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GK swan lake

santa sangria

santa sangria

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Well, quick trumpet blow... had probably my best game in the middle to date. But...
But still one or two things. Always be aware of the possibility of offside when you are focused on the ball pinging around in the box - I missed my assistant's flag for a few secs.

I did a great "off the telly" persistent infringement yellow. And the same player walked for a second yellow. And he walked tidily. And thanked me afterwards. Nice lad. captain too!

But yes, the problem moment. Blue attacker closes in on red GK as he collects the ball. Attacker doesn't really challenge but there is minor contact. Not a foul. I am not going to blow. There is a Pinter-esque pause... before the GK throws a Klinsmann roll... and rolls with the ball into the back of the net!

While I grit my teeth, my assistant correctly flags for the ball over the line (good work). In a split second, I blow and give a foul to the GK. I then have extremely harsh words with the GK about the position he put me in and the consequences of anything similar in future.

The context was reds were 4-1 down and some players had started getting tetchy already. I chose match control over "punishing the idiotic" when the match result was already settled. Both teams praised my professionalism after the game as I was very tidy throughout with good movement etc. This was capital area amateur mens', in the lowest level with ARs.

A division up... a closer game... a reviewer present... I would have awarded the goal.

Oh f*** Have I really just marked my "best game" with a huge clanger?*=?)(/?
 
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What were the other players expecting?

If both teams were expecting a foul then it could be that you just had the view that made it look like it wasn't a foul when in fact it was
 
No one was expecting the goal to be given. The opposition were so far ahead and a pretty straight bunch that they didn't use the incident as an opportunity to get confrontational. In another game, at another score, they would have.

Good point though.

Edit: I was very close, inside the 18 and unobstructed ;)
 
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I may have misunderstood this so forgive me if so but was the goalkeeper trying to get you to give them a free kick? If so you could caution the GK for USB and either award the goal or give an IDFK for simulation. I know we are now meant to take into account 'the spirit of the game' but the score shouldn't matter? But in the circumstances it sounds like you did the right thing and ended up keeping match control well so well done!
 
Will Triffitt said:
I may have misunderstood this so forgive me if so but was the goalkeeper trying to get you to give them a free kick? If so you could caution the GK for USB and either award the goal or give an IDFK for simulation. I know we are now meant to take into account 'the spirit of the game' but the score shouldn't matter? But in the circumstances it sounds like you did the right thing and ended up keeping match control well so well done!
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That's actually very interesting. Yes, you have understood. I could have blown for simulation, cautioned, and awarded an IDFK at the point of the offence just inside the 6 yard box. Then the IDFK would have taken place on the edge of the 6 yard box.

That would have been an excellent solution. I did not consider it at the time. It would have punished the goalkeeper without awarding the goal. It would have been proportionate. I could have sold it easily. His own team were embarrassed by his cry and roll. Very good suggestion.
 
I'm missing something here.
As you said, there was no foul. The goalkeeper took a dive so you gave him the free kick and disallowed the goal? I'm not following.

Will Triffitt said:
I may have misunderstood this so forgive me if so but was the goalkeeper trying to get you to give them a free kick? If so you could caution the GK for USB and either award the goal or give an IDFK for simulation.!
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If the ball is incorrect you cannot take it back to give a free kick for the attacking team, unless a breach by the attacking team cancelling out advantage has occurred. You can caution the GK for USB and award the goal, but you can't go back and award an attacking IFK
 
There was contact - I wasn't going to award a foul - but I decided to for the sake of match control.
What Will suggested could have worked...
But I understand what you are saying: to give an IFK and not award the goal could appear to be very unfair to the attacking team. The ball ending up over the goal line is obviously an "advantage". I still think I could have sold the IFK though ;)

On balance, the option I took worked - but only in the context of this game. And mostly because I had built up a good rapport with both sides.
A level up and I would have awarded the goal.
 
So, there was no foul at all (given it's not netball, the contact doesn't matter. It was a foul or it wasn't). Keeper took a dive, threw the ball into his own net, and on the basis of that you awarded the keeper a free kick.

I can't possibly fathom how that can be argued as the right decision. It's disappointing when 'match control' is the reason for blatant law breaches by referees. Something is fundamentally wrong if that's acceptable.

whether you could have 'sold' the IFK isn't relevant. If it was 100%, black and white the wrong decision then you shouldn't be trying to sell it.
 
