I'm sure quite a few of you have ordered the new uniforms. Obviously, Official Sports is having a tough time getting them out the door. In fact, there was even a notice on their website pointing out that shipments of the new uniforms would be delayed. Good for them for being up front and honest!
I just thought I'd put this short post up to give readers an idea of the delay. I ordered 2 new jerseys on December 1, 2007. Today is February 16, 2008. Yesterday, I received a call that 1 of the jerseys was shipping and the other was back ordered. So, by my math, that says the current back log is at least 10 weeks. Hopefully, things will pick up as more of the jerseys are manufactured.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Spring is Coming
In my area of the United States (mid-Atlantic), the youth soccer season will be starting again shortly. My email in-box is already getting requests for availability for a handful of early Spring tournaments, so it is time to prepare for the coming season.I gather that most referees really don't do much in the way of preparation, other than attend a recertification class. I prefer to do things a little differently. My preparation involves some education, physical improvement as well as some common sense items.
Education
Yes, I attended my recertification class. It seems, at least in my state, that there was an emphasis on dealing with infractions that occur during penalty kicks. I'm told someone got it wrong at one of our state cup games. Since this is where the state committee wants me to spend some of my time, I've reviewed the materials several times.
Before every season, I like to re-read three key documents. They are:
All of these documents, and quite a few more, can be found on the US Soccer website. Did you know these documents are available in nice, printed booklet format too? Go to the US Soccer store and pick them up. They are very inexpensive and make a good addition to your referee bag.
Being physically prepared goes to selling your calls as well. It is much easier to sell a controversial call if you are 10 yards from the incident, rather than 30 yards away, huffing and puffing, trying to catch up to the play. I don't know about you, but I do not want to be accused of being a "center circle referee."
Education
Yes, I attended my recertification class. It seems, at least in my state, that there was an emphasis on dealing with infractions that occur during penalty kicks. I'm told someone got it wrong at one of our state cup games. Since this is where the state committee wants me to spend some of my time, I've reviewed the materials several times.
Before every season, I like to re-read three key documents. They are:
- The new version of the Laws of the Game
- Advice to the Referee on the Laws of the Game
- Guidelines and Procedures
The "advice" publication is the greatest. It's the book that US Soccer publishes (ok, it's really more of a "booklet") that explains what the laws really mean, according to the federation. It deals with most, if not all, of those tricky situations that we all have to deal with at one time or another. To me, reading and understanding "advice" is critical to being a good quality official. If you are following what is in "advice" you are not likely to be considered a referee that is "making it up as they go." For me, that is all the motivation I need.
The Guidelines and Procedures booklet should be read by all referees just to remind them what an Assistant Referee is supposed to do and what they are supposed to look like. My personal estimate is something like 40-60% of the referees that run a line for me have poor mechanics. I'm probably guilty of it on occasion too. It's not that hard to get right, and by reading the Guidelines and Procedures once or twice a year, we are reminded of good mechanics on the field. Looking the part on the field goes a long way in avoiding controversy and dissent. The guidelines book also reminds us of our administrative duties as referees. If you are not doing your administrative duties correctly and thoroughly, you are not doing your job.All of these documents, and quite a few more, can be found on the US Soccer website. Did you know these documents are available in nice, printed booklet format too? Go to the US Soccer store and pick them up. They are very inexpensive and make a good addition to your referee bag.
Physical Preparation
I start taking my running more seriously about now. The fall season isn't a problem for me because I run most of the summer anyway. I slack off a little in the winter though, so I've been building up my run recently. I concentrate on running more consistently, as well as working on some specific things like endurance and speed. Lately, I've taken to doing some side-stepping, in preparation for being an assistant, as well as running backward. It's time to get the body used to the physical exertion that comes with running 2 or 3 games on a spring weekend. An injury can end your season real quick, or at least make the rest of it very uncomfortable.Being physically prepared goes to selling your calls as well. It is much easier to sell a controversial call if you are 10 yards from the incident, rather than 30 yards away, huffing and puffing, trying to catch up to the play. I don't know about you, but I do not want to be accused of being a "center circle referee."
