RefBlog

The bubble bursts

This has been a far leaner year than I expected; I took fewer games than I normally would have during the summer and took high school games off completely. I hoped to jam over the winter, but because I don't do many summer games with the unaffiliated league, I'm lower on the seniority totem (despite working with them for five years), so only one night a week to work (and only three games at that). What's worse, the dome I ref in popped, and two days after they put it back up, it burst again. So now the college where the dead dome would be is debating if they should purchase a new one for the winter, or call it a season. Most of the league's games have been able to relocate to another location, for the short-term at least... except the night I work. Apparently the only jam I'm going to see is at the local Roller Derby league (which I have to say, after seeing it for the first time over the weekend, was really a whole lot of fun - my, now that we're married, wife has said that she might like to play, after she recovered from her ACL reconstruction on Tuesday).

There was supposed to be a decision on it today, but apparently, in true bureaucratic fashion, the only decision they took was to wait. I'm told they hope to have a decision final by Thanksgiving. I was finally able to get in touch with another indoor center (this one uses boards ala Major Indoor Soccer League); as expected, they didn't need me for this session, but they said that they like to try out new refs at their Christmas Cup - since I'll be around for the holidays, I chimed in that I'd love to work it, and hopefully they'll give me a shot - although I bet there will be a flood of other referees thinking the same thing (there was another league at the same location that I tried to get in, but was told they had an overabundance of referees already).

From a financial standpoint, it's pretty devastating. It's normal to take a big hit in the wallet after paying for a marriage (and we paid for the majority of it), and buying a house, but in the last three months my wife has also had her car totaled (even the insurance company said it's 100% not her fault, but that doesn't mean we still don't have to pay for a replacement car), and her knee totaled; and because of the employment nightmare the Bush administration has put us in, when she doesn't work, she doesn't get paid, so we're getting a double-whammy with the surgery. Some extra income from reffing would really be nice, but it looks like it just isn't going to happen anytime soon.

21 November '05 - 19:06 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Things I liked about the MLS playoffs

While I didn't get a chance to watch all the playoff games offered by ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel, what I did saw really encouraged me about a long-standing beef I've had with the upper echelons of the USSF and the National and FIFA referees who work in the MLS: that behavior seen in the MLS trickles down to the trenches.

During that last men's World Cup, I saw the amount of shirt pulling reach ridiculous proportions, and over the years, dissent and abuse has continued to rise, seemingly in-sync with the amount of dissent and verbal abuse seen in the MLS. Over the last few seasons, the USSF has, during the MLS playoffs, showed off changes to the referee uniform: the blue jersey, the logo socks and the logo shorts. This year, I saw fourth officials making players take off their jewelry, Brian Hall booking for dissent, Terry Vaughn sending off for verbal abuse (and the USSF is already sending out that Chicago-New England offside call as instructional material - huzzah!), and Kevin Stott showing consistency in booking anything that went over his line-in-the-sand.

Between moving, getting married, and my own season, I haven't watched a whole lot of MLS regular season games, so I can only hope that this has been the pattern all season. If not, hopefully it'll be for next. I hope this is a fundamental shift in how the USSF believes it should treat the professional divisions. In the past, it's been bend (if not sacrifice) the Laws for the sake of entertainment, and yes, we're still expected to take "more" when reffing a higher level game; but I believed that the reason the professional game, in any country, is popular is because while the skills and athleticism may be vastly different, the game itself is the same we play in the rec and kids' leagues. I used to hear instructors tell us not to use the MLS as self-teaching tools, but if the 2006 season plays out like the playoffs, and with the USSF's willingness to send out clips and base position papers on recent MLS activity, we might just see a change in philosophy. With maybe a bit more luck, we'll see some improved behavior and trends trickle down as well. (more)

15 November '05 - 23:05 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶

Sigh...

I was supposed to referee tonight and tomorrow, just found out that the Dome, which was torn over the weekend, won't be ready until Thursday. Blech.

15 November '05 - 11:51 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Ref Conference

I attended a referee conference, put on by the state reffing brass, for assignors, assessors, mentors, and referees of grade 7 and above. It was really nice to hang out with a group of 80 fellow ref-geeks for the better part of a day. There had been some pretty major changes in the State Referee Committee, and so the first half was us being broken up into sections to talk about what works, and what doesn't, with the current setup in regards to assigning, assessments, and instruction. I'm tempted to throw my hat into the later - I used to do instruction on sexual assault issues before I started reffing, from kindergarten to kids in juvenile lock-up - although I'll have to think about it once the adrenaline runs down.

