eleven), it could have easily turned the other way.

I've gotten a response back from the unaffiliated league. I'd rather like to be back there this winter - it's great man management work, and it looks like they've addressed the player in question: an eight-game (one session) suspension, and a warning that next time, it's permanent. I know they've banned players in the past, and it's nice to know they'll step up if necessary.

27 July '05 - 22:54 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 8: Final-ly, the rains come

I think we would have loved rains to come on any other day of the tournament, if it came down as long as it did for this day, it would have cooled things off immeasurably, but because this was finals day, it made things all the more complicated, because referees and teams were leaving either town or the country, and games couldn't be put off to the next day had it happened earlier.

The 8 am game I had went off without a hitch. It was a 15 girls game in the Medal Flight (the lowest) that was. Gosh it just doesn't seem fair, but the game wasn't terribly interesting. Neither team did a whole lot with the ball; the tying goal was a blooper that went over the keeper's hands, and we finished in kicks from the penalty mark. You couldn't help but feel for the losing team afterwards - soon after the game I was told they just lost in PKs for the third year in-a-row (twice to the team that just won them).

The 10am games all got caught in the storm - I didn't even know about it until after the medal ceremony in the sports hall - but sure enough, the sky was green and the rain was pouring down. Since I didn't have to leave town anytime soon, I stuck around and picked up a game, the 13-boys Cup Flight final, and dang, what a brutal game. In many ways, it was more boxing match than soccer game - both teams just going at it all-out damn the consequences. The center referee, a State Referee, showed much more patience with cards than I would have, but his gamble paid off: what was an ugly ugly first half, turned into a just as spirited, but less eventful second (less injuries, less people screaming for cards, more high intensity soccer). In a sick sort of way, this was FUN - we did what we do best, referee high-stakes games. We were lucky, a coach with a problem player (who was told that, "You really, really want to sub him out") did just that, and kept a player from getting a second yellow card (many parents thought he did pick one up), and later was able to get him to keep his head by pointing out that the other team was now goading him purposefully in order to get that second yellow - very sophisticated, not to mention cynical, tactics for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds!

The team from California won the contest handily, 4-2 - complete with several players wearing gloves, because the temperature fell down to seventy degrees. Considering that I'm originally from Michigan, and the center still is, we found it amusing.

I think, overall, it was a fun week, although a few things seemed missing; the number of teams were down, the number of referees were down, and the number from overseas was way down. Next year, I'm probably going to have to make a choice between USA Cup and, if I'm invited again, Regionals.

26 July '05 - 09:26 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 7: Almost my turn

Another sizzler of a day. We often joke about "USA Cup weather", but it would be awfully nice to have a little rain and some cooler weather for a day or two. My second game of the day was a center (which is a pleasant surprise, considering that in the last four years at the USA Cup, I'd never centered a playoff game, and this was a semi-final), and it was beastly hot. Why it was still a green flag I have no idea, because by the time I was done with the game, every part of my torso was covered in sweat, and the pool was rapidly going southward.

I desperately wanted to toss a coach from this game, too. It was a 13-boys semi with a team from Minnesota, and one from Maryland (I'm thinking it was Trophy Flight, the middle rung, but I'm not sure). The team from Maryland dominated the game: they had great passing, good vision, better speed - but they couldn't get the ball into the penalty area, and they limited themselves to two shooters; while they were big, fast, and had good ball skills, it's one thing to work your way down the flanks, but another to get past several defenders waiting for you at the outside of the penalty area. The Minnesota team, for all their inadequacies when compared to the Maryland side, as two major advances: they pressured up front into the penalty area and they had a diversified attack. The Minnesota team took advantage of defensive and goalkeeping mistakes by Maryland, and made up a 1-0 deficit in just eight minutes, off a great cross from the goal-line that a defender mishandled and played into his own net. In the second half, they scored goals in two consecutive minutes simply by mixing things up inside the penalty area.

Maryland wanted the perfect shot; Minnesota would take nearly any shot. Perfect shots rarely happen, and while Minnesota's goals weren't pretty, they don't need to be.

Shortly after their third goal, Minnesota slowed down the pace dramatically... while the ball wasn't in play, and I started considering how much time I wanted to add onto the game. This was something, given the heat and the age of the kids, I didn't really want to do a whole lot of, but on the other hand, I didn't want to gyp the Maryland side, either. Maryland started a frenetic pace, which netted then another goal in the 52nd minute (game length was sixth minutes). Then their coach started going nuts.

I thought I had called a pretty consistent game, and one that was vocal enough that people would have a good idea of what I would call and what I wouldn't. Furthermore, the USA Cup is pretty well known (and if not known, you find out pretty quick) for allowing physical play. A Maryland player had the ball along the near side (to the benches) in Minnesota's corner, and the striker and defender were battling it out for possession; since it was out of my AR's corner, I came very deep, into touch, by them myself, and then the coach started screaming about being played on the back. Yes, the striker was shielding the ball, and that usually happens with the back, but no, the defender wasn't grabbing, kicking, or otherwise doing anything illegal to him. I let it go to the next stoppage (a throw-in on the opposite side), stopped the throw in, and made it very clear that his comments were unwanted. "Coach: You will not argue my calls, you will only talk to your players. End of story."

