Last night I did a U15 Girls State Cup match and it was one of the craziest matches I’ve done in a while. In the first half, the white team whined and complained every time one of them was even remotely touched, much less hit the ground. During this time, the red team pretty much dominated play. In the 19th minute, a white player was on the ball in the attacking end near corner flag. She was legally dispossessed of the ball and as the ball was played up-field, the white attacker raised her arm and used the point of her elbow against the side of the red player’s head. I was surprised how easy the decision was to show her the red card and send her off for violent conduct. The half ended with the score 1-0 in favor of red. I mentioned the whining of the white team to my ARs and wondered what these ladies would do against a more advanced and physical team.
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This weekend, I received an e-mail inviting me to represent OH South at this year’s Youth Regionals (Region II). This will be my first time at Regionals, and I’m thrilled and honored. As the title says - now the real work begins.
“I feel ready, and yet unprepared”
– Garbage from “The World Is Not Enough”
Well. . .yesterday was my first 4-match day, and it was sort of a wakeup call. My first match was a U15 boys middle and I thought it went well, even with a send-off. Then I had two ARs, a U17 boys and a U16 girls. To finish the day I had a U16 boys middle. I was definitely feeling pretty wiped out. . .and to add to it all, I was being assessed. One of the ARs was a Grade 5 whom I’d worked with before and is quite good. The other AR was new to me and it didn’t take too long for him to unimpress me. Early on, I found he was having some trouble staying with play. Now, I know I have to get better at consistently looking to my right for the AR’s flag when balls are played forward, but I don’t know that I’ve ever worked with an AR who was consistently so late with the flag. I mean I’m all about a late flag, waiting for involvement and such, but this guy was almost to the point of pushing my buttons. I know at least half the time, I looked right as the ball/play went forward and saw no flag - only to have people screaming at me 3-4 seconds later to look at the flag. Fortunately, when the teams switched ends for the second half the majority of the action was at the other end. But I definitely felt that I didn’t get what I wanted from that AR. And when I’m physically wasted, I definitely rely on my ARs a lot more. I couldn’t have been more relieved when the match ended. Some matches you feel you did great, some matches you feel OK, and other matches you survive. This was a match I felt fortunate to survive. In the end, the assessor felt I did a pretty good job and gave me some things to keep in mind. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
So what does this have to do with fitness? In my mind, it has everything to do with fitness. If my fitness is where I want it to be I’m not nearly so wiped out for that 4th match and my mental focus is sharper, allowing me to better handle the match despite a problematic AR.
The other thing I realized is how poorly hydrated I am. In that last match, I started cramping pretty badly behind my right knee. I’d never had problems cramping like that before. Time to cut way way back on the sodas and drink more water!!!!
Law 12 outlines the cautionable misconduct offenses as unsporting behavior, dissent, persistent infringement, delays the restart, fails to respect the required distance, enters/reenters without permission, and leaves the field without permission. Most are pretty cut-and-dried for the most part. Although most players and coaches I’ve worked with have bought into the myth of “he has to ask for 10 yards”. Yet none can show me in the LoTG where it says this requirement is dependent on any such request. Players and coaches conveniently forget that it’s supposed to be a FREE kick. Most coaches and players also don’t realize there’s a 2-yard required distance for throw-ins as well.
But this post is about the cautionable offenses I find to be more elusive because they tend to be more subjective - Dissent & Persistent Infringement. I also tend to feel that not enough yellow cards are shown for these.
Dissent -
My experience is that most players believe they are allowed to dissent the referee. I don’t know where they got the idea. I think it’s in large part because they’ve been allowed to dissent for so long, they’ve come to expect to be able to keep doing it. I think it’s unfortunate how many referees “just take it” - and shame on them! As a result, I think I come as a big surprise to a lot of players because I take a lot less than most referees I’ve met. I don’t know how many times I’ve shown a player the yellow card and told him it was for dissent and the player doesn’t understand that he’s done something wrong.
0 comments CSR | LoTG, Professionalism, Spirit Of The Game |
With all the rain we’ve had in March here in Ohio (5” above normal for the month), I’ve already had roughly 15 games washed out so far this season. Trying to turn a negative into a positive, it’s given me a chance to work some more on my fitness. The older I get and the more serious I get about refereeing, the more important I think fitness becomes. Of course you have to be able to keep up with play, but I’m convinced that fitness plays a major role in a referee’s decision-making process. Think about it, how clearly do you think when you’re totally gassed? How do you keep a cool head when you’re busy sucking air? How do you make sure your signals don’t get sloppy when you’re wiped out? So I definitely think fitness plays a role in making correct decisions, good mechanics, and game control. As a referee, most of what we do and learn is by doing and getting feedback from peers and more experienced referees. After all, we can’t go to practice like players do. But fitness is one of the few aspects of our game and preparations that we have almost complete control over. So I struggle with what I eat, keeping hydrated, and getting a workout in as close to every day as possible. Because if I don’t, I don’t think there’s any way my game will improve.
