RefBlog

How nice has the league become? I send someone off and it's all, "Oh, I'm sorry."

One of the things I know I need to work at is keeping my temper when misconduct is aimed at me; usually I can handle dissent, but when it comes to a critique of my lifestyle, parentage, or my ability as a referee - I know I need some work. I've never lost it, but I definitely have to restrain myself mentally from making things worse than they usually are.

I think I've found the solution: think the comments are toward another player rather them myself. In my second game today I had a keeper throw a "Fuck you!" after my awarding a goal. The situation was tricky, but not totally uncommon, especially in the indoor game: a shot was taken, and the keeper bobbled the ball, but was able to direct to toward the side of the goal. There were several other players nearby, including attackers within a couple of feet, so I high-tailed it from just off the top of the penalty area right inside, because I know there's going to be a scramble; as I sprinted in, an attacker gets the ball as the keeper is diving for it, backs it up a step, and punches it into the goal. I heard a defender, maybe two, call for the ball out-of-play, so I decided to adapt Terry Vaughn's advice about penalty kicks: make the call and get the hell out of the way. On my run back to center, I heard the very loud, "Fuck you!" coming from the keeper, and immediately thought that it was directed not toward me, but to one of the attackers - maybe one made a comment to him or something - I didn't see anything untoward, and although they wanted a line call, that's one of the main reasons I tell captains week after week that line calls will suck, and even further that I tend to call it in play until I see it over the line, and a player sees it cross, they better keep playing.

So, my thinking that it was directed at another player, I paused briefly to consider my color - I could have gotten away with a yellow, but my gut was telling me red, that the match would deteriorate, even though it has been clean up until this point, if I didn't. I went with my gut and sent him off, and he immediately apologized. Not only that, this league has become so well behaved that I had three more apologies from his teammates before we restarted! After the game, when I got his name, I had to thank him, because he was one of the best behaved people who ever took plastic from my back pocket.

The next game looked like it was going to be close, both teams had some very fast players, but it turned into a blowout very quickly, as one team didn't have the support to get balls to their speedsters. I issued one card for an obvious foul (he literally shoved the guy into the ground), and ended up staring him down (it was clear he didn't want a talking to, and if the referee evil eye was enough to keep him in line, so be it), but his team was already up by five. That was the only incident in that game, and it actually came at an opportune time, because it kept the losing team's frustration level in check ("OK, we may be having our asses kicked, but at least the ref's on our side").

After the game, as I handed in my paperwork, the coordinator asked about the card, and said that the player asked to get a lighter sentence (essentially, no one-game suspension), and that he was really sorry for yelling at me. Yelling at me, I asked? Yup, apparently that, "Fuck you" was meant for me. OK, he's still really nice, but I think the red was totally justified now (I'm typing this with a big grin on my face)!

What should be really interesting is that one of the players on that team maintains a blog of his own; I'm curious to read what he thinks.

27 February '06 - 08:07 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Sent in the Wayback Machine for Subbuteo

I haven't played Subbuteo in years; probably not since middle school, and then I only played against myself because others didn't want to learn. Even before that, I only played against one person; and even though he's now a coach, I have to give him credit for turning me on to soccer and Subbuteo.

There's a local Subbuteo league that's been around for some time, and I learned about them nearly two years ago, but only now got around to playing, and it was downright fun; hopefully I'll be able to come back and play some more.

For those who don't know, it's the old table soccer game where you flick the players along. The pitch is a bit smaller than the size of a pool table (that's what I used to play it on), have all 22 players on the pitch (I had referee figures on mine when I was a kid - maybe it was a portent to what I would become), and can be surprisingly quick. I went scoreless on all four of my games: the first was three or four to nothing by the person who has organized the league but is moving to work for DC United; the second was another two or three to nothing. The third should have been scoreless, but I made a big mistake, when I put in my Alternate Goalkeeper and was scored upon; normally your goalkeeper, like food at a state fair, is on-a-stick, but you can replace him with a regular piece in order to take possession like a regular player - the trick is that you can only return to your regular keeper-on-a-stick if you have possession, and opps I lost it. The last game, with another new guy, went scoreless both ends. Back when I last played this (during the final year of the NASL, the bases were more rounded and had a tendency to flop around - I may not have had good touches as those with more experience, but I felt pretty good, considering I still did better than I remembered.

