Honk the horn before….

Two weeks ago during the tournament I was running the line as AR1 on a U19 boy’s game. The center I felt before hand was questionable at best for this game but hey I am not the assignor. We are about 15 minutes into the game when a ball is played long down the field along the line directly in front of me. The defender gathers the ball up. A forward for the other team is chasing him down and coming on fast. The defender plays the ball out of trouble before the attacker gets to him all about 4 feet from me. The attacker takes two more full steps and raises his elbow up right across the defenders face. The defender goes down and has a broken nose. I throw my flag up wildly. The Center hits his whistle and I point for the direction on the foul and start slapping my back pocket. I quickly step onto the field because an entire team is about ready to beat the crap out of the guy that just threw the elbow. The center goes directly to the injured player and calls on medical staff (really an unprepared coach).

Once the “medical staff” is there and we calm the teams down I step back to my line and the call the center over to me. The Center asks what I had on that play. I re-explain what happen to him and tell him I really think there needs to be a red card. (Actually we don’t have any wiggle room on this; it is a strike to the head and is a must red card.) The Center doesn’t say another word and walks over to the player and shows the red card. Of course the player argues with him saying he couldn’t slow down. The Center says “I understand, I normally wouldn’t give a card for that but he wants you to get a red” and points at me….

At halftime we had a long conversation about him throwing me under the bus. I asked him to at least honk the buses horn before throwing me under it. I will go out of my way to NEVER work with this guy again. The rest of the game went downhill from there. The game really was not that difficult (finial was 8-0) but this guy was so far over his head he didn’t even know there was surface to the pool.

Friends or Foes

The Rules of the Game by Pierluigi Collina-

“The Walk to the pich is a moment when you meet people- players, managers, staff.  Greetings, handshakes, and a few comments are exchanged.  Sometimes you see much hugging between former team-mates who are particularly pleased to see each other again.  Then you see the same two out on the pitch going hell for leather as they fight for the ball.” 

I see this a lot during high school season, players that have played club ball together for years are now lining up across from each other for their respected high school teams.  This is always a little funny to me but is a true example of compitition.

Coach Ejection after the game….

Simple U14 girls game…..Let me repeat simple U14 girls game.  I maybe had 5-7 calls the entire game.  I have a 12 year old kid on one line and a 13 year old on the other line.  Both are working their tail off and doing a good job.  They both make good eye contact and are hitting all of the offsides great.  2 minutes left in the game the score is 3-1.  Ball comes through and it looks like I have two players offsides at a quick glance but I can’t tell for sure.  One player is 35 yards from the play and 7-10 yards off (this one I am certain about but she is not in the play).  The other girl is actually the one receiving the ball and it was tight but looked like she had a step off.  I take a quick glance and my AR has his flag down.  She turn shoots and scores.  As she is shooting I see my AR throw his flag up for the offsides.  I hit the whistle and call the offsides.  (the goal would have made the game 3-2, the losing team was offsides)  The coach who hasn’t said a thing all game goes crazy on the sideline.  “that girl is not in the play”  referring to the girl well offsides.  I confirm with my AR that the shooter was offsides.  I explain to the coach that the player with the ball at her feet was who he was calling offsides.  He continues to yell….I turn to him and say, “Coach I have explained the call we are moving on”, he yells a little more and I give him the stop sign hand and he quiets down. 

The last minute of the game goes by and I call the game.  Both team shake hands and he waits for this to be done.  He starts to tell my young AR that the girl was not offsides.  My AR ( I was proud of him stood there and backed himself up) and said “YES the girl that shot the ball was offsides.”  The coach starts raising his voice and says to the kid, “you are clueless”.  I now stepped between him and the AR and said “we are done here go back to your bench” and pointed to his bench area.  The coach tried stepping around me and now was yelling at the kid “your horrible”.  I raised my voice and said “Your done get out of here”.  He turned to me and said “Fine throw me out, he still sucks” and points right at the kid from about 4 feet away.  I said “you got it, your ejected.  You can’t treat a young official that way”. 