The second was a discussion on how the SRC works, lunch, where the current hot-topic was high school soccer. I've taken the year off, but I was able to see that my issues were not alone. The state tournament was regulated to National and National Candidate referees, who do very few high school games (they do mostly college), and brand-new referees. The two years I did lines in semi-finals, it was because I didn't do any shit-kickers; my last year, I was in several; there are no ways to come out clean when it's the coaches that grade you. It's crap; the coaches attitudes are crap; and the high school league is crap for spouting off platitudes to the public, while completely ignoring them in private. Makes me feel better to know I'm not alone in these beliefs, and that other referees (there are under 100 grade 7s and above in the state) are having the same issues.

The final portion was essentially a plea to keep working on stuff during the winter; it's hard, because there are a dearth of games (and I might not have any this week, because the dome we're supposed to play under was torn last night!); and let's be honest, reffing is much more enjoyable source of exercise than the gym. Of which I need to get into the habit of doing again.

14 November '05 - 12:15 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

It always starts easy

Weekday indoor leagues always start easy: new players, new type of game, new referees. But later on the players learn about the other players, aren't tentative about the transition from outdoor anymore, and begin to know the referees. As the season goes on, the first and last from that list can be for good and for ill - but ill is always louder than good.

I had my first three games from the weekday league, and there wasn't much to write home about. I had mostly new teams and players, but for the first two games, I saw some solid play, but nothing that screamed, "Contender". The first game was a walk through the park; the second started out with a bunch of fouls, but settled into foullessness (oh, the word police are going to hate that one). The third game had only a smattering of fouls as well, but the level of play was also much better than the previous two games. The Contender Light did perk up a bit, during that one.

One team started out short-handed, and fell behind 1-0 early; but thing was, you couldn't tell they were short-handed, and once their sixth player showed up, they tied up the game, and then had a 4-2 lead with ten minutes left. The other team poured on the offense, tied the game with a few minutes late, then took the lead on a call that was bound to make some miffed: the striker took a ball inbound to him at about head-level, with his feet - there was a defender right behind him, and I had to make a quick choice about calling a dangerous play or not, because he immediately dropped the ball, and in a fraction of a second, scored the go-ahead goal.

Is there such a thing as "high kick"? No.
Was a defender in close proximity? Yes.
Was the defender in imminent danger of being hit? Actually, no - the foot went outside and around him, then up.
Can a player safely play the ball with a high boot? yes.
Would I have whistled a defender in the same situation? No.

So I let it go. I was fortunate that there was only a little grumbling - I explained the call quickly, that the foot wasn't going toward the guy's face, and mentally noted that he didn't flinch, either. The difference between a call and no-call was razor thin; I wish I didn't have to make a call like that in so close a game, but that's what I'm supposed to do - either one would have miffed someone.

10 November '05 - 18:40 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Just some minor stuff

A couple of other rule changes I learned about this year for indoor:

• Goalkeepers can't slide feet-first, period. Used to be not in the standard slide-tackle method, but now not at all. Hrm.
  
• If someone gets a yellow card, they now have to sub out, NFHS style. Bummer.
  

Anyone catch the Fire/Revolution game yesterday? What a great game to watch as a fan, and as a referee. What made my day was the announcers really going out of their way to praise the AR on the stoppage-time offside call that prevented Chicago from going to extra time. You have to give this to pointy-ball lines, it makes it easier for us watching on TV to judge offside (and the announcers to draw a proper line on the screen). I'm also rather glad that Terry Vaughn issued a red card for abusive language to Andy Herron - considering that they normally let go, it must have been really bad. I'm looking forward to the MLS Cup.

07 November '05 - 15:02 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

New people playing, same lessons not learned

In some ways, it's same old, same old; as a referee, if you're serious about it, you learn things about the game, and really try to improve how to apply the Laws to game situations. The problem with that, is that you also have to expect that the players aren't doing the same thing you're doing - yes, the may play better physically and tactically, but still know squat all about the rules they're playing under.

