Details

They say it's all in the details and in the world of soccer refereeing that is certainly true.

We talk a lot about the "big decisions" that you, as a referee, must make throughout the game. But anyone who watches a great referee perform knows that its not just the big decisions that separate the good from the amazing. If you pay close attention to that referee you will see small actions form a certain synergy that helps his or her game go smoothly. We'll dig deeper into each element in later posts but for now let's just look at a few easy ones:

Manage your assignments. Especially during the fall season we find ourselves inundated with games. You could practically do several games every day if you were so inclined. That makes it easy to forget about a match or double book yourself. Try your best to keep track of it all. If you have to turn-back an assignment do it as soon as possible and always be polite.

Appearance. Haven't we all heard this one before? Then why does it always come up again? Because people still show up looking shabby. This one is easy and does you a lot of good. Just try it, trust me.

Preparation. It shows when you have done a little research about the two teams before showing up. You seem in control when you know what's riding on a game. Having all your gear with you , allowing enough time to show up to the game and doing a proper pre-game gives creditability to you as a referee. Never do a game that is above your fitness level.

Learn. The is a host of information out there. If you really want to do a great job at this you need to become a student of the game. Don't know where to find more information? Reach out and we'll guide you in the right direction. It's great to see that weird situation in the game that no one knows how to handle and then see a confident referee educate everyone on how it should be resolved.

I'm thinking next week we'll take a close look one of the Laws of the Game that can help us focus on the details. Happy Refereeing!

Risk Taking

Have you heard about this one? Many of us who have had the opportunity to travel to tournaments or regularly follow the US Soccer Communications have probably come across this new phrase. What does it mean and how does it affect us?

In reality, although the term is fairly new, the concept has been around for a long time. Risk Taking means using a variety of management techniques to control a match, allow game flow to develop and limit unnecessary involvement from the referee crew. Maybe you've see it in one of the night games at UNM Stadium or on your television. The referee sees a foul, but chooses to "take a risk" and let play continue. Keep in mind this can be very different from calling advantage or ruling that a foul is trivial. Let's take a look at a few clips....

Risk Taking, Clip 1

Risk Taking, Clip 2

Per USSF the first clip was a good example of risk taking. The play continued, players acknowledged the referee's decision to not call the foul and overall the game does well. The second example shows us how its vital to be able to recognize a serious foul, one that cannot be allowed to play through and is not a good candidate for taking a risk.

Now let's take another thing into consideration: The games we do aren't the same as MLS. To many that's an obvious statement, but it cannot go without saying. When we look at examples like those above or read over communications from USSF we need to carefully apply a filter to the advice. There is always a wealth of good information but its our job to adapt the lesson to our situations. Sure you can get away with not calling a foul when you are dealing with professional players and coaches who (normally) behavior in a respectful manner. Now that same foul may get you in a lot of trouble on that Sunday game. Don't let your game get out of control and then tell the Assessor afterwards you didn't call that tackle from behind because you were "taking a risk."

So why do we even bother looking at the higher level matches if they don't always directly apply to our games? As anyone who trains for an activity knows: You have to aspire to be better than where you are now. You learn from those that are above you in ability and even if you can't perform at the same tier now its good to watch it. When new ideas hit the community don't be afraid to use them--just be careful. Perhaps we can take smaller risks, like being able to read a game and understand when you can allow a little more contact or wait that extra second for advantage to develop before blowing the whistle.

It's these little changes that you can apply to your game and make it that much better without having the police get called to one of your matches.

Notice something?

I'm trying my best to keep this website fairly interesting. I know all the training material can be a little dry so that's why 'm trying to shake it up a little. Let me know what you think about the changes.

In the meantime you've probably noticed the new logo. Its nothing official yet, just me playing around with our current logo. Do you like it? Is it horrible? Only one way for me to know and that involves you typing an email. Come on, I know you can....

Disallowed Goal from a Pass Back Violation

Several times in games you find yourself having to make a series of difficult decisions in quick succession. Its easy to get overwhelmed in these situations and make a simple mistake. We've all had that moment in a game where we get flustered and find ourselves making an easy call difficult and then having an even bigger issue on our hands. Let's look at this video and see how the referee crew made several correct decisions, none of which were tough calls by themselves but when put together created what was probably a very stressful situation for the officials. See how they work together and got the decisions right!





