I'm glad I'm not the only one who smiles
What a bummer: all set to be a national; assessments in-hand and doing the physical (which are not located anywhere near this state) you yank a hamstring. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a pretty good definition of sucks. But he's a great referee, who on more than one occasion has helped me out (including one big ass saving), both on the field and off; I hope he'll get another chance next year.
I've mentioned earlier this year that I think I've found a pattern is most of our men's league games: when one team realizes that they cannot win by skill, they resort to both intimidation and whining. Elbows will be thrown, shoulders will be lowered and momentum will not be halted; combined with that really nasty cocktail is whining about every little touch they get in return. Any one of those is bad enough, both is an inditement upon their honor. That it's happens with regularlity is a sad reflection of how we treat sports in this country.
The game was handled extremely well, as you would expect on a division three men's game by a National Candidate. I did stop by and tell him after the game, that, referring to a spot when a player is complaining about a ball out-of-play that didn't go his direction (a blindingly obvious call that the player was trying to scam), that I'm glad I'm not the only one who starts smiling when they try to pull that stuff.
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29 October '09 - 00:01 - - default| - § ¶
Knee? Not too bad
If the 3rd division women's game was the warm up, the 2nd division men's was the test. And while there were no flying colors, the knee held up pretty well. I could definitely tell I had some issues, being I'm at beginning of season form, and the teams are in the final third - but there were no cock-ups, and I held up pretty-well with play. I had one moment late in the first half when I felt it really go ping - but I didn't come up lame and it quickly went away. Furthermore, there's been no next day side-effects. I'm not sure I'm ready yet for lines on 1st division men's games yet (which I did a lot of these last few years), but I'm happy to be doing games again. The next test will be a center.
The game was pretty good - pretty clean, pretty mellow, two beautiful goals scored, and one ugly game winner. The first goal was off a free kick, to the inside of the wall and just into the net. The second, to tie it up, was an off-balance, tight-angle shot from seven or eight yards away that squeaked past the keeper into the far side's side-netting. But less than five minutes later, the other goalkeeper let a low ball through his hands; that one ended up being the game-winner.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I did - I know I can do better, but all things considered I'm pretty satisfied. Too bad the season is almost over - although there will be some fall games in a women's league I'll be able to referee (I've decided to forgo High School this year, as I'm learning to referee another sport, which has practices on the same day as most high school matches, and because it has its own hand signals I'm working on learning - and trying to work with both sets at the same time will just be a pain)..
07 October '09 - 08:51 - - default| - § ¶