I think every referee has heard this at one time or another. Do fans, coaches, or players who try to claim bias on the part of referee ever have a clue about the official they’re directing this at? Do they really believe what they’re saying?
In my case, I think it borders on ridiculous. My wife and I have only lived in Columbus for 2 years and the town we live in has a pretty decent club program, but I do VERY few matches for them. I do my best to get to other areas of Columbus for matches, partly because I want to see as many clubs as possible. I have one child, but he’s only 17 months old - and even then, he has spina bifida and will never know the game the way I did as a kid. So conflicts like those are a non-issue. And yet, when I’m in the middle those types of comments (from older kids) are something of a hot button for me with regard to dissent. If a player has been mouthing off a bit and then plays the Homer Card, it usually is enough to prompt a caution for dissent. Mostly because it calls into question the integrity of the game, and like most forms of dissent if left unchecked can spread rapidly. I’m sure there are some biased referees. But if a coach or player really thinks an official is biased, there are mechanisms put in place by the league where they can address those concerns. But to go spouting off with such things on the field, having no knowledge of the official, seems quite irresponsible to me.
1 comment CSR | Professionalism, Rants, Spirit Of The Game |
I’m curious to hear from people about their strangest, craziest, scariest, or most bizzare red card.
For me, on two occasions I’ve had a player put his hands on me.
On one of them I was doing a U16 boys match I whistled a hard foul, and went to the spot to diffuse tension between the two players. The fouled player got up and promptly pushed me, apparently thinking I was an opponent. It took me a second to realize what had happned and reach for the red card. Not a whole lot arguement from the player once he realized what happened. No arguement from the bench.
The second time, I was doing a U17 boys match - for my upgrade assessment to Grade 7 no less. Attacking team has a DFK about 25 yards from goal. I set the wall and whistled for the kick. Before the kick takes place, the defending players in the wall are pushing an attacking player in the wall. The kick goes wide of goal for a goal kick. As the defending team is retrieving the ball for the goal kick, I go to have a word with the members of the wall to let them know the attacking player has a right to be there and not to push off prior to the kick. One of the defenders dissented a bit, saying the attacking player pushed him - then demonstrated with an outright push on me. It took me a minute to realize how big a case of the stupids this kid had.
2 comments CSR | Misc Ramblings, Professionalism, Spirit Of The Game |
I don’t feel like I have too many things that really bother me, but ARs who can’t bother to wear the proper uniform or assemble a kit with the bare necessities is definitely one of them. Appearance is important since it’s the first clue that players, coaches, and spectators have as to whether you know what you’re doing. If you show up looking like a rag-bag, it’s hard for people to have confidence in your abilities. When I get an AR who wears white socks, shoes that aren’t predominantly black, have their shirt untucked, or such, then I immediately have less confidence in them. After all, how should I expect them to properly apply the LoTG if they can’t even wear a proper uniform?
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The older I get (late 30s), the more I believe that referees want one thing more than anything else. It’s not a “four whistle match”. . .it’s not perfect weather. . .it’s not more pay. What I think most referees want is more comfortable footwear. Think about it. The players play one or maybe two matches a day. But on a busy weekend, I’ll do four or five matches a day. So I’m always on the lookout for better and more comfy shoes. Which isn’t particularly easy since I have wide feet.
As most of you are aware, USSF debuted a new style of referee jersey at the 2007 MLS Cup. Are you buying?
I’m hoping to be invited to referee at Youth Regionals in June, so I feel it’s pretty important to have them for the spring season. For most people, though, there’s just not a lot of reason to spend the money replacing the older style shirts since they will be good for a while - and the phase-out date still hasn’t been announced by USSF.
Because I live in a cool-weather area (mid-Ohio), I waited until early March to to place my orders. I figured Official Sports’ backlog would be cleared by then. WRONG! I initially ordered (all in Medium):
- Long sleeve gold Pro shirt
- Short sleeve gold Pro shirt
- Short sleeve black Pro shirt
- Short sleeve red Pro shirt
- New-style USSF Coolwick short
- 1 pair of new-style USSF-logo socks