Foul?

mccorn

BRONZE
Final minutes in CIF regional quarterfinals, down a goal.
This non call, is it a foul?

 
Player went down too easily, was not balanced very well.
Player got hit in the back while she was jumping, then tripped as she landed.

The defender doesn’t even try to play the ball until after the attacker is fully down.

You’d probably fall too if I ran into your back while you were in the air and swept your leg out from under you.
 
PK for that? No way. Slight contact, no obvious pushing or tripping. Obvious being key word here, as SurfRef pointed out, soccer is a contact sport. The defender wasn't shoving forcefully or sweeping leg for a trip. Parents too often think contact like that is a foul. Similiar to two girls running down a ball shoulder to shoulder and one or both using arms or hands to feel out the opponent. Parents so often think that is a foul. Unless one of them extends that arm and pushes, it's not a foul.
 
PK for that? No way. Slight contact, no obvious pushing or tripping. Obvious being key word here, as SurfRef pointed out, soccer is a contact sport. The defender wasn't shoving forcefully or sweeping leg for a trip. Parents too often think contact like that is a foul. Similiar to two girls running down a ball shoulder to shoulder and one or both using arms or hands to feel out the opponent. Parents so often think that is a foul. Unless one of them extends that arm and pushes, it's not a foul.
Unlike referees, parents get to see the bruises after the game. Refs let a lot go by, and it is leading to injuries. Parents are there for the trips to the doctor. The ref goes home thinking he did a great job.

The games where the ref keeps saying “play on”? Those are the games where the kids are limping that evening.
 
To me the contact looked like regular jostling in the box.

My kid has yet to go through a full blown growth spurt, not uncommon for him to be 80 lbs lighter and a foot shorter then some kids. He ends up on the ground a lot. Sometimes he can draw a foul, sometimes he can't. Not really the bigger kids fault that he launched my kid in most cases. It is a contact sport and there is nothing in the LOTG to prevent size mismatches. My son has had to learn to play smarter, but he is at a definite disadvantage.
 
Unlike referees, parents get to see the bruises after the game. Refs let a lot go by, and it is leading to injuries. Parents are there for the trips to the doctor. The ref goes home thinking he did a great job.

The games where the ref keeps saying “play on”? Those are the games where the kids are limping that evening.
Isn’t that cute??? New AYSO soccer dad thinks there should be no contact in soccer.

Along with all of the minor injuries my daughter had a displaced hip, broken bone in her foot, broken wrist, torn MCL and concussion. All of those occurred during games and she never put the blame on the referee for the injuries or “not protecting the players.” The referee can only act after something happens which will not stop injuries. The referee can call a foul or card a player after the incident but that does nothing to make the injury go away or prevent another injury.
 
Isn’t that cute??? New AYSO soccer dad thinks there should be no contact in soccer.

Along with all of the minor injuries my daughter had a displaced hip, broken bone in her foot, broken wrist, torn MCL and concussion. All of those occurred during games and she never put the blame on the referee for the injuries or “not protecting the players.” The referee can only act after something happens which will not stop injuries. The referee can call a foul or card a player after the incident but that does nothing to make the injury go away or prevent another injury.
Kids will push the rules to find out when, and if, the referee will act.

You constantly see this with free kick restarts. A defender lines up 4 yards from the ball. The rules clearly state that delaying the restart of play is a cautionable offense. But the ref does nothing until the attacker asks for ten. Then the ref slowly marks off ten yards, giving the defender the delay they wanted.

A warning or yellow card would stop the whole charade for the rest of the game. Instead, the referee is assisting the person committing the offense.

By this point, the kids know the ref is a paper tiger. They’re going to be lining up 4 yards from the ball for the whole game.

The same logic applies to dangerous play. If you leave it uncalled, you just get more of it.
 
Kids will push the rules to find out when, and if, the referee will act.

You constantly see this with free kick restarts. A defender lines up 4 yards from the ball. The rules clearly state that delaying the restart of play is a cautionable offense. But the ref does nothing until the attacker asks for ten. Then the ref slowly marks off ten yards, giving the defender the delay they wanted.