Other Things to Consider
When was the last time you changed the battery in your watch? Get it done before the season starts. It is cheap insurance. Take all your uniforms out of your bag and wash them. They probably smell a little musty from being in the garage all winter. How do your shoes look? It only takes about 5 minutes to polish them up a little. Do you have enough game cards and some extra pens/pencils in your bag? While the uniforms are out of it, why not wash the inside of your bag? I don't know about yours, but mine ends up with some grass and dirt floating around in there after a long season.What do you do to prepare for the season? Send your comments and let me know! Thanks.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
New Uniforms for Referees
The green jersey has been released! Most of you know by now that the new jersey was featured at this past weekends MLS final. For those of you that have not seen it, I've included a picture. Not that anyone has asked for it, but I feel obliged to share my feelings. I'm disappointed. First, I was kind of hoping the color would be a little more like a forest green. This green is a little too bright for me. Secondly, I don't see any reason to change the actual design of the uniform. Why not leave the stripes alone? What's done is done and we have to live with it. The first question I had in my mind was "when do I have to invest in new uniforms?" It turns out that does not have to happen anytime soon. A recent memo from the USSF says:
In the future, OSI will only sell the new uniforms, but the old striping pattern is still USSF-approved and acceptable to wear during games. In youth and adult amateur games, it is also acceptable for the crew to wear a combination of new and old uniforms. Referees are encouraged to purchase the new uniform when replacing their old version as the updated stripe pattern will be grandfathered into becoming the official referee uniforms of U.S. Soccer.
That seems reasonable. My yellow uniform is the OSI version, but my alternatives came from Score Sports. They are much cheaper and seem to look nice and wear well. As I replace (upgrade) them, I'll be ordering the new uniforms.
Did you notice the new socks? Yes, there is a new sock to go with the new uniform. The stripes have been moved down to about mid-shin.
I guess I don't mind the new socks as much as the redesigned uniform. On the other hand, I don't have nearly as much money invested in socks! The above mentioned memo says the 3-stripe socks are acceptable as well as the newer designs.I've had my say. What do you think?
Sunday, November 11, 2007
First Fall Tournament
This past weekend was spent at a large, highly competitive tournament in my area. I did 11 games in 2 days ranging from U-11 to U-15. It was a good tournament, with some great soccer played.
Dismissed
Well, I guess it was bound to happen. I had my first dismissal today. It was a coach, and there is no doubt in my mind that he deserved it. He started with me on a perceived bad call. I gave him a "that's enough coach." Later, I put the opponent on the penalty mark for an ugly trip in the penalty area. The defender's body actually slid into the legs of the attacker with the ball. It was a pretty easy call. After dealing with the goalkeeper losing her cool over the cool, I had to deal with the coach. He earned a place in my book on this one. 2 minutes later, he completely lost it on a throw in call. That was it. I pointed to the parking lot.
In my mind, I was trying to figure out why I felt like I was having some problems early on with this game. One team seemed content to play the game and was quite calm. The other team seemed upset with every call I made. There was noticeable decent from this team. I found out later, the team giving me problems was in second place in the tournament. The other team was in first. I wish I had known that going in.
Before the first half was over, I ended up issuing 2 more cards. The first was for a cheap elbow thrown as two players were fighting for the ball at the touch line. Naturally, it was right in front of the troublesome team's bench. Apparently, they felt it to be an unfair call. The 2nd was for a Failure to Respect Required distance on a free kick. The player stood right at the ball after the opponent put the ball down. I felt this to be a match-control type of card. I wanted to make sure they were getting the message that I was having none of the nonsense. At U-15, they should know they must give up the 10 yards right away.
The thing that surprised me is that both of the players cautioned in the first half engaged in pretty serious dissent in the 2nd half, even after me reminding them they were already under a caution. I could have easily been justified in sending both of them off. A few of the outbursts were purely emotional and I managed to get through them without too much of a problem.
