A Tale of Two Games
Entries are short because I'm getting morning games, and because I can't take too much time on this before someone else gets impatient. My guess is that once I get back to work (and caught up), I'll be able to write at length again.Saw a very entertaining game today - between a local team (for the USA Cup, that means somewhere in the Twin Cities) and a primarily hispanic team from Houston. Had a bilingual National in the middle, another National on the line, and a Canadian equivalent of a State-five on the other. The teams were U19, it was a playoff, and emotions were high - and it was just poetry to watch the officiating crew at work. There were five or six yellow cards, but the center was always there when he needed to be. He did just enough to keep the kids under control, and in doing so allowed those of us watching to see a magnificent 3-2 game that ended in the second overtime.
One of the most interesting things was to listen into his halftime discussion with his ARs and the field manager - the team from Houston had been blowing away their opponents, and were behind by two, and he was seriously worried about, if they didn't score, things getting bad - as in "call security" bad. As it turned out, they scored two in the second half, and headed in a great cross to take the victory in the second extra period.
Later, I ran into a friend at referee headquarters who was filling out supplemental reports. Looks like a similar situation, with another local team (this time the one that didn't expect to lose) getting beaten soundly. Referee did much of the same thing as the first game, but when they didn't score, things got ugly. There was spitting and an assault upon the center.
Both refs did the right things - but at some point, it's the team's actions. I sincerely hope the kid who slugged the ref gets banned for life. I don't care how bad a referee is, they don't deserve to get hit. End of story.