RefBlog

Physical difficulties in trying to be professional

I had another fourth official for the semi-pro league. If it wasn't a fourth, it would count as professional on my game-count, but what the heck. It's good experience, it's fun, and maybe with some luck, I'll get a line one of these days, too.

I felt for the team trying to pull this off - they had a bunch of things working against them. Because it's a nation-wide league (although played on a regional basis), there are standards where they play, it must be an honest-to-god stadium for one (even though it lacks the nice fancy tunnel you see in big stadia), which severely limits their choices. The big stadiums are not only overkill, way too expensive for a league that brings in maybe one-hundred people, so you have to choose from high schools and small colleges. This team chose the later, and ran into several difficulties: 1. Even though the school just put in a new fieldturf playing surface, it was lined only for pointy-ball, which meant they had to tape the lines. They started using purple tape to differentiate it from white grid-ball lines... but ran out. The penalty areas ended up being taped in.... white. The tape was also narrower than the USSF or FIFA likes, which brought up the ire of the visiting coach. When a ball went narrowly out of play, and the hope team complained that it hadn't totally left the field-of-play, the coach sounded off, "Maybe it wouldn't be a problem if you had wider lines!" 2. The school didn't have the required three locker rooms, or at least wouldn't let them use them. Kind of sucks for the referees, partially because they're required (and really nice to have), but mostly because we're supposed to show up not in our kits, but dressed up in nice civvies and USSF polos. We ended up having to share the home team's locker to start, and then grab out stuff quickly before they returned after the game, because they lost 2-0 and wanted some PK calls that the center just was not (rightly) willing to give them.
3. Even though they rented the field for a soccer game, the school didn't move any goals onto the pitch. They didn't have anyone to help move them, either. The home team had to go out to an alternate field, and physically pick up and move the goals onto their field.

With all the tape-work and moving, everything else fell behind schedule, such as player check-ins and administrative work, which was my job. Not much you can do when you're waiting for information required for the paperwork, and you don't get it until 10-minutes before game-time (when the league rules say you're to have it 60-minutes before). Would have been nice, too - it would have kept me from spending an extra 30-minutes after the game filling out what really looks like redundant paperwork.

27 July '06 - 09:48 - - default| - § ¶

USA Cup 2006 Diary, Day Nine: More adults behaving badly

I realized that with semi-finals and finals being on the same day, there was something missing: squirt guns (those referees who didn't get games on the last day, so I'm told because I've never actually seen it, would squirt those who did on their way to the Sports Hall). There was something else that was missing: more referees. Despite the even fewer number of games today, there were still missing officials; not as bad as yesterday, which were short 40 for the 7:50 am time-slot, but I was still advised to start my final with a club line.

To put it simply, the pool of referees is not keeping up with the growth of the player and team pools, and one only had to look at the games today to find out why.

Actually, my first two games were fine. I was put on a 17-girls semi-final in the middle (the oldest I'd ever worked at the USA Cup, let alone on a playoff game), and then lined a 16-boys semi in the Trophy "A" bracket that was fast-and-furious. The center had one of the teams before, where there was a fight that happened behind him, but because there was a club line and not a real referee in the trail position, nothing could be reported; but this game was very clean, with a single yellow card, although it went scoreless into kicks from the mark.

After a three-hour break, I had my final, a 15-boys Medal Flight, and my first final center in the seven years I've worked the tournament. But all around me, there were more adults behaving badly - one very experienced State Referee was about to toss a coach, who didn't have an assistant, unless he shaped up (I can only imagine he did, although at least one player was handed a red - she said the biggest problem is that they knew there were no consequences beyond this game for cards - their states wouldn't suspend players sent-off in the tournament. On another field, a coach was tossed, then tried coming back to the field, and the referees had called for security.

On my field, a Columbian coach (one I had worked with before, on a game he lost) went as far as screaming national insults: "This is how you call it in this county, huh?" Was it any surprise that his players behaved badly after the game was over? One, in the sports hall, did the dissing handshake (offer to shake your hand and then pull it away) to me. You can't blame me for a 6-2 loss my friend. But I can blame the adults in this tournament: your children are learning from your examples.