I think I still have my box of accessories... Oh, man. Old pieces of stadium, scoreboard, teams, teams, balls... Hey, look - I do still have my referees!

25 February '06 - 07:31 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Be careful what you wish for

There's an old adage about being careful what you wish for, and I'm trying to be careful, I really am, but it's hard when the games are being played so nicely that you tend to wonder what you're getting from it. I know some of the other refs had a rough week (it came from the weekly email to check for suspensions, because there were some), so I'll continue to say it's because I'm just such a good referee. Baring the ego trip, I still know I take it more seriously than the others.

Single yellow card last night, not too hard, but a foul just as a player was about to shoot, and one that really wasn't a play on the ball. Not the strongest of cards from me, but it was something that I thought, and was right, that everyone would appreciate.

It's winding down to the end of indoor season - things should pick up as the race for those coveted t-shirts heat up.

23 February '06 - 23:07 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

The "nothing special" games continue

I actually had more than one game that was interesting, a very tight, speedily paced game that ended 2-1, but for the most part everything was clean and calm. There was one team that, even when ahead (which was most of the game), they whined and complained about not getting calls that were obviously not fouls, but they could be happily ignored.

Temperature around here have been rising and dropping like a yo-yo, and on top of the risk of getting a cold as the body goes "What the hell is going on?", it also brings up a serious bout of cabin fever. I'm dying to do some really competitive games. Hopefully in the next month of so, some of the clubs that are using indoor facilities for practice might be in the mood full-sized scrimmage, and hopefully (that's a lot of hope), someone will pull my name out.

22 February '06 - 15:23 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

51-49 call

Three pretty easy games - I'm not really getting the testing I've had in the past. Maybe it's the league, maybe it's me; I really couldn't say.

There was one decision I made that I agonized over: two players, one with the ball, were pressing each other for position, one to get to goal, one to keep that from happening; it looked somewhat like a wrestling match, except one had his back to the other, but arms were getting intertwined, and I was right on the verge of calling a foul on the offensive player. Right on the verge, but the last straw hadn't yet been placed, and the camel was still standing. They disengaged, the offensive player kept the ball, got off a pass to a teammate, who scored.

I didn't get any complaints, although I was expecting it, because at least in my mind, we were in a big-time grey area. The fact that he was able to take advantage of it compounded my doubts; and while I still think that it wasn't a foul (barely), I can only be thankful that the other team didn't take issue with it.

21 February '06 - 17:53 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

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).

20 February '06 - 07:18 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Is an "Iron Maiden" shirt a reason to watch someone?

No big deal in my three games - I had one highly contested game, but spirits were pretty positive the whole way. I ended up booking a woman for persistent infringement - she didn't want it, but she knew it was coming, and after an initial protest, gave a look of resignation, of, "Yes, I really do deserve that."

I have to admit, I wondered ahead of the game, when she donned an Iron Maiden shirt for her jersey (they just need colors in this league, no numbers or actual uniform jerseys).

17 February '06 - 16:54 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Law Change Time Again

IFAB has release the agenda for their annual meeting, complete with proposed Law changes. If you want to see the whole thing, go here. If you want a summary with commentary, read on. Keep in mind that these are proposed Law changes, and IFAB tends to entertain far more motions than it actually passes.

Law 1: The Field of Play
FIFA is proposing a change in the side of the corner arc from one yard/one meter to 2.2 yards/2 meters. The rationale is that some stadia don't have enough space to have a decent run-up on a corner kick.

Will it pass? Unlikely. There's already been a much more informed idea passed along the SocRef listserv: make the field a little narrower. Not knowing how IFAB meetings work, my totally uneducated guess is that this is meant to spark discussions on stadiums, instead.

Law 4: The Players Equipment
FIFA is proposing changing the wording from a list of items a player must wear, to a list of separate items a player must wear. I think FIFA and IFAB would be better suited to just say, "Cameroon cannot change any part of their kit without our sayso." First, is was their sleeveless jersey. FIFA made them change it for the 2002 World Cup; then they came out with a one-piece shirt/shorts combo that FIFA disliked so much that they docked them six points from World Cup qualifying when they wore it after FIFA told them not to. On the short of it, it's pedantic. It's also pedantic on the long of it, too.

Will it pass? (more)

16 February '06 - 17:49 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

It was the other guy with a busy night

I had a relatively easy night of it - four games, no cards - the last game was nicely close with a decent skill level (3-2 final with the last goal a a couples minutes from full time), but nothing major to really write about.