This was a tough game, but as always, I learned a few things. First, you must expect the unexpected. I went into this game thinking it would be the same as all of the other games. I was sadly mistaken and would have been better prepared if I had known the importance of the game to the teams. In tournaments, we often get caught up in getting through the games on time because the tournament administrators do not want games to run late. This is understandable, but one thing you don't want to skimp on is being sure you have all the cards necessary if misconduct should arise. In particular, be sure you have a card for each of the coaches on the sideline. In this case, I did, but I had not checked before the start of the game.
Now that I've done a few tournaments and a fair share of league games, I have come to a realization. In general, player and coach behavior is better in league games than tournament games. Perhaps it is the perception that the repercussions of poor behavior in a tournament are less than a league game.
Gamesmanship
I had my first real experience with gamesmanship. Perhaps I've experienced it before and just didn't notice. We had the same team in 3 of our games at this tournament. The coach of this team had 2 interesting tactics she used to try and get a little advantage for her team. First, every time there was a close ball in/out of play call on the touch line, she would noticeably throw her arm up in favor of her team and shout "blue ball!" I don't think it influenced any of us much, but it was distracting for sure. I had a senior referee point this out to me a while ago as being "irresponsible behavior." His thought was it undermines the referees authority, because if you call the throw-in in favor of this team, people think you are influenced by this practice. If you don't, you might be perceived as favoring the other team because of the gamesmanship. This practice needs to be dealt with.
The more serious practice of this coach took me by surprise. There were a few times the ball went out of play near this team's bench. The coach would toss the ball to one of her players that was positioned much further down the touch line than where the ball went out! At first, I thought maybe she was just confused, but she did it several times. Be aware of these subtle forms of cheating.
Dismissed
Well, I guess it was bound to happen. I had my first dismissal today. It was a coach, and there is no doubt in my mind that he deserved it. He started with me on a perceived bad call. I gave him a "that's enough coach." Later, I put the opponent on the penalty mark for an ugly trip in the penalty area. The defender's body actually slid into the legs of the attacker with the ball. It was a pretty easy call. After dealing with the goalkeeper losing her cool over the cool, I had to deal with the coach. He earned a place in my book on this one. 2 minutes later, he completely lost it on a throw in call. That was it. I pointed to the parking lot.
In my mind, I was trying to figure out why I felt like I was having some problems early on with this game. One team seemed content to play the game and was quite calm. The other team seemed upset with every call I made. There was noticeable decent from this team. I found out later, the team giving me problems was in second place in the tournament. The other team was in first. I wish I had known that going in.
Before the first half was over, I ended up issuing 2 more cards. The first was for a cheap elbow thrown as two players were fighting for the ball at the touch line. Naturally, it was right in front of the troublesome team's bench. Apparently, they felt it to be an unfair call. The 2nd was for a Failure to Respect Required distance on a free kick. The player stood right at the ball after the opponent put the ball down. I felt this to be a match-control type of card. I wanted to make sure they were getting the message that I was having none of the nonsense. At U-15, they should know they must give up the 10 yards right away.
The thing that surprised me is that both of the players cautioned in the first half engaged in pretty serious dissent in the 2nd half, even after me reminding them they were already under a caution. I could have easily been justified in sending both of them off. A few of the outbursts were purely emotional and I managed to get through them without too much of a problem.
This was a tough game, but as always, I learned a few things. First, you must expect the unexpected. I went into this game thinking it would be the same as all of the other games. I was sadly mistaken and would have been better prepared if I had known the importance of the game to the teams. In tournaments, we often get caught up in getting through the games on time because the tournament administrators do not want games to run late. This is understandable, but one thing you don't want to skimp on is being sure you have all the cards necessary if misconduct should arise. In particular, be sure you have a card for each of the coaches on the sideline. In this case, I did, but I had not checked before the start of the game.