I'm becoming more inclined that referees in this country needs to start banding together, not to complete with or challenge the USSF, but to deal with what we deal with on the field. I know of several referees that refuse to work certain high schools. If we could actually have an honest-to-goodness referee association (and I know several regions have them in the US, mine unfortunately, does not), we could start black-listing clubs that treat us badly, saving them from abusing new referees and making the situation worse for everyone else (including other clubs).

The more I think about the behavior in the youth game, be it USSF, High School, or this tournament, the more I want to back away from the youth game. I think my plan is to seriously ratchet down the number of youth games I do, partially because I need more adult games if I want to upgrade again, but there's also a bit that's sick of dealing with the abusive nature that comes with these ignorant cretins.

24 July '06 - 08:41 - - default| - § ¶

USA Cup 2006 Diary, Day Eight: I didn't have to mock him

I don't envy the people in referee headquarters; apparently a number of referees didn't show up today, making their jobs pretty hellish. There were white spaces all over the assignment board, and all-calls going over the radios asking for any free referee to pick up games.

Despite being playoffs, my first (a center) and last games (a line) were uneventful, but one in the middle had some issues. It was a 14 boys game, and one of the referees looked like a kid who was younger and screamed meek. I hate to admit it, but when I saw him, the first thing that popped into my head was a life-size fraggle.

He was also a new referee, so his signals weren't crisp; wasn't in the best position; and apparently his bag has just been removed, we didn't know if by accident or not, from the tent with all his belongings, so his mind may not have been totally on the game, either. On the first half, I did what I could to encourage confidence in both him, and in my public show of confidence. But in the second half, when the bulk of play shifted to his end, it just wasn't enough.

I've said many times that a referee cannot practice, but only learn from experience; and once the pressure came on him, he worked his butt off. This is not to say that he improved dramatically, but that he gave a damn and all things considered, did a damn good job. Maybe he shouldn't have done a trophy-flight line, but considering a great many games were going club lines, it probably was a good experience for him. After the game, when an irate parent came in screaming about the officiating (quite literally), and the rest of the referees in the tent started mocking him (especially when he said he was, "An advanced referee" - of which we can all say "bullshit!", knowing that any "advanced" referee would be able to identify a green ref, and be more interested in helping the kid rather than scream about his spawn's 4-1 loss). I started to tell him to take it to headquarters, because I didn't want a scene to erupt, but then the rest of the refs took over - I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing for the kid, but I did talk to him after the game, offered some encouraging words and some suggestions, and suggested a two places to check for his bag.

I can't help but wonder why there were so many no-shows. Presumably most, if not all of them, had done games earlier in the week, so they would know the general area for picking up and turning down games; maybe some were hurt and couldn't do more games and forgot to tell HQ. But I wonder how many came across one of those evil little shrews of a man after doing 3-5 games in the heat, and decided that it just wasn't worth it. I wonder what that kid is feeling after that jerk's outburst.

But the good news is that he found his bag - an identical bag was accidently taken in the rush from field-to-field, and was returned to him about an hour later.

23 July '06 - 06:13 - - default| - § ¶

USA Cup 2006 Diary, Day Seven: Some inherent injustice

Apparently I miffed two coaches today. The first was my scheduled center, between a team from Minnesota, and one from Columbia. There was only one call that the coach from Columbia wanted, a penalty kick in the first half, and I wouldn't acquiesce. There was contact, but was there enough for a foul? Boy, it would have been a weak penalty kick call. There was an assessor there who saw it, and asked what I saw, and she and I agreed that there was contact, but it would have been a very weak penalty call. She did say that I did a very good job selling the call - I was very loud and everyone knew I had seen the event and made a definitive decision, instead of appearing that it was a missed call. It's a tough one - because I could have called the PK, too - it really does come down to, how much is enough for a foul? And when the stakes are an 80% chance of a goal, everyone wants something - no double I would have pissed off the other coach if I called it.

It's why we don't pay attention.

