Five Best of the First Five Years: A terrible way to end a game (2006)
This was a big deal for me: centering a final in a State Cup game; I'd lined several finals, and centered a couple of semis in past years, but never a final, and a 16-boys final was a fine show of confidence by the assignor and the tournament staff. Being a game of such importance for the teams, it was such to be hard played. Every play of the players mattered, every call I made mattered; and I had two really tough ones, one of which could have decided the game.Whenever I think of this game, I think I should have made the second call (the one nullifying a goal) sooner. My thoughts at the time was that it looked like an easy save given the skill of the team, but I didn't take the near blinding rain into account before he bobbled it; and it took me a second to turn around and see that the kicker had taken the kick before I had finished setting the wall. But the idea was, if the keeper saved the ball, I'd let play go on rather than allow then a "second" free kick (not technically true I know, but having been on the other end, it does piss you off, more-so if they score on the "real" kick). So I did what I had to, I became very visible, became the big bad referee, and called back the goal. How big and bad I had to be depended totally on how the other team took it.
A terrible way to end a game
I always thought that the worst way to end a game was by penalty kicks - I know now that I was wrong. I centered the 16-boys State Cup final - a game that because of numerous cancelled dates due to poor weather, was being played at the last possible day - a result was needed, and the tournament director was willing to wait most of the night to get it.
The first game for me was a line on the 16-Girls final; a game that sent one of the coaches in a rabid froth; the center nearly ejected him at halftime. What was amazing was that he actually kept his word that he'd behave in the second half and didn't hear a word from him.
In this state, there are two traditional power-clubs (they don't quite hit the definition of Super Club, a term which has been bandied about by some of the national powers), one for the girls and one for the boys. I had the boys team, and another more standard, city-based team. I felt good in the first half, I wanted to get deeper (so did one of my ARs, who was a State Referee), but they were transitioning quickly, and I didn't want to get caught too far behind; both teams seemed responsive to any verbal items I brought up (one player used way too much power on his challenges and I fouled him repeatedly for it, as well as a few minor things). The second half proved more interesting.
It started with a pass mixup: in the State Cup (and for the winners, the tournaments that follow it), substitutions are very similar to college: if a player subs out in the first half, they can return in the second. We take the passes of the starting eleven at the beginning of the game, then the passes as players sub-in, and finally return them at half-time where the process starts anew - you can't get on the field without a pass. Apparently there was a mixup, and a player who was on the field didn't get his pass in the starting eleven, and another player's got in the pile instead; the good news (as opposed to couple years ago) was that the fourth official knew which players who were mixed up (it helps that they weren't identical twins). The coach then wanted to put the player who he thought was supposed to start into play - which was fine if he wanted to sub the original player out. When he realized the condition, he kept the original player on the field, and the fourth obtained the correct passes (and gave the other pass back to the bench player).
The city (or rather, suburban) team put in a rather ugly goal: the keeper made a stop, but the ball rebound off the crossbar, and another player was able to head it in - there were a couple of injuries in the melé, but nothing foul-worthy (nobody complained, either); just an example of why you crash the goal after a shot.
Then the rains started - hard. If you turned in one direction, it went straight into your eyes, making it impossible to see; you had to blink several times after getting a face-full before your vision would clear, leaving time where I couldn't do my job properly - I was also afraid of my contacts falling out. Now you may wonder why I didn't just suspend the game there, and that's because of a common tournament rule where it's the tournament staff that decides when to suspend play; usually they have more equipment than refs: laptops with internet connections, lightning detectors, and so forth. So we soldiered on, and the power club earned a free kick about 25-yards from goal.
The kicker asked for the wall to be set.
I told him to wait for the whistle, both verbally, and by raising the whistle over by head and pointing at it.
I received an acknowledgment from the kicker.
I began setting the wall.
Two players inside the penalty area started getting into a pushing contest so I abandoned the wall and dealt with the players. No cards - just a warning for each (one player was wasting his own time, the other needed to keep a clear head with a one goal lead).
I go back to the wall, point to my whistle again, and begin setting it.
Zing! The ball goes over my head as the kicker takes the kick, which is then bobbled by the keeper in the sheeting rain, and it goes into the net. Fans cheer, his teammates embrace him, and they start working their way back to their half.
There was one problem: I hadn't blown my whistle. I knew immediately some team was not going to be happy about this. I elected for the correct response: I ordered the kick retaken; since I made the kick was ceremonial (and my trail AR confirmed my pointing to the whistle, the universal symbol for, "Wait for it," was visible), the ball would not be in-play until I announced it so; that announcement being the whistle.
To the coaches credit, when the game was finally suspended because of the weather, he asked me why I disallowed the goal, and his reply to my answer was a simple, "Fair enough." His players we all over the map in pissed-off; one player earned a caution for a forearm jerk - I could have went red, but decided it was toward the call, and not me. Do I really want to send someone off for something that stupid in such an important game? No, although in High School I would be required to. He got his temper out, he was warned, the rest was up to him.
The re-taken free kick went wide, and shortly after the game was suspended. We already had one suspension on the first game, so our scheduled 8pm start-time was set back to twenty after the hour; and because the tournament staff were against the wall as to get a result, and because 52 minutes out of an 80-minute game really isn't a good thing for a final (their normal rules would require 61 minutes be played), the tournament staff waited until 10:45pm to call the game - with the score and result standing.
It sucks - it would have been a good game, it certainly was until this point but what else could they do? (more)
20 March '09 - 18:19 - - default| Only one comment - § ¶
