FPYCparent wrote:I'm going to hijack this thread instead of starting a new one. Feel free to send me hate mail.![]()
During a match yesterday, a sideline ref made a call that looked like an over-and-back (or backcourt) violation signal from basketball. I don't yet have video of the play, but an attacker made a pass across the mouth of the goal to a trailing teammate. The receiving player shouldn't have been offside ... and the side ref didn't put his flag straight up in the air as one might expect for an offside call. Instead, the ref made the hopping motion with his flag like over-and-back/backcourt. I'm wondering what else that call could have been. (There was no other obvious foul and no goal was ultimately scored or wiped off due to the call against the offensive team.)
I guess I could go through referee training to figure out what the call was. {grin}
Thanks in advance!
retiredref wrote:This clarification does not change the rule, it's just information to help referees make the determination if the ball is played deliberately or not. Don't think the timeliness of when this is pushed to referees will make things harder on them--it just means things will stay exactly as they are for now. As a ref there were times when this was a point of contention between game officials but not very often. If a player in a wall jumps up on a free kick and it hits his head is that deliberately playing the ball? He jumped to meet it so he did have intent to play the ball even if he didn't know when he jumped that the ball would actually come his way. While there may be some grey areas, it is usually pretty easy for the officials to tell the difference between deliberate play and a deflection.
Referees have to recertify every year so the process for pushing out IFAB updates is that they are included in the certification courses. While this isn't a change in the law, the enhanced guidance will definitely be a discussion topic, probably along with some video examples. Some referees recert over the summer so they will get these changes immediately but more don't recert until winter so there will be a lag for them. That said, every referee is expected to keep up with those changes on their own when they are published even though some are more conscientious than others about that. Since assignors are aware of that many will use en do f summer/early fall tournaments as an opportunity to highlight any significant changes and make sure the referees know about any new rules taking effect.
socalsori1980 wrote:At the risk of outing myself, my 2010 daughter and 2011 son were selected as rec all stars from their rec teams and are playing in this tournament.
The fields listed on the schedule are a joke. We went to find them tonight. Stringfellow field 2-3 is just grassy hills in the middle of woods, and Greenbriar field 4 is just a patch of grass covered in deep ruts all over the grass and poison ivy right next to the field and there is gravel and rocks all over the field. No goals, no lines. They are also scheduled to play at some elementary school which I doubt is a real field either. What the hell? (And there is a nice turf field at this same Greenbrier park that they aren't using?)
This tournament was more expensive than travel tournaments our teams played in our old state and I have no interest in watching my kids break their ankles playing on these sh!t excuses for fields.
There is no way these fields can be made safe for play by Saturday.
Is it common knowledge around here to avoid participating in this clown show? No one warned us they wouldn't be playing on real fields. How do they get away charging $800/team for this?
socalsori1980 wrote:Not sure what the referees have access to, but the official schedules have U11-boys games scheduled for Greenbriar 4, which is a patch of grass next to Greenbriar 5 (the actual turf soccer field)
U11 and U12 boys are also playing only on elementary fields at Little Run, Olde Creek.
U12 girls are playing at Stringfellow meadows.
U11 girls are scheduled for turf, oddly, considering U12 boys are not even on soccer fields.
A parent I spoke with who played in this tournament last year said her U11 boy played on turf fields.
No rec leagues played U11 and up games on any of these fields this season. Our rec league wouldn't practice on a field as bad as Greenbriar 4.
The amount of work FPYC is going to have to put into lining all this random grass, installing goals, cleaning up weeds and rocks, is tremendous. I can't believe they have the volunteer manpower for that.
https://soccer.sincsports.com/schedule.aspx?tid=FDAS&tab=4&sub=0
skytalon_fc wrote:SoccerCzar wrote:
I was at River City Sports Complex the entire weekend of ECNL Showcase in Richmond. I watched some games of the local teams...Loudoun, Arlington, VA Union, and BRYC.
This weekend, I heard an ECNL referee crew didn't notice that one team was playing with 12 players, and the team with the extra player scored 2 goals before the refs figured it out. Not one but 2 goals! That's rough.
Yikes. Doesn't sound good. Glad to say I was not on that crew.
I took charge of an Arlington match (06) and was AR on a couple of BRYC games.
skytalon_fc wrote:SoccerCzar wrote:
I was at River City Sports Complex the entire weekend of ECNL Showcase in Richmond. I watched some games of the local teams...Loudoun, Arlington, VA Union, and BRYC.
This weekend, I heard an ECNL referee crew didn't notice that one team was playing with 12 players, and the team with the extra player scored 2 goals before the refs figured it out. Not one but 2 goals! That's rough.
Yikes. Doesn't sound good. Glad to say I was not on that crew.
I took charge of an Arlington match (06) and was AR on a couple of BRYC games.
skytalon_fc wrote:Figured I'd make an account for the sole purpose of this post. I'll start talking more in here.
I'm a referee in the DMV, I've been going for about four years and I'd call myself a pretty good referee. I've got a range of experience and I'd say I'm better than a few of the "regional" referees you'll see out there. I've still got plenty to learn but I'm mighty passionate about it and I have some very strong opinions about the perceptions of referees. I think Taylor Twellman and Alexi Lalas have peanut brains and shouldn't be employed in soccer, solely because of how they've contributed to the perception of referees and how often they're just outright wrong. I'll go to a word war over refereeing and most often find myself cheering on the referees rather than teams, except when watching a specific handful of teams.
What league has the best referees?
As some may be aware, High School referees need a separate certification than club soccer. HS referees vary tremendously in quality - regular season it's a little underwhelming but playoff referees are generally pretty well seasoned.
ECNL referees are entirely dependent on the HOME club. Maryland clubs will have pretty poor quality, as the assigning in Maryland isn't really ideal. I'm slightly unfamiliar with how Loudoun soccer assigns as they're pretty far from where I'm at and I tend not to go that far unless I need to. VDA, BRYC, McLean, and Arlington are all assigned by the same assignor, and he is a wonderful assignor and human being. Rarely are you going to see referees who stay in the center circle. You'll probably get a bit less experience, but they're not bad at all. Arlington started with really bad referees as they started the season with a really bad assignor, but they soon moved onto the better one.
MLS NEXT will have the highest quality referees in the country. The reason is that all MLS NEXT is assigned by the National Assignors pool. The same referees that are refereeing USL League Two and other adult amateur/semi-pro leagues are going to be refereeing MLS NEXT. In the DMV, sometimes those referees can be underwhelming - so don't expect anything near perfection - but it'll be the highest quality you'll get at the youth level.
SoccerCzar, I was one of the referees at the ECNL National Showcase in Richmond - hope I fell into that category of "excellent!" - what team(s) were you watching? I may have been involved in a match of yours.
RantingSoccerDad, I'm curious. What levels do you tend to ref at?
SoccerQs wrote:If you have a kid who loves to play soccer, and plays a lot of soccer, what steps or limits do you put on him/her to prevent overtraining/overuse injuries?
I have a U12 boy whose doctor is concerned that overuse is a factor in a recent injury. He's suggesting that DS take the summer off from soccer, which we can do this summer, but I wonder what it means for next year once he moves up, because MLS Next teams (his goal) seem to run from September to mid July.
Also, if you stop your kid from playing soccer, do you stop things like pick up, or practicing on his own in the backyard? Or just team membership? If they just do something else (summer swim, sports camps for another sport, playing basketball in the neighborhood) does that still help?