I was moved into the center of my second game, when the scheduled center came in with a hurt knee. She ran the line (and later bowed out of her remaining games for the day) after removing herself from the middle. It involved the Minnesota team from yesterday (the one who played against Costa Rica). I made the senior AR (the original center decided to go to junior, in case she had issues running, it wouldn't be as obvious) aware that I didn't want any of the crap he pulled yesterday. I thought I heard him complaining at some point, something obnoxious like, "Do you think it's illegal? I think it's illegal", but unlike yesterday, he was going for subtle idiocy, versus booming absurdity.

There's something inherently unjust about the relationship between coach and referee, especially when it comes to the kids' game. The coach can spout off at length about how the referee is an idiot, when in fact the coach is wrong and has probably never read the rules of the particular sport he's participating in. What's worse, in a society that praises coaches week after week, we take their word as divine law and never even bother to examine if their correct (even though there were no coaches on ABC/ESPN's soccer coverage, I think the same thing applies) - and they're just recreating the same issues and same ignorance within their own players and fans.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Coaches only have themselves to blame if they don't like the referee pool they have, and the referee shortage.

But in this case, I didn't piss him off - it was the coach on the opposite end. And it was because I added stoppage time. His team was up 1-0, scoring in the second half, and issued two cards. Fifty seconds into stoppage, the other team scored and we were tied, and apparently the coach is going off to my AR that we should have stopped it right at 35 minutes (USA Cup games are slightly shorter than regular games - at this age, halves would normally be 40 minutes). Ummmm.... no.

This stuff is stupid. Of course I'm going to add stoppage; the only time I'm not going to is if the game's so far gone that stoppage will only add insult to injury. At least he didn't flip out like over the weekend, complete with police intervention.

22 July '06 - 07:18 - - default| - § ¶

USA Cup 2006 Diary, Day Six: Obnoxious coach, almost like a normal day

I opened the day with a line between a team from Minnesota, and another from Costa Rica (either I'm the man for Costa Rican teams, or there's a bunch of them this year); the game itself was pretty tame, except for one coach who took obnoxiousness to another level - he started berating players from the other team when they were hurt. I would have said something right then-and-there, but I wasn't the center, and he was loud enough that I know the center heard, and in light of previous incidents. I really wanted to point out that while he was calling the other team fragile, his players were subbing in-and-out throughout the game, and the Costa Rican team played like they had limited subs - when a player was out, he was out. Who's the wuss?

My center turned out to be a one-half affair - a Canadian U15 girls team versus a similar side from Minnesota. Not as farce as yesterday, but a dominating performance nonetheless. I missed several offside flags - the AR said he brought his up late, but I should have caught them anyway. I'll blame the heat.

21 July '06 - 07:20 - - default| - § ¶

USA Cup 2006 Diary, Day Five: a farce of a game

I had one team checked in when the black flag was raised, signaling that all games were suspended because of an incoming storm, which turned into a doozy. Two-and-a-half hours later we started again, and had a very fun game (U11) between a Mexican team and a local Minnesota side. The Minnesota side played with their opponents from south of the border for the first half, even having the lead twice, but couldn't keep up in the second, allowing three goals in quick succession. They were helped my another PK call by me (they wanted two more, but one happened outside the area - sending a player in, but the foul itself was outside, and another was a handball call where a kid brought his arms in to protect his groin).

I then filled in on a line because the scheduled AR was en-route... but he never showed. Which means my second send was my third game in a row, and it turned into a farce of a game. Apparently, according to one coach, a first division team versus a fourth. The game ended 13-0, but it easily could have been twenty.

My final game had the shortest red card I've been involved in: 90 seconds and one red for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity game out. Despite that, everyone took it very very well. The player, his team, his coach. Not the most polity send-off I've seen, but definitely in the top five; and as flip as that sounds, that does mean something, we do appreciate it when people take their punishment like civilized human beings, because it's so rare. It says a lot about your character.

Need some sleep.

20 July '06 - 06:13 - - default| - § ¶

USA Cup 2006 Diary, Day Two: A cop already?

I had two games, pretty widely spaced out. One in the first slot of the day, the second in the second-to-last slot. Fortunately, the only excitement I had on my field had to do with the game, but after I had to run and perform bodyguard duty again.

