The Strategery of Our Sport

             In a country where popular sports don’t end in ties (recall the controversy over the baseball game that did so several years back), soccer has never quite caught on.  Could it be because Americans thrive on the orgasmic aspect of sports?
            Think about football. The season leads to the be-all and the end-all: The Super Bowl.  After that, it’s the off season.  Sure there’s the Arena Football League, but it’s almost an entirely different sport.

            Soccer, by contrast goes on forever.  There’s a season in the fall, the spring, and the penultimate summer. Then it starts up again in the fall.  It never really seems to end.       
            Also, it’s very common for games to end in draws (ties).  In the upper echelon of soccer, a score of 4-2 is a high scoring game.  Scores of 1-0 or 2-1 are far more common.  Maybe this is why Americans loose fascination with soccer and turn to other sports where somebody always wins.

            As a spectator at a high school soccer game asked me the other night: Who won?  My reply: It was a 2-2 tie. The rebuttal: Yeah, but for what team?  Maybe this is why soccer hasn’t caught on.

Hey Pal! Break a leg.

            Injuries are part of sports.  If athletes sat on the couch all day, they wouldn’t get hurt. But, then they wouldn’t be athletes either. 

            Soccer in this country is often seen as a tame sport.  Compared to football, that assessment may be somewhat accurate.

            Although, many injuries still occur in soccer and the shadow of doubt is often cast upon the referee for not controlling the game tightly enough to prevent them.

            Case in point: a few seasons ago during an adult game, two players came sliding in for the ball rather sloppily and one ended up breaking a leg.  This didn’t necessarily mean he had been fouled, though.

            Consider the chicken-and-egg conundrum. Which came first?  Was the action of the player with the now-broken leg responsible for causing the injury or was the opponent’s action the one at fault?

            As the referee, I had to make a split-second decision.  I determined that the first player, by recklessly challenging for the ball, had placed himself in a position where it was feasible his leg might be broken.

            Most of the players weren’t too riled by this decision until the first-responders arrived from the Emergency Medical Services.  As they were carting the player off the field on a gurney, one remarked something along the lines of, the guy who did this deserves a red card.

            I’m sure one can imagine the response from the players that came next.

Apparently, feigning unconsciousness is a new delaying tactic?

While taking the written rules test, which each person wishing to officiate high school soccer must do, I ran across this nifty redundancy:

If a player is deemed by the referee to be unconscious, or apparently unconscious, he or she may only return to the match with written authorization from a physician.
A.) True
B.) False

Hmm.  I'm not sure as to the reason why a player would want to appear unconscious without actually being so, but regardless, he or she will need a doctor's approval before rejoining the game. A.) True.

The Need for Mercy Rules

            On Friday night, I was the referee of an adult match in Ocala, Fla.  The outcome of the match was decided very quickly as one team managed to score ten goals in the first half while allowing none to be scored against them.  The game ended with a score of 15-1.

            This sort of thing happens occasionally and always revives the issue of whether or not leagues should institute a mercy rule.  I have no doubt the two teenagers who had come from soccer practice to work as assistant referees and were exhausted after game one would have loved to leave game two early.  I mean, why work for 80 minutes and get paid $25 when you could work for 40 minutes for the same pay.

            In any case, adult leagues typically don’t have mercy rules because of the pay-to-play aspect.  High school soccer requires a match be terminated at any point after one-half of play is completed and the score reaches an eight-goal differential (one team is ahead by eight).

            Adult leagues need to learn from this and do the same.  If the teams want to continue playing after the match has been declared over, then fine. But, the officials need to remove themselves from the equation.

            Competition is a funny thing. It elevates the level of play, but also typically leads to increased anger.  People playing soccer in a scrimmage type setting for the intrinsic fun of doing so don’t conjure the same emotions against opponents as those in an organized game with an end goal (to win). 