A warning or yellow card would stop the whole charade for the rest of the game. Instead, the referee is assisting the person committing the offense.

By this point, the kids know the ref is a paper tiger. They’re going to be lining up 4 yards from the ball for the whole game.

The same logic applies to dangerous play. If you leave it uncalled, you just get more of it.
You do realize that as soon as the referee warns a player to back up from a free kick that the free kick now becomes a ceremonial free kick with a whistle needed to restart play. Why would the referee cause the kicking team to have to delay the restart of play unnecessarily? The majority of the games I work have players that want to take a quick restart and could care less if the player is 4 yards away. If I am going to warn a player it will be during active play and you may never even notice. I routinely warn players in a tone and volume that only they hear.

Maybe you should attend a referee course. That would enable you to TRY to prevent these so called preventable injuries.
 
You do realize that as soon as the referee warns a player to back up from a free kick that the free kick now becomes a ceremonial free kick with a whistle needed to restart play. Why would the referee cause the kicking team to have to delay the restart of play unnecessarily? The majority of the games I work have players that want to take a quick restart and could care less if the player is 4 yards away. If I am going to warn a player it will be during active play and you may never even notice. I routinely warn players in a tone and volume that only they hear.

Maybe you should attend a referee course. That would enable you to TRY to prevent these so called preventable injuries.
I’ve taken the course, thanks. As you know, it doesn’t spend much time on foul recognition. It doesn’t even try to explain what kinds of plays risk injury.

Your own kid had an MCL tear. You see a play of a player landing off balance because she was hit in the back. You know that landing poorly is one of the key reasons for ligament tears.

You may not be able to see the connection. That doesn’t mean it isn’t there. All those shoves to the back and leg sweeps are causing knee injuries. By not calling them, referees are encouraging more hits to the back, more leg sweeps, and more knee injuries.
 
It's the nature of the rules that soccer is a lot more "all or nothing" in terms of the impact of individual calls. A PK may end up being the only goal scored in a game. That's quite a difference. Same with cards - two yellows, gone for the game. It's kind of painful when you consider how much more measured penalties are in other games in terms of the impact on the final score and it obviously affects how fouls are called - which leads to inconsistency.

The push in the back is one of the most inconsistently called fouls I see in youth soccer. It's the hockey equivalent to cross-checking but actually has a bigger impact in soccer. In hockey, at least you can use your legs to try to rebalance and use the stick to control the puck. In soccer, you need to balance and control the ball with your feet. I wish they'd call it every time. The game would still be sufficiently physical. If people want more physical, there's MMA.
 
I think this situation points out the unintended consequences of the penalty area rules. Out in the middle of the field, a foul call on a similar play would draw little comment., or perhaps an even debate for and against the call. However, a simple foul in the PA is often ignored because the consequences are so severe -- the PK opportunity. Maybe we should have a middle ground, such as the referee calling this a dangerous play instead of a foul, leading to an indirect kick close in instead of the PK.
 
I just saw an almost identical play in about the same place in the Galaxy vs Charlotte game. No call. Even the announcers said that it was just two players going for the ball. Galaxy wins 1-0 in front of the largest crowd in MLS histor.
 
It's the nature of the rules that soccer is a lot more "all or nothing" in terms of the impact of individual calls. A PK may end up being the only goal scored in a game. That's quite a difference. Same with cards - two yellows, gone for the game. It's kind of painful when you consider how much more measured penalties are in other games in terms of the impact on the final score and it obviously affects how fouls are called - which leads to inconsistency.

The push in the back is one of the most inconsistently called fouls I see in youth soccer. It's the hockey equivalent to cross-checking but actually has a bigger impact in soccer. In hockey, at least you can use your legs to try to rebalance and use the stick to control the puck. In soccer, you need to balance and control the ball with your feet. I wish they'd call it every time. The game would still be sufficiently physical. If people want more physical, there's MMA.
In terms of a push in a back I think there is a big difference when someone is running and gets pushed in the back. I think we can all agree that's more dangerous as someone's momentum is used against them and gets launched. In the case of this video, both players were fighting for position and the attacker was backing into defender. In my mind both players were both fighting fairly for position.
 
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