Opps, I guess he didn't call a foul.
Three interesting games, all for different reasons - but it started badly, well before I got to the field. Owing to the joys of homeownership, I found a broken seal on a pipe, and while turning off the water, slipped a banged the bottom of my foot, on the outside edge, leaving a nice bruise. Running wasn't impossible, but wasn't particularly pleasant, either (although better than walking); since it was too late to call in a sub (and I didn't think I'd need it on the small fields), off I went.The first game ended in a rare 1-1 tie, and the game was well controlled with one controversial call. The team that wanted the call (which I didn't give) sent a player to ask me about it, and was satisfied with my explanation... well, satisfied that I called it to my own interpretation - it was one of the more pleasant discussions I've had about a disputed call.
The call was the old rec chestnut about slide tackles. In the league we let people slide, but not slide tackle, with an extension that sliding into someone, even if you don't make contact with your opponent, is a foul. I phrase that last sentence carefully, because you can't foul your own teammate, so when a player, who was a couple feet ahead of his opponents on a chase for the ball, slid to kick it away, I immediately thought "no foul", despite his sliding into his own goalkeeper. The funny bit, was, after the ball went out of play (pretty quickly, although from another teammate, not from the slide itself), the slider started arguing about how this was not a foul, and I shouldn't call a foul, and something or other.
"Hey, hey, hey," arms up, trying to calm him down, "did I call a foul?"
He stops and looks at me quizzically, it's clear he expected me to make that call (other refs in that league surely would have), but it hit him that I never blew the whistle. "No?" I grin, because hit also hits him that he didn't need to argue - I agreed with him. Sheepishly, "Don't mind me, I'm just talking to myself."
As I said, the other team did argue, but I don't begrudge them the argument over slides - the problem is that the refs in this league call them all over the place, and although I'm pretty sure I'm at one extreme on the scale over it, I think I have more of a tendency to read the house-rules, which says it's not no slides, no way, but rather at the discretion of the referee (meaning slides are OK as long as you're not going to whack someone... er, opponent).
The second game looked to be the hardest of the night, and it many ways it was. It was my wife's old team (technically, she's still on it, but she would rather switch to a more female-friendly team), and another team that... well, isn't mean or dirty, but tends to get people all pissed off. Well, it started badly - before I even flipped the coin - I had the one team, in white, two weeks ago had an issue with a non-call I made. He's this really big Romanian (who apparently now coaches... goodie) that has a tendency to use his bulk (he's not fat - not bulked up - just stereotypically Eastern European) to press himself around, so when he got knocked over by some light contact the last time I had them, I just didn't buy it. "You know me better than that, you know me better than that," and the answer is yes, I know you, from watching you enough, to know you would not go down that pretty from that contact. Well, two weeks later, he's still bitching about it; he comes into the captains' conference, bitches, then displaces the normal captain so he could complain some more. I have to be diplomatic, and appear to be above all this, "This is a different game, with a clean slate; you've got it, why don't you give it to me? I have to make my calls and stick with them, right or wrong - but bringing in a call you disagreed with two weeks ago will not help anyone." I decided to run a very short captains meeting (I've been asking the captains lately if there was anything they wanted clarified or wanted to know how I interpreted things - strangely enough, I didn't do that this time!), and got the game going.
The thing is, I know that team likes me (and not just because my wife is on it). Because I know their style of play, I know where they're likely to be fouled, and who is likely to be fouled - but I also know who and where on their team as well! And I had a couple chances early on to prove that on both counts - one was when a white player was shielding a ball that was going to leave play, and his opponent was none to happy about it. He tried to say that he had to be playing the ball to be able to shield it, and because he never touched it, he wasn't playing it (Bullshit! Bullshit!). When he wouldn't accept that anyone in playing distance could legally shield it, I punted: "That's how I'm calling it, live by it." So I protected yellow.
I also yelled at white several times early on about hands and grabbing defensively - not calling anything, but being very loud and getting their attention. So when the third time came, when they were on offense, looking to get a one-on-one with the keeper, I called it shortly after the hand went up, above, and around the defenders shoulder, then came down in-front. No complaints on that call, either - they had been warned, and I showed that I would foul them, too.
The game was tight; scoreless in the first half, then white fell down 2-0, and as they came back to tie, you could feel the momentum shift. White played a good game, and as they took the lead, tensions rose, and I expected the worst (specifically, I expected a sloppy foul against white followed by over-the-top retaliation), but somehow we made it through the game unscathed. I fully expect to have that same player complain the next time I have them, too.
The final game had the two worst teams in the league, except one picked up a ringer, and ended up kicking the other team's butt. I could see the look of, "Just shoot me" in one of the players when they went up 6-0. By this time, my foot was complaining mightily, as I still ran hard in the first two games, and the game got a bit chippy in the second half, mostly by the ringer and the only player on the other side who could keep up. That's the problem with leagues with no passes (and this one pretty much encourages "subs" like these).