RefBlog

"You gotta play smart"

Scheduling was a bit odd today - both myself and another referee thought we had the center for the first game. I didn't bring my schedule with me, so we could compare and see who had the newer listing, but we came to what was probably a more appropriate arrangement anyway. I already had the U18-girls team earlier (and sent one of them off), and he had the U16-boys team the day before - so we swapped middles.

Fortunately for me, the boys were up first (this is who I thought I had anyway), since I hate doing a center on the back end of a double-header. Both teams played high-up club teams, and ended up dominating possession during the game, if not the scoreboard. But I don't think it matters how well coached, or how well disciplined they try to make a team, they're still 15 and 16 year olds, and anything can happen.

The home team fell behind 2-0 and the aggressive compensation started coming out, and I ended up issuing a couple of yellow cards in the first half; one was for retaliation that was out-of-proportion to the challenge. The other card was a grab from behind to stop a run at goal that I played the advantage on, and announced, loudly, that he'd get a booking as soon as the play ended. The first card had a little guff from the coach (who knows me), because it was right in front of him; the second had no arguments at all.

In the second half, the home team made up a goal and everything was notched up something fierce. Despite my off-season conditioning and running (which I'm doing better than I ever have before, although how that'll translate to my physical is up in the air), I still ended up having some issues keeping up with play - I managed it, but I would have liked to have been not quite so winded. I had another booking in the second half, and two cases where I put my hand in my pocket, but didn't pull out the card, and instead opted to have a quick talk; first for the visiting team, and next for the home - which was the player I booked in the first half. The home player got the, "You are this close" speech (because I could have easily booked him again), followed by, "you gotta play smart for the next twenty", and he did. I think he only fouled twice in the game, and I banked on him keeping in mind that I would send him on his next foul (there seems to be a thing where referees won't issue a second caution on persistent infringement - I may not be the best at identifying P.I., and according to the USSF we all need to work on that, but I have no problem with pulling the trigger for PI on a second caution). The good news is it worked, and we had a good finish.

The next game I was on the line, and I ended up having two more goal-line calls, like in yesterday's adventure with the boys team. This time, one went in, and one didn't. Because of the distances, I wasn't in the absolute best position to make the calls (but we have to, anyway) - about a step, step-and-a-half out from the goal line, but waited until I hit the line before doing it. Still, I'm happy with the calls and my positioning (until we have goal-judges, an AR is just not always able to make it to the goal-line for these calls, and we'll all just have to live with it).

Interesting thing is that my next game, which I think is a solo, is going to be the senior boys team versus the semi-pro team I had a line for last year. The semi-pro team killed me last year, although it was nearly 100 degrees, humid, and on an artificial surface. We'll still have the artificial surface, but even with a heated dome, it'll be 50 degrees at best inside. We'll have to see how it goes, and how I handle it. Apparently the boys team played a bunch of retired professionals last week, who came in playing hard (in the words of the guy who was also on the game, it was to show that "Soccer is a game for men"). I'll try to stick to my game, but I wonder how it'll play out, since I don't have the experience of working with that level of physical play.

27 February '08 - 18:01 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

10 Best of 2007: Small-time leagues, big-time dangers

There won't be a whole lot of introductory commentary before I display the penultimate entry from last year's "10 Best" series. An ongoing theme I've had over the years is dealing with stress: not just stress in the game (because that's mostly a stress reliever!), but all the crap that comes, but shouldn't, when you carry the whistle or flag: the verbal abuse, the threats of physical abuse, and the changes you have to make to your life because you decide to keep with it.

I love this job, but do I want my kid to do this? If Garrison Keillor calls youth American Football "legalized [physical] child abuse", then is letting your kid referee legalized mental abuse?

Small-time leagues, big-time dangers
I've had an on-again off-again relationship with Referee magazine (it's on-again now after a player broke his leg after a nasty tackle a couple of years ago). Don't get me wrong, the content is always good; but it definitely has a NFHS bent to it - something which I also have an on-again off-again relationship with. It's a fantastic magazine for current events about referees, but when it comes to learning or reinforcing good techniques, it's a smidge basic. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that - basics need to be reinforced, but I have a stack of books that cover much of the same thing.

In any event, there were two articles I found interesting - and only one was specifically about high school soccer. The first was "So you think you're ready for the big game?" All of us would like to think we can do higher level games than we are - maybe we choose not to, maybe we can't for one reason or another, maybe we're not as good as we think. But the piece was a good article about what separates those who do the big games from the rest of us: commitment, living out of a suitcase, etc. etc. Good stuff, especially because officials don't live the life of even the lowest-paid player (I've seen the locker room for one stadium's NFL officials; they're in poorer quality than team lockers for some high schools - which is still better than most soccer referees ever see).

The only thing that really caught my attention to the article was at the beginning, where they listed the possible consequences: vandalism, death threats, changed lifestyles - all because of a call the big time officials made... except it's not. All too often we get those same problems in the trenches of community leagues. How difficult is it to find the name of an official then look it up in the phone book? How about when you see the referee later? When I had to quit playing soccer because of threats of bodily injury, I had people write back that they had to make the same decision: to run the risk of someone taking it out on you because you reffed them in the past and they took umbrage at a call, no matter how righteous it was. And what about if you quit reffing to just play - it doesn't matter, if they remember you, they can come after you.