But first my game: in a word, marvelous. A team from Canada and another from Costa Rica, and despite being U12s on a smaller field (played eight vs. eight), it was one the best games in terms of individual skill I've seen this year. Bicycle kicks and diving headers abounded; and I mean classic, beautifully executed diving headers from at all points on the field. Just a wonderful, wonderful game... and I had to spoil it with a penalty kick. Actually no, there really was no complaining about the PK call. The Costa Rican goalkeeper, who came into the game at the start of the second half, overcommitted while going for a loose ball, and ended up taking out the oncoming striker - really hard. The striker spent the rest of the game with an ice bag on his face.

The really nice thing about the PK call had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with the actual foul. It had to do with the context of the game that we had up until then: both teams just tearing out at each other full tilt. There were no cynical fouls (and you do see them at that age), just beautiful play, and what happens when players collide at top speed; in another word, POW! So the Canadian coach wasn't angry about his player getting hurt, the Costa Rican coach wasn't angry about the PK call; the former saw it in the natural context of what happens when a goalkeeper does what a goalkeeper does (and he must know something about aggressive goalkeepers, his took the penalty kick!), and the later saw the obvious foul. Both coaches after the game seemed happy (although I know the Costa Rican team would rather have won) with the 1-0 result.

Contract that with a game adjacent with mine. They got started later than we did, and I noticed the center referee having problems with another coach as I walked past that field at half-time. Following my game, I went back to the field manager's/referee's tent to get the home team coach to sign off on the result, and upon my turning around, signed card in hand, saw that same problem game end, and the coach taking off after the referees. Like last year, I bolt off to make sure the coaches and referees are separated, which includes a very young assistant with a Linesman's badge (aka, the "Blue Badge"); he looks like he's thirteen, although I didn't ask. The field manager calls security, which in turn call in the Police. According to the center referee, and the field manager, one team was diving like mad (they were Brazilian), which the referee wasn't falling for, and then the coaches (in addition to whatever else was going on) had a fit because the center didn't add enough stoppage time for their liking. According to both, he also spoke perfect english, until the authorities came in, and suddenly he couldn't speak a word.

Personally, I don't really care - I didn't see it, I don't know what happened; but I do know that coaches should not be doing this on a U11 or U12 game (which it was). One of the ARs, an adult, said it was the first time he every felt really scared about being attacked - god knows what happened to the little kid. I think we can probably thank another coach for killing off another potential referee - nothing that goes on in a game is worth that.

After a long break, I had a line for a U12 girls final... and well, a 0-0 score after regulation and extra time was a fair result. One team had far more shots, but neither goalkeeper had a save. As we went to kicks from the mark, one team's players missed their first two shots, and both came back to the center circle (where I was) in tears. Queue the ABC Sports announcer about the joy of victory and the agony of defeat, because both were quite visible by the time kicks were done.

I've got a couple days before anything happens again. There's nothing on Monday, and Tuesday is opening ceremonies. I'll be able to enjoy a couple days without work, even if there's no soccer.

19 July '06 - 06:45 - - default| - § ¶

2006 USA Cup Diary, Day One: Like you thought it wouldn't be hot

I did my usual trip into Blaine, missing the first day of the USA Cup Weekend, and coming in for games on Saturday (it saves me an extra day off work), and true to form, it's the hottest week of the year in Minnesota. According to the news, it's also going to be the hottest in ten years. Fortunately, my other annual tactic is to put my availability in the mornings, so I can do a couple of games, and then, body willing, do more. And it's early, it's hot, and two is just fine for me, thanks.

Something I didn't have last year: teams from other states and countries. I opened with a line on a 17-boys game. Nothing terribly special. The center wanted subs to be very strict, so it took quite a while to get them used to staying in touch before the person they were replacing left the field. Who am I kidding? They never got used to it. One of the coaches was good natured about it, the other was good natured until his team fell behind, and suddenly he wanted additional stoppage because we were doing subs by the book. Ummm.... no.