Now that I've done a few tournaments and a fair share of league games, I have come to a realization. In general, player and coach behavior is better in league games than tournament games. Perhaps it is the perception that the repercussions of poor behavior in a tournament are less than a league game.
Gamesmanship
I had my first real experience with gamesmanship. Perhaps I've experienced it before and just didn't notice. We had the same team in 3 of our games at this tournament. The coach of this team had 2 interesting tactics she used to try and get a little advantage for her team. First, every time there was a close ball in/out of play call on the touch line, she would noticeably throw her arm up in favor of her team and shout "blue ball!" I don't think it influenced any of us much, but it was distracting for sure. I had a senior referee point this out to me a while ago as being "irresponsible behavior." His thought was it undermines the referees authority, because if you call the throw-in in favor of this team, people think you are influenced by this practice. If you don't, you might be perceived as favoring the other team because of the gamesmanship. This practice needs to be dealt with.
The more serious practice of this coach took me by surprise. There were a few times the ball went out of play near this team's bench. The coach would toss the ball to one of her players that was positioned much further down the touch line than where the ball went out! At first, I thought maybe she was just confused, but she did it several times. Be aware of these subtle forms of cheating.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Give the Young Guys a Chance
Often times, I find myself working games with a crew that has at least 1 member under the age of 18. My son is now a grade 8 referee, and he works games with me on a regular basis. Also, there are quite a few young guys working for my league assignor. Our assignor does not specify which team members are to be the referee for games. He leaves that up to the crew to decide on game day, with the exception of critical games, like state cup. We get a list of games and a list of referees that will be there.
So when we arrive at our first game, I often suggest we flip coins, or pick coins from a pile to determine who will do what games. I have heard senior referees suggest it is unwise to have a younger referee do a game where the players are less than 2 years younger. So, for example, we might have a 14 year old referee do a U-11 game, but U-12 or above is probably a bad idea. I tend to agree with this idea as it might be hard for the younger referee to garner the respect from the players required for effective match control. Other than the age difference, however, I cannot think of other reasons why I, as an adult referee, would try to restrict a younger referee from getting a particular game.
Lately, I've noticed some referees take advantage of younger referees on their crew. They show up, see they are with 2 young officials, and immediately take charge. I suppose this could be a good thing sometimes, but it seems to me that adult referees have an obligation to bring along younger referees and help them get the experience they need to become confident as game officials. It is unfair for an adult to take the center position for all of the days games just by virtue of being the only adult referee present. I'd venture to say most of us would not try to do that with another adult referee, so why would we do that when we are assigned with younger referees?
The next time you are assigned with a minor, consider their need for experience as well as your own. You can learn as much about the game assisting a young referee as you can being in the center. It's only fair, and as referees, we should be all about being fair!
So when we arrive at our first game, I often suggest we flip coins, or pick coins from a pile to determine who will do what games. I have heard senior referees suggest it is unwise to have a younger referee do a game where the players are less than 2 years younger. So, for example, we might have a 14 year old referee do a U-11 game, but U-12 or above is probably a bad idea. I tend to agree with this idea as it might be hard for the younger referee to garner the respect from the players required for effective match control. Other than the age difference, however, I cannot think of other reasons why I, as an adult referee, would try to restrict a younger referee from getting a particular game.
Lately, I've noticed some referees take advantage of younger referees on their crew. They show up, see they are with 2 young officials, and immediately take charge. I suppose this could be a good thing sometimes, but it seems to me that adult referees have an obligation to bring along younger referees and help them get the experience they need to become confident as game officials. It is unfair for an adult to take the center position for all of the days games just by virtue of being the only adult referee present. I'd venture to say most of us would not try to do that with another adult referee, so why would we do that when we are assigned with younger referees?
The next time you are assigned with a minor, consider their need for experience as well as your own. You can learn as much about the game assisting a young referee as you can being in the center. It's only fair, and as referees, we should be all about being fair!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Interesting Weekend - More Lessons
Well, I knew things were going too well. I haven't had a problem with a coach in a long time, so I'm due.