I grabbed both of my AR’s and we turned and walked away.  They both were there in a little shock and standing there like statues but  we needed to be moving so I pushed them along….

If he was just treating me that way after the game I don’t think I would have run him that fast but as officials we can’t let a grown coach get all over our young referees that way.  This coach has ripped into a few referees in the past but I wasn’t going to let him rip into a 13 year old kid who just worked his tail off for me.  I understand the value of a goal but the goal still wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game. 

Ironically the next day I had this guy (looked like your classic soccer Dad) come over to the referee tent the and ask for the referee that threw out the coach the day before on a U14 girls game.  Everyone turned and pointed to me.  He came over and thanked me and explained that it was his son that was the AR and he appreciated me stepping in and back up his son.  His son talked about it all night long I guess, I let him know his son acted very professional when a coach couldn’t be professional and I would work with his son anytime.

Contest Winner….

Josh is the contest winner…….He was the closest (Ok the only one that took a stab at it, wow we got a lot of people reading this thing).  He was acatully really close though.  His guess 5 yellows 1 streight red.

2 Streight Reds

3 Yellows

5 Total

Calm weekend for the most part minus the 2 reds.  Those story’s to come later…

Josh wins a SWISRA coin from my local referee association.  (SWISRA – South West Idaho Soccer Referee Accociation) Nothing overly special but maybe not to bad for leaving a comment.

Josh send me a emailing address and I will drop it off in the mail to you.   Thanks for playing Josh….

Holy weekend of games.

So this weekend we have one of the biggest youth tournaments in the state for the year.  There is about 220 teams in the tournament and we still have a full slate of adult games and a rec tournament as well.  So here is the layout for me…

Friday Night 2 Rec. game

Saturday 4 youth tournament games 1 adult game = 5 games

Sunday 4 youth tournament games = 4 games

11 games total

It looks like I have an interesting transition on Sunday.  I have the U19 boys semi-finals leading into the U11 girls final (that will be an interesting transition) and finish the day with the U17 girls championship. 

We are short staffed this weekend so what I have on my lines should get real interesting…

So here is the competition for the weekend.  Send in the comments the number of cards you think I will have in 11 games this weekend.  The person to guess the number correctly wins a fabulous prize….If there is a tie we will randomly draw a name from the winners.  (I will figure out something good for you)  Good Luck!!!!!

A referee loss

The title over at “ask the ref” currently is….

Charles W. Fleischer II, the editor of asktheref.com has lost his battle with cancer

Please go read and leave a comment if you have ever used this site.  This site is a wealth of information…..

“Chuck gave answers to 10229 questions his first was in January of 2000. He reviewed countless more and provided leadership to our panel for over nine years.”

http://asktheref.com/default.asp

Quotes form Pierluigi Collina…

[I plan on having a few days mixed in here with just small two or three line quotes from book The Rules of the Game.  I hope you enjoy them.  Please leave some feedback or your thoughts on the quotes.]

 

“There is no type of refereeing that works well for all games.  The referee has to develop an almost chameleon-like capacity to be able to adapt his own abilities to the requirements of the match.  All matches are different and therefore they have to be dealt with in completely different ways.  What has to prevail is a pragmatic style of refereeing, suitable fo rthe type of match and the particular moment within that match…..”  Pierluigi Collina

Funny BBC Sotry

Linked below is a funny story from the BBC Sports in 2001 about a referee that lost himself and helped a team out during a game.  This is just crazy in my mind.  I guess he is considered apart of the field….

BBC Sports Referee’s sympathy strike

Enjoy…..

Referee Styles by Area

As I mentioned before I am reading “The Rules of the Game” currently by the great referee Pierluigi Collina.   I was reading a section the other day and it got me thinking about refereeing in my state and the classic comments from different area coaches. 