And if you do expect it - no, even if you hope it, it'll soon be dashed, flattened, squelched and pummeled.

Handling. It's always handling, too. Ball gets kicked right into the arm, and I guarantee, especially when it's adults, that someone will squeal for a handball call. Ugh. What's really stupid is when they don't give up, and then sneer at you ten minutes later when you book them for dissent.

Well, I always said I do this league for man-management training - kids have never behaved as badly as adults do.

If there was a good ending to this story, is that one of the players, who claimed to be a referee (or at least had been one at some point), challenged me to look up in the Laws, because he said that if a player had handled, deliberately or not, and gained an advantage from it, then it was a foul. I know, because I go through this many times a year with this league, every year I do them, that this is complete and utter cat droppings - and I gladly took him up on his challenge, and he went away going, "I remember it being there when I read it." The coordinator, who was a USSF referee before I was (although I don't think she is now), even thought it was that way.

I think it's our fault, too. As referee's, we've bought into it, and it a heckuva lot easier to call it that way. A couple years ago, I recall there being an emphasis that handling intentional, but deliberate - and I don't think a lot of us figured out the distinction (a referee told our coordinator during an affiliated game that there were no more "intentional handballs"). Intentional means by conscious design or purpose - meaning that we'd have to read the player's mind to figure it out; deliberate has to do with the action itself, did the player have the arm in an unnatural position, did it pass the "hand-to-ball/ball-to-hand" test?

It's splitting hairs, probably by the same people who complain about people calling the penalty area, the penalty box - it's technically incorrect, but as long as the enforcement is correct does it really matter that much? Save it for the referees who work the higher level games.

So, it's time to send out the handing misconception paper again - after I correct a technical mistake (I used to have a section circled, that's not italicized, but I didn't change the text to correct it). (more)

05 November '05 - 15:34 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Winter season officially begins

Winter/indoor season officially begins. I'm trying to pick up additional games (right now just one night a week, and only three small-sided games), but so far it doesn't look good. I guess I'll keep plugging away, but there are far fewer venues inside, and the later it gets, the fewer openings there will be. As it is, I picked up two games as a sub, and I work regular shifts on Wednesday nights.

The fields are just about half (take a field and slice it down the middle, then remove another 10-20 yards, as the center is used for bench/warmup/whatever areas, as there isn't room anywhere else. Teams are six plus a keeper, and for the most part play under FIFA rules. However, the coordinator is adding additional variations to address safety issues, some of which I understand, some of which just bugs me:

• No slide tackling: par for the course for non USSF games. It's a big pain in the ass sometimes, as it opens up a giant can of grey area, but I understand why it's there.
  
• No Offside, but instead a "Three Line Pass" or equivalent (it depends on the facility): same idea as offside - keep people from cherry-picking; and trying to keep track of offside in that small a space is pretty pointless.
  
• Keeper charging: This started over the summer - wanting fouls called against attackers who unnecessarily charged the goalkeeper and endangering him (basically a very liberal interpretation of Dangerous Play). OK, I understand that, but now they've added situations where the goalkeeper puts himself in danger, giving an indirect to the attacking side. Ummmmm... OK? Goalkeeping is an inherently dangerous position, and those who play it well are insane, probably certifiable. I've emailed saying that in those situations I'm far more likely to use advantage than to call the actual foul. Time will tell how this actually works out, or as more likely, if.
  
• Cards: Not sure exactly how it's being worked out, but last year if a player received a straight red, the team played short the next game as well; many many teams were unhappy about it (even ones who had an advantage because of it, because they wanted to play an even side). I'd like them to keep track of all the yellow cards and issue suspensions for everyone who gets two or three (we had three a couple of years ago, and then it merged into what we had last year), but I don't think they're doing that, either. I'll have to ask.

Mostly, this is man-management training, and a more fun way to exercise than going to the gym. (more)

05 November '05 - 07:57 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Bug fix and something to think about

I decided, that while things are slow (I'm trying to find some additional games, instead of just one night a week), I would take a few minutes to start reviewing the year's entries, to see which were my favorites. If you have an entry you liked more than others, let me know for inclusion of the annual Ten Best that comes out near the end of the year (it's something to do while all the winter leagues are on hiatus).

But when I did that, I noticed that links from the calendar weren't working - so that's been fixed. (more)

01 November '05 - 10:07 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