            When one team is pummeling the other, as was the case Friday, players on the loosing team tend to get frustrated.  Unable to compete fairly against the opponent, they resort to unfair means such as reckless play and using excessive force. Both of these can lead to injuries, which can lead to higher insurance rates for the league, loss of players (both from injuries and for the fear of them) and lots of other consequences.  There needs to be a clear rule on when a game is over.

            To the league in Ocala’s credit, they did try to implement a mercy rule this year, but it was a grossly misguided attempt. For seasonal standings, teams are credited with zero points for loosing, one point for tying and three points for winning a game.  This mercy rule stated that teams winning by more than a seven goal differential would only be credited with 2 points. This lead to one team scoring seven goals and the losing team scoring an “own-goal” to make the differential more than seven – thus earning the moral victory of taking one point away from the winning team’s season-standing credit for the win.  It was subsequently repealed. Go figure.

Scholastic Soccer is Behind the Times.

            According to the Florida High School Athletic Association, denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by handling the ball results in the offending player receiving a blue card and being dismissed from the match.  The team of this player doesn’t have to play short. The offending player doesn’t get suspended from any other games. He’s simply disqualified from the match in which he committed the offense.

            Receiving a second yellow card in one game doesn’t result in a red card either; although it does disqualify the player from that particular match.

            So for you soccer fans out there scratching your head as to why the FHSAA would extrapolate from the generally accepted rules, let me further add to your confusion.  Assistant referees don’t use flags; they use whistles. 

            So, it should come as no surprise that the ranking system for officials is rather arcane.  In fact, to become a rank-one official (the highest), all one must do is be registered for 10 years, attend a field clinic, and score above a 90 percent on a test that marking A for every answer would score around a 75. Surprised?

            During post-season play is about the only time game assignments strictly reflect the ranking system, but these are the best games. They deserve the best officials. 

            The United States Soccer Federation requires any official above grade eight (entry level) to receive a game assessment and pass a fitness test each year.  High school officials do neither. 

            This would be unacceptable in amateur, college or professional games, and so should it be in high school.

            

Why Leagues Should Avoid Mandating Cautions.

This past weekend, I was the referee of a very lopsided game at the Gainesville Regional Soccer League.  A player on the loosing team decided to voice his disapproval of the way I was dealing with certain fouls by saying that he knew better and could guarantee he’d been refereeing longer than I had (in slightly more heated terminology not fit for the blog).

            Rather than immediately cautioning the player by issuing him a yellow card, as is the leagues mandated protocol, I reminded him very loudly that I didn’t care if he’d been refereeing longer than I had because I was the referee of this particular match and that he’d better respect that.  I could see heads turn to watch the spectacle on other fields and members of this player’s own team scolded him for talking back to the ref.

            At the conclusion of the match, a player from the winning team inquired as to why I didn’t follow the league rules on cautioning for dissent by giving that player a yellow card.

            Which brings me to this: Why is the league now mandating cautions?  I’ve been doing this for eight years and I know when to come down hard on players to limit dissent and when to give somebody a break.

            The problem is that as referees wish to advance their careers, they need to travel to cities with more prominent leagues – leaving Gainesville with a dearth of referees.  Let me be clear, I’m not criticizing the inexperience of these people; I use to be in their shoes.  But, I am saying that many of them should not yet be in charge of adult matches.  They simply don’t have the skills developed by experience to succeed. 

            The league decided dissent is a problem because referees aren’t sanctioning players for it when necessary and issued an ultimatum: immediately issue yellow cards for any form of dissent. 

            Generally, this might be appropriate.  But there are times when it’s not, such as the game I had Sunday.  By making blanket statements based on the performance of inexperienced referees, the league is discounting the experience of senior officials.

            

Moving Right Along

     The format of this blog is changing from First Amendment issues and controversies to soccer issues and controversies from the perspective of an official.  It will cover the local (somewhat) scene of amateur (including collegiate) soccer in Gainesville, Fla.