The center was a U13 between a team from Canada, and one from Brazil. Neither team struck me as terribly skilled (and how often do you say that when referring to anything that contains "Brazil" and "Soccer"? But the Canadian team was much bigger in size and aggressiveness. The first half was actually rather difficult for me to reconcile the two - the Brazilian team had a guest goalkeeper who was from a local club, and was a bit mouthy about players getting at him, but honestly I didn't see anything two players, one being the goalkeeper, playing aggressively on 50-50 balls; and I will let those go. The other issue I had was the language barrier - I'm really used to talking to players, especially to boys, when centering a game. And the Brazilian team were using their hands quite a bit to grab onto jerseys (the Canadian team were, for the most part, able to play right thought them, but it does get annoying and it was something I tried to stop). It's rather difficult to warn a player off for something that's trifling, but bordering on not-so-trifling, when all you have is hand gestures.

18 July '06 - 22:28 - - default| - § ¶

Sigh... more good news

The good part about my job is that, because I'm going from place-to-place, I'm usually done between 3 and 4pm. After 3pm, traffic levels pretty much deny me going to any other business, which means I can still arrive with plenty of time for even a 5:30 game start time. Unfortuantely, high schools like to start their first games at 5pm, which in my opinion is pretty unreasonable, and just not workable in my job (I would say not workable in most jobs, in fact) - because if a problem does arrive at a client site, I can't leave mid-job. But that's another rant for another time (the short of it is, I will be doing some high school games, but probably only on the weekends).

The other thing is that my job holds it's company meetings after-hours. Usually every-other-week, sometimes not even that, starting at 5pm. So when I accepted a game for a 7:15 start time, it really wasn't a problem, because I'd bring my ref gear, go to the meeting, then go to the field once I'd finished. But now three days before the meeting, the game time has shifted to 5:30, and I can't (and shouldn't) get out of that meeting.

It sucks, because I was looking forward to it, an 18-boys top-division match (there are only a handful of these about) my myself in the middle. It would have been a very good game, and now I have to bow out of it. But that's what happens when things change last minute.

15 July '06 - 05:56 - - default| - § ¶

Two games, all canceled

I feel for the other two guys: one was getting assessed for an upgrade to seven, the other had a team not show up for his last game. And today, we get one team without passes, and the next game is canceled without any of us knowing.

What a waste of a night.

11 July '06 - 22:58 - - default| - § ¶

Nothing special center

I had a first division women's center, and... it went pretty good. I felt good about my running (there was a portion at the start of the second half that was really slow, and I found it had to ramp myself back up, but once I did, I was fine again), the game was in control and still competitive, no real issues. I should have carded a player in the finals minutes for a blatant shirt pull, but ended up withholding it because it was deep her own attacking end (so the player with the ball had a good 90 yards to the other end), there was little chance of anything coming from it, and because the game had gone really well until that point.

In retrospect, none of which were really good reasons.

The restart for the foul was taken well, sent to a speedy player who took off down the left side, and was taken out before she could turn inward, which did provoke a card out of me. I don't know if carding the first incident would have prevented the second; my gut says no because the former was a player making up for getting burned, and the second was tactical, and the tactical situation wouldn't have changed if I issued the card or not, but I'll never know. I also wonder, if I issued the card on the former issue, if I would have issued it for the second, being two cards in less than ten seconds of playing time.

Good question, I don't have an answer. The card for the second was just as much for the team not toning things down like I asked for after the first foul (the, "if you do something like this again..." inference) as the foul itself. Makes you think...

10 July '06 - 15:10 - - default| - § ¶

"I felt like I was babying them"

I don't usually write a whole lot about my time running lines, unless something nasty occurs. Mostly because there's just not a whole lot to write about. You run up the line, you run down the line, you call the occasional foul or signal offside, but don't do all of the man management or position work that you do in the middle.

That was pretty much the case today, but the center just finished a week at Regionals, where apparently he really proved himself. He wasn't sure if he belonged before he went (my answer, "Go there, young man. You deserve to be there!"), and came back with three centers, which is huge (at least by everything I've heard) for a first year there. The downside is, after a week of top-notch games, coming in and centering a second-division U18 boys game where the play is sloppy, the teams undisciplined, and the coaches overly pompous, is a bit of a downer. It's also a major change in style, because the teams don't want you to call the games like you did at Regionals.

In the second half, he made some adjustments, because one team was getting very frustrated at not getting calls (naturally, they were also playing dirty). The game was already a blowout, so he started calling some ticky-tacky stuff. It didn't affect the game (maybe kept it from going double-digits, but I doubt it), it kept everyone on the field, and kept some tempers in check.