But of course, coaches, never one for actually understanding the Laws of the Game when gamesmanship, testosterone, or plain simple insanity will do, didn't stick with it. A few minutes later, he started screaming about something else (and once again, about something where he was 100% wrong). I was ready to kick him out, normally I would have because he had been already warned one, but one thing stopped me: there were no other coaches there. So if he got the boot, the game ended, and I didn't want to tell a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, let alone the tournament staff, why I had to terminate a game that had been well under control for the first 90% of the game, so I pulled out a trick that others had used, but I never had: the, "Warm up your assistant" card. "Coach, do you have an assistant here? I hope you do and get him over here soon, because if you don't and I kick you out, this game comes to an ignoble end."

I wish I could say that it shut him up for the remainder of the game (about seven minutes, five and two added for stoppage), but it still did the job: he had one more yelp, but nothing sustained or worth the trouble over. I was satisfied when the game concluded with no additional scoring. Of course, the coach turns around and leaves after the handshakes with the players, ignoring the referees, but that's what I'd expect from such a good sport such as that fine man from Maryland. He's certainly not doing anything to help change my predisposition toward New Englanders (that short while in Connecticut was bad enough).

The next game, which I had a whole ten minutes to change shoes, was on the I-fields; the most crap fields at the National Sports Center. I know most of the fields take a beating, but according to the locals, the I (or Italy) fields were garbage to begin with, and were certainly some of the worst I'd worked on all year. I-3 was take out-of-service in the first couple of days because teams and referees refused to play on it, and my line on I-2 had a number of holes, including one that caused an ankle-twist. Thankfully I put on my brace in anticipation of it (as well as running a good yard-and-a-half behind the touchline, to try to minimize my exposure to those holes), and after a few choice words that little kids should never hear, and a few minutes of hopping, I was fine. After the game, I was asked to do another game at referee headquarters, but simply said that I just did a line on I-2, twisted my ankle, and would be lucky to walk the next day.

We also came within thirty seconds of extra time as well. Yellow flags came up following my center for this game (and then went to red immediately following it), so when a goal was scored in the second half, ending a 0-0 deadlock, the center told me that he thought it was scored too early, and that an equalizer would happen, which was exactly what did happen. Thirty second after he gave me the signal that he was adding one minute of stoppage, the tie was broken, and it was nearly time to hit the showers.

24 July '05 - 22:16 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 6: A small army of yellow

I did three games and then picked up one; the first three (a U12 small-sided center and a line for the same and a U13) were pretty tame; the excitement came on another field.

This is what I know: a referee I've worked with before (he's actually from my state) gave a red card for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity, and a pretty obvious one at that: she blatantly whacked the ball away with her arm with no chance of it being accidental. Another play goes nuts, telling the ref to fuck off; then the coach goes nuts, throwing stuff onto the field! He tosses the coach and terminates the game. I just finished my game, when my center and I notice the problems (the referee crew has now become surrounded); he says, "Let's go help," and we start running onto the field. We're not the only one, because two other crews head into the field as well, all converging around the referee WHO DID THE CORRECT THING IN THE FIRST PLACE, and escorting him back to the field manager's tent.

Meanwhile, parents are still swearing at him, and the team refused (again) to hand over passes, and continued to swear at him on his way back to headquarters. In many ways, he's quite lucky to have it happen here, because here we know that referees will protect their own here. This is a brotherhood, and all we ask is that your don't cause disrepute to the uniform; he didn't, and was given his own small army of yellow-clad people as his personal bodyguard.

Now suburban parents, THEY just disgust me right now. I didn't have any reactions with the coaching staff (other than escorting one of the ARs to get a signature on the game card - to the side that didn't have any issues, but you never know when the next lackwit from the burbs is going to make another run. Should I go as far as say hate? Maybe. Because those mostly conservative voters are the real reason that the society they say is going to hell, is going there. They're fucking hypocrites, and if there were such things are licenses to be considered a human being, they should be revoked on the spot.

I'm glad to say that the ref seemed to be doing OK. He spent nearly two hours on the paperwork, and even had another game which hopefully will put some of these bastards behind him.

My last game, which was a pickup (a U12-girls small sided game) was interesting and rather difficult, because frankly these girls were just too large to play on the field they were on. It made for a lot of bumping, quite a few collisions, and lots of calls for fouls that frankly, I just didn't see the merit in giving. I know that normally they get inexperienced refs that probably give those calls, but in all conscience I just couldn't. And I think I have the proof for that, too: early in the game, the coaches kept calling for offiside calls. The first two were easy to ignore, because they were kicks that never hit any of the players in off-side positions, and just sailed over the goal-line for goal kicks. The third time the ball remained in play, but the AR disagreed with the coaches, and kept his flag down - but all the players stopped! I had to say, "The ball's still in play," twice before things started going again. Amusing? Yes. But probably indicative to what they're used to. I actually had a nice chat with a parent about that, and he seemed pretty understanding; they were all colliding with each other, so I think it was pretty even on how many I let go. That game ended 1-1 and finished up in kicks from the mark, 4-2.