The other guy, however had quite a game on his first one out. One of the teams used to play in the gym (which mercifully isn't being used anymore), and if you look at them, they don't look like the massively aggressive type. No buffed out guys, no guys who look like they should be playing pointy-ball, no guys who scream bad attitude during warm-up. But we know them from reputation, because when they play... According to the coordinator, they all work in high-stress corporate jobs, which means they vent on the field. Apparently they earned themselves a red card, but then scored within five minutes - pissing off the other team, who found a way to get a send-off of their own.

See? It's not just me.

14 February '06 - 13:37 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

If your legs were that valuable, you woulnd't be playing here

Three games, that really were no big deal. I had a couple of interesting events that kept me afloat. The first was your typical blowout, 8-2 - but the teams were well behaved. When I blew the final whistle, a player with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek said they were just getting their momentum going.

The second game had some players with some serious 'tudes on it. Let me go back, some women with some serious 'tudes. It started early, with a woman who went down on a clean challenge (a man went in on her, at a 90-degree angle, and they both hooked their feet over the ball, and let their momentum carry past the now frozen sphere), and then complained that he went in too hard for this league... only to find out that she was the biggest hack for the remaining 45 minutes (of a 50 minute game). I did think about blowing a foul, but there was no contact on her person at all, just the ball at the same time she was playing it - it makes a big noise and bodies go flying, but flying bodies aren't reason enough for a foul.

The attitude problem was passed from her to another woman - the first one (of which I have to correct myself wasn't as much of a hack as much as not in control of her body) missed a play on the ball, and got another woman lightly on the calf; as the contact was minimal, and possession not lost, I deemed it trivial and let play continue. Following the ball going out-of-play, I then heard an earful about my non-call. I tried to explain that yes, I saw the contact, and I made a decision based on what I thought was best for her and her team, but she would hear none of it. "My legs are valuable" she exclaimed, and I had withhold what I really wanted to say: They can't be that valuable if you play in this league. Instead I opted for the more diplomatic route, saying that I would keep her request in mind.

I had one card in the second half, when a striker plowed into a goalkeeper on a cross that the keep had already snagged. Totally unintentional, but the league wants a card on that one (and truth told, I'd be inclined to do it anyway - when performing a move like that, it's your responsibility to be aware of those around you), and I did. It was one of those, "English cards" where you talk to him first, let him understand, and everyone comes out OK, physically and emotionally. The second card was on the "valuable legs" woman, who fouled a guy, and started mocking him! It was a pretty hard foul to begin with, and then that - no English card on that one - pop it came, and I got a few more comments which I ignored. She thought the card was for the foul, and I figured I'd let her think that, because if I said a word, she'd say something that would have earned a second yellow, possibly a straight red. And while I truthfully can say that I wouldn't have been disappointed (you want to find a way to piss me off, show joy in your foul), it's my job to diffuse situations, not create them.

The third game had a card that was more a disappointment card than anything. When your team is up by eight (the final was 10-1), an attitude is something I really don't want to see. A player from the team that won backpedaled into a defender and tripped over him onto the ground. He claimed he was pushed, but I was looking right at it, and didn't see anything. He pushed back, and as play had switched fields (a rarity in that game), I told him he was going to be booked at the next stoppage, and let play continue. I did book him at the next stoppage, a corner that he was taking, and gave him a straight explanation before pulling out my card: "I didn't see him push you, but even if he did, I expect more from a team with an eight-goal lead. I expect more from you."

He wasn't happy, but nothing else happened. Nothing should have happened in the first place, but I can't control that; all I can do is lay out my expectations.

11 February '06 - 08:33 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

More good behavior

Three games, mighty slow. No cards, not many fouls. The first game a player was getting miffed at me for calling more fouls against his team, but considering there were only three fouls in the game (four if you count the advantage that went in his team's favor), and his team had two... Well, when you lose 8-2 and you don't want to blame yourself, who do you turn to? How cynical a game can it be where there's a grand total of four fouls?

The rest were mainly exercises in positioning. Not terribly necessary in the indoor game, and I have to be careful in what doesn't apply to outdoors - but hey, it's there.