Here is what I read from the book to start with- 

Through videos and analysis of situations and discussions, we works towards reaching a common interpretative philosophy.  The aim is quite clear: There shouldn’t be a English or Italian, Spanish or German refereeing, but rather one single way, a denominator that is common to everyone.  Meeting up with referees from other countries and discussing these things comparing the various interpretations that you sometimes hear, is certainly the best way. 

This is interesting to me.  When I was in college I started my coaching career in a smaller town on the other side of the state from Boise where I am at and the main hub for soccer in the state.  As a coach it was always my concern that we would get to state cup and not be ready for the way the referee’s handled the game.  Specifically physical play.  Odds were good then and are now that you will get a Boise referee in the middle of your game at state since a large percentage of the referee’s for the state are from here.  The referee’s here in Boise are exposed to a lot more soccer then the many of the referee’s from other parts of the state.  I would say it is viewed by many coach from outside of Boise and is probably close to reality that Boise referee’s allow more hard play on the field then other areas of the state referees allow.  As a coach during my regular season I would beg with referee’s in pregame to let play go a little so my team was ready for physical play.  Typically we had to leave the area though to find physical play which was a requirement if we wanted to be prepaired for it at state. 

So like at the international level there is different styles of refereeing in differet areas.  Yes we have FIFA and USSF to direct us but you still end up with a human in the middle calling what he or she is use to and comfortable with. 

I just think the solution of discussion is harder at the youth level.  The only referee’s that we usually would get to attend a discussion are the experienced referee’s or those who are moving up in the ranks.  These guys are the exception to the rule for refereeing outside of Boise in Idaho.  Lucklie that number is growing a little.

Nervous for a game…

So Saturday was my first Women’s D1 Center.  Yeah Yeah it’s just spring ball but it was a big step for me and as soon as I found out I was the center on the game I started getting a little nervous about it.  My game preparation started about a week ahead of time for this match.  I started playing through both teams in my head and instantly changed my training schedule for the week.  I was so focused on this game I think I neglected mentally getting myself ready for my U16/U17 boys game earlier this week.  You know the one where I forgot my gear….

Let’s rewind to Wednesday this week.  I was scheduled for a 4 mile run on my training plan but I knew I had the U17 game and the D1 match on Saturday so I decided to rest and stretch a little more.  On Friday I was in a bad mood at work and typically the cure is a run on my lunch hour.  I actually made it all the way to the gym and had my running gear out and was changing into them and then decided a little discipline and skipping that run would pay off the next day.  I meet a couple friend and my wife at a bar after work and sat there with the largest glass of water in the whole bar…..

I went to bed early…….I awoke at 1:30am in a cold sweat an panic from a nightmare of my gaming going horrible.  My stomach was in knots with nerves and I tossed and turn the better part of the rest of the night. 

I got up in the morning and kept myself occupied in the morning and then headed to the field…I got there at 11:00 for a 12:00 game.  My AR1 who was a new guy we are planning on bringing into the NISOA chapter got there early.  I showed him to the locker room to get ready.   We were talking through NISOA chit chat when the door opened and I expected to see my AR2.  But instead it was a guy I had never worked with and was not a NISOA guy.  My AR2 had to bail at the last second on me (he double booked himself, which I found hilarious considering he is an assignor that would throw a fit if you did that to him).  I quickly introduced myself to him and we walked through how the game was going to go. 

So it turned out great.  I called a great game in my personal evaluation of the game.  I wish I had one call back from the entire game and I decided that was decent.  My call I wish I had back was at the half line and had no impact on the game so I brushed it off.  My fitness was high for the whole match.  I covered the entire large field well (covering 6.45 miles in the game). 

Here is the real deal though…..I never mentally faded in this game or had anytime of drifting off focus.  This is a big step for me.  I used a very simple phrase a good referee buddy says to me all the time.  “Call the simple stuff and don’t question it.”  Just call the fouls and stop worrying if it was more or less then the last foul.  The game went smooth.  I was pleased and now I need a good nights sleep.