Sigh... I can't get rid of it. You crazy stupid suburban soccer parents who don't know shit about the game: You suck, you spoil the game, you have no business being parents. Put your kids up for adoption now and let someone with a sense of decency and responsibility raise them - you showed neither today. (more)

23 July '05 - 23:16 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 5: Knowing your limits

They were hard up for referees for the 17:30 games, but at 16:00, I just knew that it wasn't going to happen. I set my schedule to have three games for a reason, because I want to be quality rather than quantity; I want to give the kids the best game I can, and my body was telling me that I couldn't. This way, I don't have to turn away assignments I already committed for - I think it works best for everyone.

Although given my game assignments, fat lot of good that's done - I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but I thought, given the games I've had for the last four years, even excluding my upgrade, that I'd get older, not younger games. Over the last few years I would do regular U15 and some U16 centers, foreign teams, and regular lines in U17.



OK, there has been some progress. I had a U19 line today, last year I did no higher than U17 (I knew that), but I also never had a playoff center, but I actually have one for tomorrow (U12 girls, but it's one more than I had in the last four years), and a U15 boys center today (I didn't keep track of all my games last year, but the highest I wrote about was U14). So, maybe there is progress after all - just not as high as I would have liked. Ehh (insert visualization of shrugging shoulders here).

The first two games were back-to-back, first the 19s, which had the very tail of the storm that woke me up at 6am this morning. No rain, but it shielded the sun that would haunt us the rest of the day. The winning team, which in the second half blew the pants off the competition, picked up two dumb yellow cards (one for shirt pulling, one for bumping the keeper very late in the face after he caught the ball). I had all of ten minutes to get from the A-fields to D for a quick U11 center. Those guys weren't as good as the ones I had earlier - it was pretty much boom ball, and given the quick transition (I have some things I like to do as center versus AR, and one of them is the shoes I wear), I didn't feel quite as comfortable as I'd like to have done (like the aforementioned shoes).

The 15 boys center started under the yellow flag (thankfully), which meant water breaks - I brought mine alone to the center (into touch, of course), as I knew I'd want some of that, myself. The game was very one-sided (7-0), and the team that lost, especially the parents, got a bit frustrated. The problem was that the Missouri team totally out-ran the local team, and that put their challenges late, consistently. So, yes, they were getting all the fouls, because, yes, they were committing them.

I was able to put word in with the captain near halftime that their only problem was being 1/4 to 1/2 second late on their challenges, and that seemed to improve in the second half. I'm not sure if that's because the word was passed along, or because they simply were too tired to make the same types of challenges, but what the heck, it wasn't as big a problem in the second half.

22 July '05 - 18:30 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 4: Incident reports

By the time the third game rolled around, I thought I had indeed been punished somewhere. I had the same AR with me for two games in a row, and he was a pain in the ass. He did not want to be reffing the tournament, he only wanted to be there to show off his pierced nipples and flirt with the girls teams. He never once came back with the other referees at half to talk about the game, he was almost never in correct position, and he broke the handle on one of my flags and didn't say a damn thing.

Don't get me wrong, I like Minnesota, but maybe there should be a skill or aptitude test before they allow refs like that into the Cup.

And what's really awful, is that a referee of the same age (17) was being lambasted by idiotic coaches for a game that he took very seriously. I've been working on ideas for referee t-shirts - just something that we can wear (probably away from the pitch!), and amid the list, one slogan has been coming back over an over again: Shut up, Coach! I think I'll see what I can doodle up and give Cafe Press a try when I'm done here.

It went like this, I just finished with games on the L-fields, trek back to headquarters, and then come almost all the way back (further, actually), to the M-field to fill in on a line. They asked me to center, but after three games and with the weather getting warmer, I asked to just be on the line. So they gave this kid the center - it was a U12 boys - competitive yes, but still U12 boys. I'm AR2 and the game starts off poorly; 5-10 minutes into the game the senior AR is already calling the center over to talk to a coach from the Canadian side who's a bit out-of-control. At half-time, we talk it over, and give some hints in case he has to toss one (because it's looking more like an inevitably than a possibility), and sure enough, he does. A player is hurt by his own teammate, and the center doesn't stop play, and when the coach comes onto the field, he has words (again), and is tossed. Nice work by the center, in my humble opinion.

The coaches comes back, after the game, three times to yell and complain, while another coach is making up lies about the center swearing at his kids (I have some swear words in mind for you Mr. Coach); they claim he don't have his pass (in the USA Cup, you give the passes back after check-in), so we write up an incident report (between ranting and ravings by the two coaches.