Alright, let's start at the beginning. First, they recognize that a "pass back violation" has occurred. Although the pass back to the goalkeeper was a long kick, all the conditions were met for this to be an offense:

• The ball was kicked (played by the foot) by a teammate of the goalkeeper
• The act was considered to be deliberate (not a deflection)
• The goalkeeper handles the ball directly (no interfering play from when ball was kicked)

It's important to note that if the ball had gone into the net despite the efforts by the goalkeeper to prevent this the referee would have allowed the goal (applied advantage). Instead, the indirect free kick was awarded and the referee allowed a quick free kick to take place. The quick kick was allowed because the ball was stationary, near (enough) to the location of the infraction and there was no other reason to slow play down (injury or misconduct). However the player taking the quick kick forgot that it was an indirect free kick and therefore kicked the ball directly into the net.

The referee made quick eye-contact with the AR to make sure there was no contact with the ball before it entered the net and then announced that the goal was not valid. The thing I like most about this sequence of events is how the whole crew worked together. The AR flagged the initial violation, the referee allowed the quick take, the 4th official communicated with the coach and the AR silently told the Referee there was no contact as the ball when into the net. All this teamwork made it easy to get the call right.

So, what is the restart? First one to email me the correct restart will get a prize!

Referee Summit

This past weekend the State Referee Committee called together the "powers" of soccer and we had a great meeting regarding the dire state of refereeing in NM and how that impacts soccer as a whole. Communication is vital for any program to operate properly and we saw this weekend that we have a ways to go to repair the lines of communication. Lots of ideas were passed back and forth by representatives of leagues, associations and various referee groups.

But this is only the beginning.

It's said that half the battle is identifying the problem and possible solutions. This may be true enough, yet it seems the last half of this battle is akin to climbing a mountain. I believe the biggest challenge we face is not identifying the problem - that's easy enough - but actually acting on our plans. We don't always get the results we want but any action is better than none. We have to utilize all the resources we have available before we can ask for more, period.

There was a lot of discussion of who was responsible for fixing the problem. The answer is clear: It's a responsibility shared by us all. Leagues need referees to do their games, state associations need quality referees to raise the level of play across the state and referees need more numbers so we don't burn out doing 80 games a season.

What, then, are we going to do? Its easy to sit back and say "there's nothing I can do as a humble [insert title]." That's just not going to cut it if we want to succeed. So let's continue the discussion. You are the referee community, what are your thoughts? What do you see causing over 80% of our new referees choosing to call it quits in their first year? How can you help? Keep an eye out for future communication as we take action on ideas brought up this weekend. If you happen to get called upon to help please try and do so. Its an investment that will pay off. Because no one wants to have to be doing 4 games a weekend with no AR's, right?

Well...there are a few of you out there that don't mind that but I bet that you sometimes long for a break, too.

Orion Reports on Youth Nationals

[Orion Stradford was selected to represent Region IV at the Youth Championships. Here's what he had to say about the experience...]


I'm back from the US Youth Soccer Championships in Little Rock, Arkansas. The tournament was from Monday, July 21st to Sunday, July 27th. We all flew in on Monday and met at the hotel to go out to eat. After dinner, the first referee meeting was at 10:00 pm. We discussed the tournament and received our first assignments. The games did not begin until Wednesday, leaving Tuesday for more meetings and the player luncheon.

On Tuesday, Brian Hall instructed us on refereeing with your personality, and using it to prevent fouls instead of solely relying on your whistle, and using your presence and body language while refereeing. One of the newer topics US Soccer is putting forward to referees is the balance of Game Control, Game Flow and Risk Taking. This topic was presented again at Tuesday's training. After the morning training we went to the player luncheon and trophy presentation. It was a very exciting presentation, as the 12 referees who worked last years' finals carried in the trophies. After the luncheon, we all drove out to Burns Park to check the fields. They all looked great and were all approximately 110 x 75.

Finally by Wednesday we'd have our first shot at games. My first match was U 16 Girls, on field #4 in the Center at 9:30 am. It was Sting Royal from North Texas vs Eclipse Select from Illinois. The final was 2-2, no cautions, no problems. A pretty mellow first game. Wednesday's training was at 2:00pm after the morning games. Brian Hall was the instructor again. His topics for this session were proper hydration and nutrition. Two referees had gone down in the heat already from the morning games, as the high temperatures had neared the 100s and humidity in the 80% range.