Let me describe the scenario. We are in the 2nd half of a U-14 boys game. To give you an idea of the entire picture, I had a very minor dissent issue with one of the red team's coaches. My assistant made a solid offside call on a defender's deflection to an offside red player. This coach had a few things to say about it. I pointed out a defender deflection does not reset offside and the call would stand. He went on about it, but I ignored him.
About mid way through the half, a ball goes out of touch right in front of red's bench. This is on my half of the touch line. My assistant signals a throw in for red, but I overruled him as I was 10 feet from the play and saw the ball touch red on the way out. The same coach as above starts debating me on the call, pointing out the assistant pointed the other way. I responded that I was overruling him and the call would stand. That wasn't enough to satisfy the coach, so I booked him for behaving irresponsibly in the technical area. I showed him the card (yes, we show cards to coaches in NJ) and we played on.
About 7 minutes later, the red goalkeeper made a save. While he was on the ground in possession of the ball, the white team kicked at him, causing me to stop play for dangerous play. While getting off the ground, the goalkeeper taunted the white team about the call. I immediately showed him the yellow card for unsporting behavior.
Now that you have the background, I'll describe what happened. At the end of the game, both coaches confronted me coming off the field. The first coach continued the debate of whether or not I could overrule my assistant. He said I couldn't do that and he also identified himself as a referee. I pointed out that, as the referee, I had final say on all decisions on the field and he didn't have to agree with me. Then the other coach starts in on me about the caution of their goalkeeper. Apparently, he didn't agree that what I heard was taunting. I pointed out that it's my opinion that counts in relation to facts on the field. I also said the conversation was over as we were not going to arrive at any useful conclusions. Here's the part that bothered me. As I walked away, these guys followed me and persisted with their arguments! In thinking about this later, I could not come to any conclusions as to what these guys thought they were going to accomplish. It really doesn't make any sense. Thing about it: One issue boiled down to a ball in or out of play call. The other was misconduct, but only a caution and probably wouldn't amount to much when reported to the league. I've taken to trying to put myself in the coaches shoes to at least understand their motivations when debating calls. This one I don't understand. What do you think of this?
Let me describe the scenario. We are in the 2nd half of a U-14 boys game. To give you an idea of the entire picture, I had a very minor dissent issue with one of the red team's coaches. My assistant made a solid offside call on a defender's deflection to an offside red player. This coach had a few things to say about it. I pointed out a defender deflection does not reset offside and the call would stand. He went on about it, but I ignored him.
About mid way through the half, a ball goes out of touch right in front of red's bench. This is on my half of the touch line. My assistant signals a throw in for red, but I overruled him as I was 10 feet from the play and saw the ball touch red on the way out. The same coach as above starts debating me on the call, pointing out the assistant pointed the other way. I responded that I was overruling him and the call would stand. That wasn't enough to satisfy the coach, so I booked him for behaving irresponsibly in the technical area. I showed him the card (yes, we show cards to coaches in NJ) and we played on.
About 7 minutes later, the red goalkeeper made a save. While he was on the ground in possession of the ball, the white team kicked at him, causing me to stop play for dangerous play. While getting off the ground, the goalkeeper taunted the white team about the call. I immediately showed him the yellow card for unsporting behavior.
Now that you have the background, I'll describe what happened. At the end of the game, both coaches confronted me coming off the field. The first coach continued the debate of whether or not I could overrule my assistant. He said I couldn't do that and he also identified himself as a referee. I pointed out that, as the referee, I had final say on all decisions on the field and he didn't have to agree with me. Then the other coach starts in on me about the caution of their goalkeeper. Apparently, he didn't agree that what I heard was taunting. I pointed out that it's my opinion that counts in relation to facts on the field. I also said the conversation was over as we were not going to arrive at any useful conclusions. Here's the part that bothered me. As I walked away, these guys followed me and persisted with their arguments! In thinking about this later, I could not come to any conclusions as to what these guys thought they were going to accomplish. It really doesn't make any sense. Thing about it: One issue boiled down to a ball in or out of play call. The other was misconduct, but only a caution and probably wouldn't amount to much when reported to the league. I've taken to trying to put myself in the coaches shoes to at least understand their motivations when debating calls. This one I don't understand. What do you think of this?