Did the center make mistakes? Sure he did: he should have stopped for the injury immediately. In some ways USA Cup has some bad examples, because there is a lot of diving that happens, even at the U10 level - primarily, but not always, seen by the teams from Latin America - but it takes an experienced referee to note the difference between simulation and a real injury, and when to totally ignore it. But until you get to that point (and I'm not there yet with older kids, let alone 12s), it's best to just stop the play immediately, regardless of the advantage situation that'll be lost.

Any other mistakes? It's hard to say lack of experience is a mistake. Lack of experience means he didn't deal with situations as well as he could have, or made the best call, or been in the best position. But you can't get that knowledge without experience; and coaches on a U12 team should not be screaming bloody murder (and have two rather large referees block the entrance to the referee tent to protect him) and someone who's only a kid himself. But do the coaches understand or even care? No. They're just self-centered assholes who should be more concerned that their kids have a good time (but wait, they're screaming at them, too).

People wonder by referees become cynical and starting disliking coaches in general. Case in point.

Oh, god, I must be getting old. I'm calling a seventeen-year-old a kid. But let's be honest, he is. He's a young referee dealing in a high pressure situation the best he can. And you know what? He did good, and he did right. Because he survived, because he didn't let the bastard get him down. I'm damn proud of him. (more)

21 July '05 - 20:36 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 3: Score!

There's a National Assessor I know, I met him back when I used to have a media pass to our local pro team, we would chat at halftimes in the press box about the game, or other games, whatever. A few years ago, at the USA Cup, he saw me waiting for my schedule card, and he said, amazed, "You've picked up the whistle?!" He'd only known me as a fan/writer, and here I was working in his pastime as well. I think I may have met him before I started reffing, but I'm rather unsure - I started writing in 1999 and started reffing in 2000, but I'm unsure if I was enough of a regular in the press box at the time - I do recall that it was back in the day when they offered free beer (good beer, not the American swill that's filtered via horse before serving).

In any case, he watched me ref today, on one of those U-litte games that I was worried about yesterday, and he was very pleased. I actually had two assessors, the one mentioned how much I improved since last he saw me (which I think was also at the USA Cup, two years ago when I was on a line), and another came out and said how much he appreciated that I busted my butt on a game that I could have reffed from the center circle. It was rather nice, especially given my anxieties yesterday.

The best game was the second, a U12 girls game that wasn't played like the U12s in my area - they were really good - I would say regionals level good, but I've only centered one regionals game, and U13 is the lowest they go. But it was very skillful on both sides and just a lot of fun to go end-to-end (which I needed to do) on the game.

The third game had a coach that I decided would have been nice had he not heeded the center's warning and shut up, because I think I would have been rather satisfied to see him spazzing toward the parking lot. He's coaching a U13 girls and he's a screamer - not something I admire in coaches in general, but definitely not one where the teams aren't superstars in the making, but rather there to have a good time and play competitive ball. He yelled at the center, he yelled at the far AR, he yelled at me (for a ball that barely when into touch no-less, when I'm standing on the line to determine it, and he's fat ass is four feet away - who do you think has the best angle?).

I ended the evening with Minnesota's local pro team, getting thoroughly trounced by Rochester; I thought about the U17 Nationals, which were in the main stadium, but I kind of made a tradition of watching the pro team, and of watching the officials for those games, which can get more cantankerous. Sure enough, straight red was given for a late challenge from behind, although I was surprised that another, in what I thought was a rougher challenge, only got yellow 30 minutes earlier. But that was when the game was 1-0, and not 3-0, and you have to wonder what that challenge was for.

I saw one think I really liked, it was the center in that game making a Rochester player take off his necklace; now if I could see that in the MLS it would make my job much easier when I tell people to take them off!

20 July '05 - 20:59 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 2: Soakin in the heat

More steamy stuff going on, but the games were U-littles, so it wasn't too bad to deal with. I did my first line without my ankle brace, I figured a U11 girls would be a fairly safe test; I would do some of the same jumping around a fast starts/stops as I would in an older game, just not as many. It was a fun game, as was the second game that I picked up (a U10), but as you might imagine, nothing terribly challenging. The odd thing was that, one of the roving assessors (one who assessed me last year!) did one for me on the U10 game. Not sure why, maybe he was scheduled for the guy I replaced (a no-show). It's kind of hard to screw up those games.

Speaking of which, more U-Littles tomorrow. I know every year they say don't be disappointed about the games you get, that it's just as much about getting good referees on games where they're not used to it (Roy, the referee director, every year mentions FIFA referees on U-littles), and he's right. I guess I hoped that I might get something better now that I'm up a grade; maybe they want me to do this for the younger refs, like in my first year they did for me - but it would be nice to know if it's that, or some sort of black mark on your record (something you never know, because the assignments are done by computer, and you never get any feedback or results on the assessments). Ultimately, it's a monday assignment, and just stupid paranoia. I'll get something better, and just enjoy what I've got. Even if I do get U-littles for the rest of the cup, I know I'll get better when I return for the State Cup. (more)

18 July '05 - 22:15 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

USA Cup 2005 Day 1: Startin' in the red

Well, I actually made it to the USA Cup - the hottest week of the year in Minnesota, and they started with a bang, or sizzle.