I agree with you. I said it worked. Not that it was "right".

This is an extreme case of when, on the TV, a player goes down theatrically and grabs the ball, and we see a lot of those whistled in favour of the attacker and I can remember about one ever being cautioned for handball.

Capn - is your tone on the field the same as on the forum - and what levels and ages do you officiate at?
I ask because you seem to show little empathy for the players and their tendencies towards idiotic behaviour ;)
 
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Maybe that's why I've stopped refereeing - too little patience for stupidity....haha

But for something like this - why on earth would I disallow a goal because a defender dived?

You'll note that I didn't advocate cautioning the goalkeeper, even though the textbook answer is to allow the goal and caution the keeper. So there's some sympathy for his stupidity there :p (namely the fact that his stupidity has already punished him enough!)

You say empathy - how about empathy for the other team who were cheated out of a goal by the keeper? ;-)

Ages? U/10 through to mens through to O/35., women's too
Grades? low grade women's juniors through to State League 1 (2nd highest mens league comp in the state, and the reserve grade - or feeder youth team - for the state premier league). Futsal, refereed up to the men's state premier competition (most likely would be on the national competition if I didn't stop). Assessing, mentoring, running courses, appointments manager, been involved in a number of ways over my years. I don't normally advertise that because...well, I don't expect anybody to take my word for anything because of what level I've refereed at.

Some things, such as dissent, I started being too soft on the field. Assessments (and colleagues) usually praised my common sense approach to refereeing, so I'm not a hard-ass on the field, and off the top of my head I can't think of anything I've posted on here that I wouldn't do on the field. Refereed plenty of difficult games without a card, and not afraid to give a stack of cards in a game either.

I have certainly made a number of arguments about how we should be exercising zero tolerance for dissent, should be giving half a dozen cards for melee's not just 2, and a few other other things, but each time I've made it clear that I'm criticising the global approach to refereeing, and while I can engage in such philosophical discussion, I do so while acknowledging that it's not how things currently are and I wouldn't advocate for any individual to take a one man approach to fixing all the problems in the world ;-)

I don't think I advocate any harsher approach on a number of things than many others on here do.
 
santa sangria said:
I ask because you seem to show little empathy for the players and their tendencies towards idiotic behaviour ;)
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While I'm all in favour of having empathy for players, I'm not sure that it should extend as far as condoning idiotic behaviour - or as far as awarding a free kick to a player when as clearly stated in the OP, it was "not a foul."
 
Cut to the chase, caution the keeper for simulation.... award the goal... stop being concerned for getting praises from the players/managers.
As for "Another level i would have given the goal" is so wrong, consistency is the concern here.
 
mikedn said:
Cut to the chase, caution the keeper for simulation.... award the goal... stop being concerned for getting praises from the players/managers.
As for "Another level i would have given the goal" is so wrong, consistency is the concern here.
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I refer back to my earlier point, if everyone else on the pitch is expecting the free kick then perhaps from your angle there was no foul but every other angle says it was.

Thus no surprises
 
Darius said:
I refer back to my earlier point, if everyone else on the pitch is expecting the free kick then perhaps from your angle there was no foul but every other angle says it was.

Thus no surprises
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Everybody else may be expecting something but everybody else also hasn't read the LOTG. While 'no surprises' refereeing has some relevance, it can easily be taken too far. If you're not prepared to make the difficult, unpopular, unexpected or not-understood decision because you're the one with the expertise and training in looking at the game from an angle that none of those 22 players do, then you're in the wrong job. 22 players may expect a decision - and often those 22 players are wrong. The 'players expect it' approach is the fastest way to perpetuate misunderstandings of the laws.

If I took that approach then I'd be penalising every case of accidental handling that falls to a player's feet.....

sometimes there's only one position on the field that can tell there was daylight between 2 players when somebody goes down after a challenge
 
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You're missing what I'm saying I think. To put it into simple terms I'm saying he may have actually just missed something
 
Darius said:
You're missing what I'm saying I think. To put it into simple terms I'm saying he may have actually just missed something
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For instance, it may have been that the contact, even though minor, was initiated when there was no genuine opportunity to play the ball, but my angle didn't show me that.
In this case, the attacking team made no complaints about this incident.

Shame I don't have a video to review the contact again, and to get a few laughs at the GK's expense...
 
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