Saturday, October 20, 2007
More Good Games
I had 2 games today. I was the referee for a U-10 game and an Assistant for a U-14 game. They were both pretty good games and fairly uneventful, although I did make some observations as usual.
In the younger kids game, the emphasis was on teaching. Realize going in that the short-sided game always requires more teaching than usual, but today's game required more than the typical game. In the local league, you basically get 2 chances to get throw-ins correct. The referee is expected to point out the mistake the player made in the first throw-in. For whatever reason, we had an inordinate amount of bad throws. Also, both goalkeepers committed deliberate handling fouls. We warned the first keeper 5 or 6 times about coming out of the penalty area when he was distributing the ball. After these warnings, up went the Assistants flag. I had a short chat with the keeper about what went wrong. Later in the game, the other keeper just walked out of the penalty area with the ball in his hands. He forgot about the line! That is one of the reasons I enjoy the short-sided game. The unexpected is always happening.
The U-14 game was some kind of big rivalry. At least that's what we we're told. The actual game turned out to be kind of lopsided. There wasn't much in the way of notable events for this game. I am trying to figure out why coaches insist on standing in the way of the Assistant Referee. They know we're there. They know we need to move up and down the line. Hey, it's an exciting game. I don't blame them wanting to get a good view of the action. I had one trainer that insisted on standing with the touch line right between his feet. Yes, he had one foot on the field! Oddly enough, it's the same trainer I had a hard time with a few weeks ago. I politely asked him to step back, and this time he did. I guess the nice approach works sometimes!
I did notice today that one of the guys I work with regularly seems to want to find fault in every game. For example, after a coach came over to us, at the end of a game, and said we had done a good job, he commented that one of the coach's players need to be careful about his habitual pushing. This may be true, but call it in the game. This game was over. We didn't have a problem. Why start trouble? I'm going to observe this referee in the Spring season with the older players. I wonder if he has any game control problems?
In the younger kids game, the emphasis was on teaching. Realize going in that the short-sided game always requires more teaching than usual, but today's game required more than the typical game. In the local league, you basically get 2 chances to get throw-ins correct. The referee is expected to point out the mistake the player made in the first throw-in. For whatever reason, we had an inordinate amount of bad throws. Also, both goalkeepers committed deliberate handling fouls. We warned the first keeper 5 or 6 times about coming out of the penalty area when he was distributing the ball. After these warnings, up went the Assistants flag. I had a short chat with the keeper about what went wrong. Later in the game, the other keeper just walked out of the penalty area with the ball in his hands. He forgot about the line! That is one of the reasons I enjoy the short-sided game. The unexpected is always happening.
The U-14 game was some kind of big rivalry. At least that's what we we're told. The actual game turned out to be kind of lopsided. There wasn't much in the way of notable events for this game. I am trying to figure out why coaches insist on standing in the way of the Assistant Referee. They know we're there. They know we need to move up and down the line. Hey, it's an exciting game. I don't blame them wanting to get a good view of the action. I had one trainer that insisted on standing with the touch line right between his feet. Yes, he had one foot on the field! Oddly enough, it's the same trainer I had a hard time with a few weeks ago. I politely asked him to step back, and this time he did. I guess the nice approach works sometimes!
I did notice today that one of the guys I work with regularly seems to want to find fault in every game. For example, after a coach came over to us, at the end of a game, and said we had done a good job, he commented that one of the coach's players need to be careful about his habitual pushing. This may be true, but call it in the game. This game was over. We didn't have a problem. Why start trouble? I'm going to observe this referee in the Spring season with the older players. I wonder if he has any game control problems?
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