After saying a lot of hellos (it's amazing, I wouldn't think people would remember me, but it's happening - it's rather neat), my jaw dropped when I saw that we were already at a red flag. The USA Cup has a pretty simple system to determine weather restrictions on games: they fly flags. A green flag means play as normal, yellow means stop the game for water breaks each half, red means take the water breaks and cut down the halves by five minutes each, and black means (much like Raid commercials) stop those games dead.

Usually during USA Cup Weekend (the mini-tournament before the week-long extravaganza) you do a lot of U-little games; there are older games, but they're much fewer and far between. But I was rather pleasantly surprised to find myself assigned to a pair of centers, a U14 boys, and a U14 girls game. Many people find themselves assigned to four or five games a day, but I've learned that it's just not a smart idea for me, so I limit my availability to morning and afternoon, and if I want to do another game, just ask referee headquarters if they have any other openings - in days like this, I'm not doing teams a disservice by being totally immobile from exhaustion.

The girls game was tricky because, even though both teams were in the "A" bracket, there was a lot of clumsiness on one of the sides; it puts the referee into the quandary of what do you call? Being clumsy isn't a foul, but you don't want the results to adversely affect (physically) the other team. The game ended 2-1 in favor of the more skilled team (a fair result); the goalkeeper of the losing team complained about both goals, but I felt pretty comfortable awarding both: one was a very nice header sent over the keeper, who was running forward to the attacker - they collided and the keeper wanted a pushing call. The second goal, the keeper also had a collision, with her own player. Since we had water breaks, I had the opportunity to talk to the ARs to get their opinions.

Getting the AR opinions during water breaks was good, because in the second game, I got something I really really like when I ask opinions: I got an honest answer. On the boys game, you had, even though you had two US teams, an example of a straight-forward style versus latin. One of the teams had a fair number of Guatemalan players (it was an interesting merging of styles, since their Caucasian teammates played like... well... Caucasians.), and they were schooling their opponents in footwork and control. In the first part of the second half, a player clipped another in the back of the leg, sending the kid down to the ground in apparent agony. Maybe I'm cynical (hell, I am cynical), but I thought that the kid who was clipped was making a meal out of it; further, I didn't see the fouler (and I did foul him, and made a show of talking to him) look at the kid, or go at him that hard. The AR thought I should have carded him, as did the coach (well, naturally in his case - and that is me being cynical).

There were some more fouls for the next few minuets, but it was debatable if it was them getting frustrated, or that they were all in close quarters with several other people at the time, which they were. Overall, I was happy with the game, and grateful in the opinion from the other vantage point that wasn't biased.

The game itself was quite good - the team with the Guatemalans gave up a really bad breakaway that the local team pounced on, tying it up, but the other side scored two more as time ran down - all three of their goals came from a player who was a good foot taller than the next tallest player, with the added power to boot. When you throw your entire body weight against a kid like that, and merely bounce off of him, it can make it difficult to defend, especially if he has good ball control.

17 July '05 - 21:35 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Good news on all fronts

Good news about the USA Cup - I can do it. Some phone calls are allowing me some alternative credentials (mainly a photocopy of my badge and last year's card, which has my grade 7 designation). So I'll be making the trip after all. I'll try keeping a running log like last time, but like last time, there will be enough stuff going on that it'll be difficult (I'm also staying at a place with a pool, which may be impossible to pry me out of after my games).

I had my assessment game, which went very well as well: top-division 18-boys. According to the weather service it was hotter and more humid that yesterday, but I felt better. I think partially because there was more of a breeze than yesterday, and partially because I was in a situation (something I can't always do in my job) where I could keep a water bottle permanently affixed to my mouth. I felt very good running; I had a few spots were I was getting shagged out, but good positioning allowed me to walk for a few seconds, and get back on the horse.

The game was rather surprising, a team that did very well in the state cup lost 4-0 to the first-year top-division squad that in three previous viewings, hadn't seen score a goal, let alone earn a point in the standings. The other team held possession more, and played more organized, but it was clear that they, for the most part (there were a few frustrated players by the end), didn't really care about the game. This was probably the last game of the regular season for both of them, and they played probably five games each in the last week, in order to make up canceled games from earlier in the season. It was a mad rush, and it was clear that one team was ready to take advantage of the ambivalence of the other.

I also got through the game without carding anyone, too. One player, on the losing team, near the end of the game gave a shove to an opponent who just ran through it. Advantage was called, and when the play stopped, I tried to talk him down rather than card - I was fully justified in carding him, but thought maybe, just maybe, they would like to finish cleanly.

"What's going on? What did I miss."
"Nothing."
"Then why did you do that?"
"I don't know."
"You know I can't accept that; tell me if he does something, or I have to deal with you." OK, I would have anyway, but if the home team was rubbing stuff in, I wanted to know about that, too.