I did realize something. In the years I've refereed, I've always looked forward to the next season (one season being USSF outdoor, the next being NFHS outdoor, and finally adult indoor), but I didn't have that this year. I had a very good year in USSF play this year, doing game more competitive than I'd ever done before, and totally skipped high school. Usually I'm so sick of coaches and NFHS platitudes that it's nice to get away from it - but since there was no high school, it felt like a bit of a downer getting into the indoor season. I wonder how that'll end up turning out at the end of this year.

09 February '06 - 11:29 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

To card or not to card?

There's been an interesting discussion on socref that I've been following. The situation starts with a referee wondering how to deal with an abusive coach. Quickly, it becomes a philosophical discussion on the ethics of cautions and dismissals. Is it the referees fault that a coach gets that way? Is it a bad thing if a referee appears "card happy"?

I find this interesting because it's something I run into all the time. Coaches, as I've said before, touch a nerve for me; and I've been writing a lot lately about games with lots of cards. And to risk being wishy-washy, I think everyone is right:

As referees, we need to look at what we've done wrong when we've had to send someone off. Were we off on positioning, mishandled players, had a poor disposition, or something else? But we, and so do coaches (and some do, and those who've talked to me nicely after a game have helped me improve my game, and earned, for what it's worth, my respect), have to realize that sometimes we miss something for the best of intentions: reading the game (not only tactically, but reading players intentions) is a skill that comes with time and experience, and we'll mess up sometimes. And it's just as much art as skill, we will never get it 100% right because sometimes players will just do wacky things out of left-field. When a player comes into a game deciding he wants to be red carded (and I've had a player tell me once explicitly that he decided to do it before a game began - and if one player tells me, how many haven't, but still have that thought in their head?), then there's nothing you can do but accommodate that person. Likewise, while we hear stories about the best refs never sending off coaches, I can only thing that those people are exceedingly lucky, have a league that takes coach ejections very very seriously (far more than where I'm located), or made things worse for referees elsewhere by not enforcing good behavior.

Cards are a whole lot of question when it comes to referees. Some don't like refs who card too much, some don't like refs who card too little. Given the level I referee at, I tend to lean toward the later, not because of them being bad refs, but because of a common attitudes of, "I don't like to card," or "this is rec, there shouldn't be any cards." I've seen games go to hell because of those attitudes, because it's an assumption of the skill level and attitude of the teams involved - maybe if you knew the teams you could do that, but not based on their league's degree of difficulty. I've found that it's much easier to recover from a game where you card too much and start to loosen up, than a game you've let go wild and try to tighten.

Then of course, there are war stories. Referees love them (and I suppose this forum counts, although I try to refrain from it being bragging, and more of a method of self-reflection and explanation) - and while some refs don't like those who do, we need to realize a couple of things. Is it a war story, or is the referee trying to get something off his chest? Is it a story from last season (or later)? Does it have some bearing on the discussion at hand? Or is it just simply a brag? I'm starting to realize what's what in the referee tent when it comes to war stories, and I'm finding, at least for me, that the desire to talk about "the war" doesn't necessairly have much bearing on the referee's performance on the field as much as the desire to just let a story loose versus ramble on incessently, trying to look like the world's greatest ref.

06 February '06 - 15:15 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Bravely soldier on

I woke up in the morning with the first telltale signs I was getting a cold - my throat felt like sandpaper. About mid-way through the day, the heavy (water) drinking and throat lozenges gave way just to an immense tired feeling. Mentally, I felt OK, but I needed some sleep or I wasn't going to ref.

And I was lucky, I had a cancellation in my schedule, and was done around noon. I turned by phone to vibrate and just went duh in bed. Around five, I felt better - about 90% in the strength department, and well enough to referee. In a perfect would, referees would always be at 100%, but just like players, you sometimes take the best you have and hope that things are good enough. The further good news is that the games turned out to be all no-problem games. One card issues for multiple slide-tackles; one game where the players were just sloppy, not malicious, and one game that was just fun to watch.

Before I started, my muscles ached, wanting to run (even though I knew it wouldn't be long), and when I was done, they ached because I used them too much. Sometimes even my own body wants it both ways. (more)

03 February '06 - 19:23 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

I broke down and bought it

I'd been thinking about this ever since I had the player break his leg on my field this winter, and I finally broke down and got it. I knew I really should have long ago, but never did - I convinced myself that I needed to send the money elsewhere, and I still do. After paying for the wedding, and buying a house, I have expenses I've never had to deal with before, and a major budget strain. I can't afford it - but because of those same reasons, I really need it.