"I felt like I was babying them... The guys at Regionals would laugh at the calls at the calls I'm making."

I agreed, BUT let him know that this was a different type of game. We both lamented the lack of first division teams (there are only a handful of top-level youth clubs, the fact that I had four with another coming up, outside of the State Cup, is a lot), but I tried to get him to think about the game the same way I think about doing co-ed indoor soccer during the winter: yes, the level of play sucks in comparison, but it's still man-management training. Teams can blow up at any level, and managing players is just as much part of our job as calling fouls.

But this kid is going places. If he has the type of performance at next year's Regionals (and boy is he jazzed about it), he could be looking at Nationals as well. Good for him!

Oh yeah, I had a center, too. Two U18 girls teams from the same club. No issues.

09 July '06 - 09:45 - - default| - § ¶

"Tell me about it, last week I had a player taken off in an ambulance."

I centered a first division women's game which was pretty uneventful; it was a bit odd, because both teams played aggressive like college players do, but neither team had a lot of skill - add to that a blowout by a team who was playing short and well... the most interesting thing was the referee pre-game.

So as the other referees showed up (I was late by my standards, two players actually beat me to the field), I started going through my pre-game, and one of the referees said he looked up the teams we had in the standings - both were dead last. One had let in over 50 goals, the other had only scored one. My opinion on these type of games is to be prepared - I've seen these type of games go three ways: everyone just has fun and things get silly, the game is very boring and little is done on the field, or both teams come in hyped for "this one winnable game" and sparks ensue. As I finish my entreatment to keep my ARs interested on our field, rather than the youth game next to us (which already has several people yelling at the ref), one of the referees pipes in, "Tell me about it, last week I had a player taken off in an ambulance."

"Was it [my wife's team name]?"

"Yeah, how do you know?"

"That was my wife."

It took a couple seconds for a response to come up (I doubt it something that you would expect in a referee crew), and we talked about the game for a while. When he talked about the injury, I let him know that my wife takes responsibility for the injury, because she went in hard and caused the knock-down (playing five years in co-ed with overly-aggressive men can do that to you). He was a really nice guy, and I think he did a good job (actually, so did my wife's teammates when we talked about it last week at the hospital). He said he wrote up the injury, and the end of the game (my wife's team walked off the field after she got hurt), and pointed out something interesting, which I've gone and confirmed for myself: the league website has yet to enter a score for the game, or any other comment, nor has an entry been made into the standings - all the other teams have one more game listed than they do.

My wife says they received a letter from the commissioner saying that they're not the only ones who have complained about their opponents from last week. I wonder how this'll turn out.

08 July '06 - 13:17 - - default| - § ¶

I thought the game might get boring

Twenty minutes in the game, I was thinking to myself, "This is a second-division match"? I had an 18-girls game where supposedly both teams had a tendency to come out hard, but with the exception of a few careless challenges to the back (nothing malicious, but nothing I want to see, either), the game seemed rather tame. In fact, it looked like the home side might be passing the ball amongst themselves for 45 minutes. Fortunately, things picked up and it turned into a real game.

A couple cards were issued, one for an elbow that got into someone's neck - not malicious, but also not necessary, and in my humble opinion, a card needed to come out right away, which it did. The second card came from my trail AR, who was (and praise your favorite deity for this, because it almost never happens) watching behind my back, and saw another arm fly, this time connecting with a windpipe. He signaled for a card, and I was happy to oblige without seeing the incident.

The most interesting thing about the game came in the last ten minutes, and it's not an incident, it's tactics. The visiting team is trying to feed long balls to a striker who looks like she can beat her defenders, even from well behind the second-to-last-defender; the home team coach is telling his players to sit on the ball and kill time, which they don't, providing plenty of opportunities for the visiting team to counter-attack (myself, I would have told to them to play it to the corner, but then again, I'm not a coach). I add two minutes of stoppage time (lights are a wonderful thing for playing games to their proper lengths), and two minutes in, the visiting team connects - a long ball is played and the striker streaks past her marker; I look at my AR, who's running down the touch in parallel with the ball, so no offside; the keeper sprints out to charge the striker, but overcommits, and the striker jukes inside and is almost able to score with ease. Just as the striker was about to touch the ball in from six yards out, a defender charges into her, but to no avail as the ball still dribbles into the net. Good thing for her, too - as it wasn't a fair charge, and I would have gone red if she really had denied the opportunity.