As it was, I didn't get anything out of the player, but another teammate give a one-handed shove that did stop an attack, and it was an easy card. One player (not the carded one) complained, but it was pretty darn obvious, and after talking about the first one, I couldn't let the second go. The assessor had some good advice about making sure everyone knew I was talking to the first player. I've done that, but tried the quiet approach, especially since I didn't stop play to deal with it. Actually, that player was great to work with the rest of the game, it just didn't translate to player #2 (which wasn't much of a problem, either).

I joked with some people that, now that I've been assessed and can keep my grade, I can, for another year, authoritatively ignore anyone who says I suck.

17 July '05 - 06:14 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Lightning? We'll take a lady with a flash camera.

Miserable games today. Let me clarify: the weather made the games miserable, the games themselves were fine. It was hot, steamy, and I felt with absolute mush after the first game (a center for a 16-boys game - one that was flagged as a potential ugly one by the assignors, so we had an all-adult, all-veteran crew). One team was fighting to keep from being relegated to the third division, the other was, as the coach put it, a "zero game."

Overall, the game wasn't too much trouble - they played a lot of long ball (and the "zero game" team blew a PK by kicking it straight to the keeper - the PK call itself was pretty easy, a second effort by a grounded defender missed the ball by 3 feet and instead got the legs of a rushing attacker). By the second game, a third-division 15-girls game, I was still sucking wind - as I said, it was miserable.

After the first game, we half-joked about looking for lighting (we got a little rain to cool us down, but not nearly enough). The center, with a very English sense of humor about him, said he'd be willing to take a lady with a flash camera as enough to lightning for him.

16 July '05 - 08:27 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Should not be doing this game

You may have noticed that some of these entries are out-of-order; partially because I wanted to publish some sooner than others, partially because I haven't had time to publish anything.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I had my garage broken into; that and plenty of other stressors that it brought to the surface had me asking to get out of a game I was scheduled for. It didn't happen (I was told that they would have to ref short); what's worse, when I got there I was told I was supposed to center. All three of our schedules said we were ARs, and the other two said I was in the middle.

I was lucky, it wasn't a terribly intense or difficult game - I have to admit I ran on automatic for most of the game. I even found myself barking some orders (like for the dropping of hands) and only realizing afterwards that I had said it. I dread to think if it was a rougher or more intense game - it would have been seriously screwed up. That said, one of the ARs was green, and the other nearly immobile - I may still have been the best choice out of the three, but it's not something I want to repeat.

15 July '05 - 11:04 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Closest I'll get to Regionals this year

Looks like I'm going to miss USA Cup, too - my registration information, which I packed carefully (and with much paranoia) has gone missing in the new house; I've looked for several days, and don't have a thing (and true to form, I've recieved nothing Chicago, yet). To caps things off, my garage was broken into yesterday, and my bike stolen. This has not been a terribly auspicious summer for me.

I had a third division adult women's game the other day, on the line, but had in the center one of the referees who was at regionals with me last year (and was again this year). It was really nice to have a center who appreciated all the little things you do; I think it'll be the closest I'll get the Regionals this year (especially since it already finished).

The game was pretty unremarkable; and pretty one-sided. One team was clearly just out of playing youth club ball; you could tell by how they checked in, their uniforms, how they played, and in that they had coaches. The other team was your pretty typical affiliated adult woman's team, in that they just sort of showed up, didn't warm up, maybe kicked the ball around a bit, and then had their asses handed to them by a team half their age.

Apparently this is the only adult women's league in the three-state area, and in order to get to the first division, you have to win it through promotion, so you get teams that have won national championships in their youth going up the system, and thus mismatches like this. Mismatches not only in skill, but in expectations, which was really the only issue; the older team wasn't used to being played physically (and it wasn't that physical, either), but always wanted the calls, which they weren't getting, or going to get.

Of course, when that happens, the result is they get nasty, and start coming in far too hard themselves. Most of the time the other team could avoid it, but it's a great example of the no-win situation for the referee. Calling it tighter would have been a disservice to the game (and only pissed off the other team); so you do the only thing you call: call it the way you want it.

14 July '05 - 14:27 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

A little bit of everything

The game had a little bit of everything: strange paperwork, foreign agents, loud coaches, a red card, and poop.

It was a top-division 18 boys game, and I was on the line. It was the first game I've had since my injury where my ankles hadn't ached afterwards - a really nice feeling!

The strange paperwork brought up two ejection reports, from one team, for the same player. Apparently the player was red carded for something, but then played in the next game, which meant not only was their 6-0 win forfeited, but the player an additional suspension. The coach was smart about this though, he printed out several emails to clarify what happened, and that the player is now OK to play.

The game started with a coach nearly getting ejected (and ending the game, as he was the only coach) for being stupid. The center blew a dangerous play foul, and the player who fouled kicked the ball to the other side of the field - stupid yellow card. Then the coach, as it was on my side, says something more stupid, "Hey ref, let's stop being biased." He just questioned the integrity of the referee, which is ground for an ejection.