I joined the National Association of Sports Officials, and more importantly, I got their insurance policy. For under $100 a year, it's a good thing to have: a $3 million insurance policy, lawyers fee assistance (not to mention a bank of information and a list of lawyers who know the law as it applies to sports), financial assistance in the event of an assault that takes you away from the game, and other stuff. I haven't had a chance to read through everything, but considering that the only way to referee my sport of choice during winter is with unaffiliated leagues (which means no USSF or NFHS insurance policies), and especially considering how people play in said unaffiliated leagues, it's a gap that seriously needs to be filled.

I have a rather lengthy story that illustrates my feelings on the subject:

My brother was born with a sever case of Spina Bifida and after we moved to Tennessee, had to confront the local school board with three lawsuits for their violations of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, which was pretty simple: if a public building uses federal funds for its construction, it must be accessible to the physically disabled. First, my family sued the school board because they refused to make reasonable accommodation: the enlargement of one bathroom stall so he could bring in his wheelchair and actually use the facilities, the removal of one parking space, to make a handicap parking spot (one large enough to accommodate the extra width needed to transfer a wheelchair to a car, a locker low enough that he could reach it, and the addition of one plywood ramp over a set of five stairs so he could enter the lunchroom. I really don't know anyone who thinks that's unreasonable, especially since they were required in the first place when the built the building, even in a backwards state like Tennessee (sorry, that state just rubbed the wrong way on so many things, not just this), but the school board refused every one of them.

So we sued, and we won. On every point.

Then my brother went onto high school, and we had, again, under the 1973 Rehab Act, asked them to make the following changes: create one handicapped parking space, modify one toilet to make it accessible for a wheelchair, and make one locker accessible for him. All things we asked for at the Middle School, all things we won when we sued them for non-compliance, all things the school board refused again.

So we sued again, and we won again, on every point, and my vice principal was thrown out-of-court for acting out (he later became the principle of a Nashville High School, which had a stabbing or shooting, or somesuch and was fired - another later was busted for giving girls alcohol on a choir trip, and a year after I graduated a friend of mine was sexually assaulted by a gym teacher). Like before, we won on every point. They still refused to make the changes. So we threatened to sue them a third time, bringing up four violations, but offering to drop the suit if they agreed to fix three items on our list. They agreed and finally made the necessary changes. You'll notice that I didn't have four items on my list.

And this brings up the point to my little remembrance of this little section of Tennessee, where they had the unholy union of redneck and yuppie, which is that the killer of today's legal system is that I know how it works: if you have money (or a lawyer working on contingency), you can afford to fight it) - I don't. I also know that the threat of a lawsuit is enough to have me lose everything, even before things go to court, and if I can't afford a lawyer in a civil suit, then whoever does have one can pick over my bones, and it won't matter who's right, who's honest, or who did what with the correct intentions.

02 February '06 - 08:28 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

About face

I sometimes think that players in this league feed off each other, not just during the game, but on the games go on next to them, or before them. It would explain why sometimes you have one difficult game after another, or both fields going nuts at the same time. Because after two nights of players going batty, things were calm and quiet.

And I do mean quiet quite literally. When I stepped into the field-house, I first thought I went to the wrong location, because there wasn't a sound, but then I saw the players, and spent a peaceful 30 minutes going over a few laws in the ATR. It should not have been that quiet, something should have got my attention - not something in the misconduct way, but something in teams cheering each other and players communicating, or something - not just the odd thunk of foot meeting ball.

And my four games were quiet as well. Last time, I didn't have a single half without a card, this time, I had four entire games without one. The first game was close, and had some players I've had issues with in the past (there's a really big guy who played in pub leagues overseas and tends to think he's better than everyone else because of it - he was an absolute menace when I reffed him in a gym, but aside from one solitary, exceedingly minor incident that only resulted in rolled eyes by the guy he tried it on, there was nothing going on.

The second game was competitive, and a call that I totally blew (what the heck was I thinking? I pointed the wrong direction, and didn't realize it until the next stoppage), but nobody said a peep.

The third game wasn't as close as the score indicated, and that was 9-0.

The fourth was 3-0, but might as well had been triple the score - it was just an exercise in offense for one team, and defense for the other.

The saving grace in the blowouts was that the teams tried - they didn't put me to sleep, but for the last two, I did put two teams out of their misery.

01 February '06 - 07:43 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