I turn to look at my watch, which is counting up from zero: 46 minutes, 58 seconds. Talk about timing.

07 July '06 - 12:28 - - default| - § ¶

You know it's windy when...

... the birds start tacking to try to get up-wind, then finally give up. I had a men's second division line, with one team I had centered this year, and one last year. The one on the later tended to get frustrated with themselves as well as with the referee when things turned against them. Almost like clockwork, when a goal is scored, the swear words start flying.

I had worked with the referee once before, in the semi-pro game a week or so ago, and the game was fine. He's a very quiet referee, but it seems to work for him, which is odd because he's also about my height. But another referee who's a former muckety-muck (and maybe still is, unofficially, I don't know), thought that between him, the State Emeritus and myself that we had overkill on the game. So maybe he's well known in the league - considering I'm still meeting up with new teams on a regular basis, I can't say. But aside from the same type of appeals for calls I had when I centered them, it didn't work in his disfavor - and you can't argue with that.

06 July '06 - 22:50 - - default| - § ¶

Quick game where I hoped for issues

I had an open day, really didn't feel like street-running, so offered to take a game at an unaffiliated league (the same one I take in the winter). I hoped, given that I'd had many cardless games of late, that I'd get something that would challenge me; and co-ed rec soccer is the best place I can think of for teams with no self-control.

I even had a team that had a penchant for blowing up, giving me the possibility of attempting to balance between 11 and 22 plates. But alas, they were on good behavior, so I just got my running in after all. They picked up a lead early, then lost it to tie, with only a few seconds left before I blew my whistle.

It beats street running.

02 July '06 - 16:39 - - default| - § ¶

Quick switch

As you might have noticed, there was a double days of downtime for the site last week - it coincided with internet downtime for myself personally, and caused a few headaches. Mostly, it was because my morning routine involves getting directions to wherever I'm going, but I couldn't - so after going to the library (which in itself was a pain, because you could only have one web-browser open, copy and paste were disabled, and you couldn't have other apps (like notepad) open, which meant having to try to memorize the address of the place you were going to, when trying to run it through mapquest.
I'm all for security lockdowns, and I don't think it would have been a problem if I could have more than one browser window open - I can't see that as being terribly helpful for research. If they really wanted to beef up security, they should restrict IE and use Firefox instead.

After all that, I get a call 30 minutes before I leave, that my game had been canceled because one team didn't have enough players, but that I was going to be reassigned to another field (from an 18 girls second-division, to 15-boys third) where I would also center. After getting more directions for this (verbally, with my writing it down on my internet deprived, but otherwise functional computer), I trundled off.

The field was nice - very wide; I imagine the girls teams would enjoy it. But much of the game was boom-ball, although I was pretty happy with my running and positioning. I was definitely going slower than I had the previous day, on the artificial turf - when the grass rises above your feet, it tends to grab at you more - but then again, so was the speed of play. No serious issues, there was one really bad collision that I didn't have a good angle on (quick change-of-direction, followed by a boom to a corner), because I was too far behind for the counter attack, and didn't get close enough for when the collision occurred. The AR, who was in great position, only a few feet from the collision, said that it sounded awful, but it was clean, and just 15-year-old-boys crashing into each other without abandon. A coach went nuts - but he was further away than I was, and the ARs, although young, proved themselves very competent.

I think I found out why I seem to have more issues with coaches when I'm an AR than when I'm the center: one, I can kick them out if they've gone too far and not have to rely on the generosity of others (there's one incident I'm thinking of from last year that's sticking in my craw); and two, when I'm the center, I can escape. There's lots of places to be in good position that involves being away from an obnoxious idjit, and if I'm stuck on the line, and the coach is behind me, I have to stay in the correct position while the coach makes things personal.

01 July '06 - 10:50 - - default| - § ¶