Thursday's match was another Center at 9:30 am, U 15 Boys, Baltimore Bays from Maryland vs Dallas Texans which the Bays won 2-0. In the first half I called a penalty kick for Baltimore. As their attacker got into the penalty area the goal keeper came out and tried to smother the ball, it began to bounce around with the attacker being able to come up with it. The keeper then swiped at the attacker's legs, fouling him. Baltimore converted the PK. Late in the first half, a Baltimore player was shielding the ball near the halfway line and the touch line. His achilles was raked by the cleat of the Dallas defender, the response being a push to the face which I deemed unsporting behavior (not violent conduct) and chewed him out and showed him a yellow card. In the second half, Baltimore scored their second goal. Dallas had the ball in their own half, and at an attempt to play a long ball, the ball hit a Baltimore player on the arm. My thought was "no handball as the ball did all of the work on that one" and allowed play to continue. The player spotted a teammate upfield, sent him a pass along the ground which he collected, and in one move was able to beat his defender and score, for the final score of 2-0. Needless to say, the Dallas coached were not very pleased at the end of this one!

On Friday, I did two ARs. U 18 Girls, Colorado Rush defeated the Sting from North Texas 1-0. U 17 Boys Ohio North defeated Cal North 2-1. The centers for these games were Dario Urrutia from New York, and Armando Villareal from South Texas. These two referees were absolutely fantastic and I imagine have very promising refereeing careers ahead of them!

Saturday was the first day of Championship Matches, for the U 14s and U15s. I did not receive an assignment for that night, so I was able to go out and just watch soccer for a change!

On Sunday I was assigned a "5th Official" for the U 16 Boys Final. Doug Wolff was in the Center. He is a grade 4 referee from Missouri, and a very good referee. He displayed a very positive demeanor with the players, and yet was authoritative and under control at all times in this match. The U 16 Boys championship was won by the Dallas Texas 2-0 over Cal North.

All-in-all this was a very great experience for me as a referee. It provided new challenges, new outlooks and perspectives on the game, and gave me a chance to make many new friends from all over the country.


Thanks for the report, Orion, and also for doing a great job representing all referees from NM. Its quite the honor and we appreciate all your hard work!

Director's Cup Report

Sometimes you don't know how a tournament is going to go until the last day.

This weekend I found myself in Kirkwood, Delaware for the Director's Cup. I will admit that my expectations were not that high; I still prepared myself mentally and physically to do my best. Boy did I need it. The quality of the games aside, there were many things that challenged the referees.

Weather. Most of us here in New Mexico are used to doing games when its hot outside. However, its rare that we're doing games when there is a heat advisory posted. The temperatures reached the upper 90's and with humidity in the upper 80's to say it was muggy was an understatement. Two referees dropped, one of whom had to be hospitalized. This stresses the importance of preparing by hydrating for a tournament. If you wait until the first day or even the night before you often are not ready.

Concentration. Sometimes its easy for us to be on a match that isn't the most challenging and lose focus. This leads to costly mistakes that not only impact the players (who are doing their best) but also the way you're rated. This applies to us here at home, too: when you are doing a match do your absolute best. While sometimes you may not feel like its the most important game of the day, the players deserve your best performance. Work hard and it will pay off.

Cooperation. I found myself in a few situations that felt awkward during the game, mainly because I had never worked with the other members of the crew before. If you are planning to take your game to the next level you have to be able to work well with others. In my case luckily there were no problems encountered but it reminded me how important it is to cover details in your pregame. When you're home and working with someone you do games with every week you can anticipate what they'll do. When its someone new (and this can happen at home, too) you need to talk it through before the match so you can avoid miscommunication.

Overall the tournament was a good experience. It was nice to "network" with other referees and see how they call things in Region I, II and III. I think everyone who attended learned a lot and certainly broadened their horizons. My helpful advice to you is when you go out of state to work a tournament always try to build relationships with other referees. Not only is it fun to interact with other people who share your passion but it also will open doors to future opportunities.

Finally, the adage that someone is always watching rings true. This weekend I saw that hard work pays off and often times in ways you wouldn't imagine at first. NEVER be discouraged and "give up" on a tournament. If you put in the effort you will be rewarded. Trust me.