I read the article about a week after a very disturbing email on the SocRef listserv. As you read the email, you'll see there are plenty of people to blame: the coach for causing yet another new referee to quit, the assignor for giving an too tough of an assignment to a rookie official, and the parent for going along with it (and some "questionable" behavior during the incident). But there's still only one person handing out the verbal abuse, and that's the coach - and given the age it can have far more consequences than someone spray-painting your garage in protest (more)

24 February '08 - 11:27 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

I should have had shinguards

Sometimes when you're an AR, you're just going to get hit. If you're lucky, like I was a few years ago in a high school game, it's because a player decides to clear the ball out-of-play and you don't have time to react. Today, not so lucky - but fortunately all I got were some nasty scrapes.

I'll discontinue the "still at the boarding school" routine - that's really the only place I'll be doing games until the outdoor season starts properly. The only other indoor I'd do in the annual futsal tournament, but it's going on the same day as the games today, and I already accepted these a while back - not to mention that if I'd have a choice, I'd still take these games, because of the length, dimensions and skill level.

Two lines today - no centers eeking out of them this time, but the first was a great game. Not much to say about the second game (U16 girls that was both a blowout and uneventful), so I'll stick to the first. Apparently on a blog about soccer in this state, this boarding school has quite the list of enemies - not sure why, and frankly, don't care - but there are a lot of people who don't like them - but the quality of the soccer is top notch (there's definitely one player in the youth national team program). In this case, they were playing the team that perennially wins the State Cup (the school cannot participate by some rule somewhere that the other blog would know about), and the competition was fast and physical. The center referee, itching to become a National Candidate, let them play physical, with the philosophy that the level they want to play at allows it, and they can play at that level, so it will be allowed - and there were no real complaints about that either - it was very appropriate for the level of play.

The club team scored mid-way through the first half, off a defensive mistake that was compounded by the goalkeeper, who overran a ball at the top of the area, and the attacker was able to soft-touch it in for an easy goal. Even though it's technically a scrimmage, nobody wanted to give anything up, and the goalkeeper made an effort to grab the attacker to keep him from going onward - it didn't stop the goal, and I knew the center saw it - so we let it be. The score was tied up maybe fifteen minutes later on a nice series of passes in the opposite penalty area, followed by a close-range shot the keeper really didn't have a chance on.

Second half I had the club team's end, and I had a lot of action, both in the game and physically. As the half moved on, the tempo kept increasing, as did the physical nature; grabbing became an increasing problem, and one player nearly yanked the shirt off another going down the line toward me and as I flagged for a foul, the grab-ee turned to break loose, causing both to go crashing into me, sending all three of us flying in different directions onto the turf. During the tumble I ended up getting cleats raked across both of my shins well enough that they scabbed up, although there's no permanent damage. It may have turned out for the best, because the grab-ee was so pissed, I could see a good shove, or possibly more, coming out of it, and after the collision, they were far enough away that it was easy to talk down.

The other big moment, with less than a minute left, was a scrum in the penalty area, where the ball slipped loose for a shot that hit the top of the penalty area, and almost made it all the way in. I was both really happy, and really fortunate that I was able to be in perfect position to see it, and see that only 3/4 of the ball crossed the line - because several players were already celebrating. It's one of the reasons that, even if you're not in great position, you continue to go to the goal line to sell it - it really adds to the credibility of your call.

It's too bad I did this chronologically - I think the collision would be a better bit to end on, but what the heck, I have two more games tomorrow.

06 February '08 - 08:48 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

No home team

More from the boarding school - they're having a small, four-team tournament for their girls (U17 or U18 - not sure which). One of the teams is the school itself, another is a high-powered club from inside the state, and two from outside (one isn't even a neighboring state). And just like the other games I've had there, they're good, high-quality matches... and this time with a full crew of officials!

A couple of the games I had club lines (and being that they're not USSF games, if they both wanted to call offside, and did it well, I'd let them), but this was the real deal - complete with a couple guys I've got to Regionals with. Niiiiice! I even got a center, which I wasn't scheduled for - the assignor had a game prior to the two I was in, so I got his normal center, so all three of us got a middle. My game wasn't too shabby, either - I'd say a high-level State Cup or even regional-level match; the assignor was taken aback by one of the teams, who he thought would get blown away, but really took it up, especially in the second half, and beat their opponents handily. It was a hard fought, but also very clean game. I did run into one thing which I hate to call, but with a little help from my AR, I did the right thing and did called it: player driving in the penalty area, tripped up and loses her chance at a shot (her team is down 4-1 at this point to) - but is it an honest-to-god trip, or did the defender get too close to the player behind, and inadvertently cause the player to trip up? It's a weak PK, to be sure, but given the high skill level, could you not argue that the defender should be aware of the attacker's legs. I hate calling it, because it seems so week, but I think it would be even weaker to not call it. Now, stick it on a lower-level match, and the call becomes even harder. Ick.

The second game, where I was on the line, didn't have any grey areas, just a lot of running (I hadn't done a line in months, let alone a real double-header), and by the time I was done, I had more dried salt on my face than McDonald's fries. I was amazingly sore, but it was good to have such good games with such a good crew.

02 February '08 - 15:45 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