"Take a hike coach." The coach tried to interject, "I'm not entertaining an argument of bias, and since you're the only coach, I recommend you just walk before the game ends." It worked, we heard nothing from the coach for the rest of the game.

The red card was late in the game, again for something stupid. A player, already with a yellow, and being beaten soundly (the score ended 7-0), tried to spike an opponent after the play had gone by. I hadn't seen it (the ball being in my half and all), but the center did, and there wasn't a whole lot of complaining when he picked up his second yellow card.

The foreign agent was something like you hear about, but never see: a dog running onto the field. It was a little white dog, about the size of a soccer ball, leash behind it... but no owner! He ran around for a while, dodging people, and then took a dump on the field. We joked at half-time that it would have been a great time to break out a red card, but oh well. Apparently the dog's owners were on the other field - I still never saw them collect it. (more)

13 July '05 - 23:02 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Updated text

Here's the updated text of the letter I wrote - I cleaned up some of the language, and added a few more things. I didn't mention anything about the alcohol, because I can't confirm it.

---

July 10, 2005

Dear _____ and _____:

I’m writing about a situation that occurred the morning of July 9, at _____ _____, and want to make sure that my issue is put to paper. I’m also writing because the situation puts _____ in an awkward position because it deals with a person she is a friend with; having been in these situations myself, I’ve always found it easier, for all parties involved, to move the issue up a level, rather than try to balance the responsibilities of job and that of friendship.

I was assigned to referee the Inter-A playoff game between _____ _____ and _____; late in the first half, I yellow-carded "_____" for dissent (I’m afraid I don’t recall his last time, and that’s always been what _____ has called him; if you need more details, he’s _____ and he also refs for _____), he then made an obscene gesture which earned him a send-off, followed by him saying obscene language, and then threatening me.

Here is the entire incident, complete with the language used (more)

10 July '05 - 22:09 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

As I find out more

As I said earlier, I would honor my commitments to the league, and so I did a pair of small-sided games in a southern suburb for them. The first game was a breeze - a non-playoff game where people just had fun; the second was a league championship game that went back-and-forth throughout the game. As the clock ticked down, the pressure went up, and so did the desire for calls their way. My coming in for a championship game probably wasn't the best of ideas, except they were short of so many others - mostly because people don't know my reffing style, and I know that my style can be very different than many of the other referees in that league. Not just in that I'm a ref-geek and take my job very seriously, but in that I also am very lenient with regards to what is a foul and what is not; if a ball hits the arm and it's not deliberate I let it go, likewise, just because there is body contact, it doesn't mean there's a foul - if I can get a player to lay off another before something becomes a foul, I'll go for it.

Basically it came down to this: green was up by a goal in the last 90 seconds, then gave up two in the final minute, and want to complain because of a push could not have come from the striker who scored. In fact, the striker fell, cutting too tight, got up, and shot the ball low to the right side of the goal, to score. It's amazing, when a team is leading, you're the best referee ever ("All the other refs just stay in the middle, you actually run"), but when you drop two quick ones and lose it all, it's suddenly all your fault.

This is why it takes a bastard to be a referee.

Well, it looks like I'm going to be mailing the letter. I hoped to discuss the situation with the coordinator after the two games, but she was gone when I finished - and the guy who threatened me was set to work the next game! This makes me even less of a happy camper.

What's worse, she had the opportunity before the games started. A player, who played for the opposition of yesterday's game and is also a friend of the guy I tossed (or at least a drinking buddy), stated that the guy was drunk! Another player said that, "He reeked of alcohol." The coordinator was surprised, said that he said he thought my yellow card was red, but nothing else. You know, I don't care if mistook the color of my card, or if he was drunk, he still shouldn't have said what he did, he shouldn't be allowed to play the next game, and as far as I'm concerned, shouldn't have been allowed to referee the field after me without an escort.

Time to do a second draft of the letter; I'm going to email a PDF of it tonight, and send the hard copy in the mail tomorrow.

10 July '05 - 13:10 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Being threatened, and having it ignored

I did a couple games for the unaffiliated league I do from time-to-time. I half-joke (actually, probably not even half) that I do it for man-management skills. After doing games there, I feel I'm pretty well qualified for the antics of any other game; and so far it's true, no matter what level I've done, no game has been tougher, man-management wise, than this league. That's because, skill, temper, ego, and discipline are mutually exclusive. Club soccer tends to build up the positives; but this being a "recreational" league, it's just people showing up and playing, which means - well, there's not as many consequences for them when they exhibit bad behavior, or ways to reinforce good behavior.

I'm going to write about the second game first, because it's the less memorable of the two, although it had it's moments. I knew a couple players on one team; I actually wasn't supposed to referee this game, but I recused myself from my second, since I threw out a player (and had a gay old time) from a team that was going to play two-in-a-row. When you know someone, both the player and you have an advantage: as a referee, you know what to look for (and in this case, it was his mouth - and that earned him a yellow card); but as a player, you know pretty much how the ref will call it - since I played with these guys, they know even more, since you tend to call it like you play it.

I think I probably gave him too much leeway, but after he ratcheted up the language, it was a pretty easy card. When I called him and other captain over (there was a request for water breaks, and I needed to see if both teams agreed - they didn't, so no water breaks), he said he'd keep going, and I said he'd face the consequences. He shut up. This makes two players from my old team I've carded.

Now the fun game. I was begged to do some games (I have two more tomorrow in small-sided games) because the coordinator was really short of referees. Since I had the weekend free, I agreed to do two; they were playoff games, and she said she wanted people who knew the teams and how to handle the games. Yes, it's flattery, but I think it's also true - they had the cops show up to one of their games a couple weeks ago after a fight.

Considering that there were cops a couple of weeks ago, you would think that the coordinator would come down harder when a player says he's going to "kick the shit out of me later." But there he was, in the next game. I'm going to fulfill my commitment and do the games tomorrow, and have a good talk with the coordinator, but, failing that, I've already got a letter written and ready to mail. I'll include it below (naturally, with all the identifying information redacted) (more)

09 July '05 - 12:28 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Adventures in servers

There's been some downtime with this - and if I'm unlucky, more to come. I installed a program at the behest of work on this server, which sent it dually. I think I've got 90% of things taken care of, but there's been problems of it dropping from the network, and virtually locking up (virtually, because I can use the mouse, but cannot quit or start any programs). We'll just have to see what happens, I guess.

Two games tonight, a 17 girls game - one of the same teams I did yesterday - and really the same result. It was hotter and muggier today, so I worried a bit about the 17 boys second division contest I would be in the middle of. As it turned out, the field was small enough that I was pretty much stuck in mid-field, although I was able to venture further from time-to-time, because it didn't take much to send the ball to the other end of the field. One card, late in the game, for a late challenge with the shoulder down, but overall I felt pretty good.

Confidence good, cockiness bad (hopefully that won't develop), because my assessment is next week.

06 July '05 - 23:27 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Could have been a practice

The last time I did a game on July 5th (which was last year), I had to pick up spent fireworks and bottle rockets off the field. I suppose the big different between the field last year, and the one this year was access. Last year, the field was surrounded by lots of housing developments, and had access to the field from four directions. This year, it was up a hill with a quarter-mile access road being its only means of approach or exit; thus if the cops came around wondering who's burning up the park after hours, you'd be screwed.

The game I did, a 17-girls division three game I just picked up, really doesn't have much to say about it: both teams were short, I had maybe three fouls, all in the second half, and it pretty much came down to a 90-minute practice on positioning, trying to reinforce good habits with myself, and do some running that's not on a treadmill or down the street.

So, the game out of the way, one of things I was thinking about, when the teams started arriving, is why the USSF has four jersey colors. One of the referees I work with (several times this year) is color blind. It does not affect his ability to referee (he's a seven going on six this year), but it does mean that the officiating team needs to be just as distinct as the two playing teams need to. So, when we have a team that's orange, red and yellow and both out (apparently there's no more "primary" color in the USSF, or so I heard at the State Cup referee meeting); and if I can avoid it, I don't wear black; partially because it's hotter than the other colors, but also, in a night game, which this was, you can't see the the other referees. In this case, the visiting team wore a dark maroon, which cut that out. So, that left our blue jerseys. Or rather, two of us with blue jerseys, and one wearing my long sleeve blue with the sleeves rolled up.

It's been argued, quite reasonably in fact, that FIFA and the USSF should just pick a color and ban the teams from picking it. I would say, if they did that, they also need to ban the shades of color that'll cause problems not just with colorblind referees, but colorblind players. I think it's going to be easier to just get three-to-four colors instead.

05 July '05 - 22:51 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

As much fun as I've had being an AR for a while

I had a U17 boys top division match the other day, a team I've done twice before - once on the line and once in the center. They're a good team, disciplined, well organized. They have two weaknesses: their offense isn't terribly creative, and they're a little (only a little) whiney when it comes to physical challenges; but they make up for it by, as you might expect, being well organized and disciplined in the back.

It was a strange game to start with - one wouldn't normally think of wearing long sleeves on June 30th, but it was windy, cold, and looked like it would rain. The long sleeves kept up comfortable; fortunately, we didn't have to test them out in any water.

The other team was disciplined too, and very offensive. They did a great job of shifting the ball when they had the attack for a prolonged period, and some speedy forwards on the far flank. And because the game was very clean (and I think the center referee deserves a bit of credit to it, too - he had a great presence out there), I was treated to a very exciting game, along with quite a lot of work as well.

Speaking of which, the ankle is doing better - it hasn't been as sore following this game as in the last few. I have a feeling I'll be wearing the ankle brace into the USA Cup; it would be nice to just have it in the bag just-in-case, but when doing three games a day (and while not full-length game, they're now just 10 minutes within being one), I'll probably have it on as a precaution.

02 July '05 - 22:57 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