Legends FC Disqualified

I have been apart of these types of games 3 times, with 2 against and 1 for. One of the against games had parents not on our team yelling at the refs it was so lopsided. Invisible calls happened like our player obstructed their goalie without touching him and took away a goal. And it went to penalties where if they missed the ref said our goalie came off the line, this happened three times. We later found out the ref and coach belonged to the same union and were friends. The other was a phantom goal I have on video (corner kick) that allegedly bounced across the line and then out without hitting a post. The assistant who said goal was related to one of the kids on the team we found out. I will never forget the assistant making a snake motion with his arm to the center. The tournament director apologized to us after. Orange county refs association contacted me to take down the video :) .
The one for was a hand ball in the box during state cup semi vs Slammers. The ball hit the slammers hand and she was was faced towards the goal not even knowing the ball was shot in her direction. I know this ref, and my coach were acquaintances for years in the santa clarita area. This could have been a really bad call, or he helped with a penalty. We moved on to play the Blues and lost.

Anyone else have any experiences similar?
 
The other strangest thing to happen was having the 3 top teams in the same bracket to open state cup. Blind Draw LOL Cal South
 
I think, for our game, the most generally obvious corrupt call wasn't one of the two mentioned (both of those led to scores, but they were certainly not the only suspect calls). The most obvious, in my mind, was when our defender was pushed over from behind in the second half, just outside our box, and the ref blew the whistle. A couple parents let out verbal "finally" sighs, because we'd had so many calls against, and it seemed like we were finally getting a call. Then the ref signaled a free kick for the Legends FC team.

... off a push in the back of our player, who had done literally nothing, and was playing the ball at the time. For most of the parents, this was probably the point where people came to the conclusion, with certainty, that the ref was bought and the game was rigged, and complaining about the officiating turned to jeering about how stupid the situation was. This was well into the second half at that point, though, and although we kept playing (and the final score was close), we knew it was impossible to win, cause it was rigged from the start.

For myself, I'd already concluded the game was rigged, based on the early slide tackle call, which led to the first score of the game, and demoralized our team. It was an impossible call by the laws of the game: an actual foul (which even the ref told our player didn't happen) should have been a card due to the breakaway opportunity, and a dangerous play would have been indirect, not a penalty, even as a ridiculous justification for the call on the otherwise clean play. Incompetence alone doesn't explain making a on-field ruling which literally doesn't exist in the rules of the game. 100% rigged, by Legends FC, imho.

Proud of our kids, though: they played a good game, even if the losing outcome was predetermined, and would have one without the obvious corrupt calls. Maybe Socal League will take some action at some point, but not holding my breath.
 
My favorite was ECRL playoffs, slammers vs legends at Silverlakes. 3-4 ecnl players helping legends. Referee making a bunch of phantom calls. We knew about the home field advantage but what happened in the end was wild. 3 min left slammers up 1-0, center starts calling fouls against slammers holding the ball at the corner flag. He adds 5 min of extra time. Then starts making ridiculous calls to give the ball back to legends. Even an offsides on a throw in. The whole match is on YouTube.

Slammers won but then the ref gave legends a bunch of free kicks the next game to come back on differential and sent them to Virginia.

I never thought this stuff was really happening until I saw it first hand last year.
 
I suppose it's somewhat a testament to the overall integrity of the rest of the leagues/venues that this particular experience feels like a glaring outlier over the last ~3 years. We've had good and bad refs, and lost some games on bad calls for sure, but this is the first time in my perception which any game has been clearly rigged.

Of course, I'll probably look at games in a new light now, especially when playing Legends FC and/or at Silverlakes.

Flip side: We thought the Legends team would be strong coming into the game, given their rating, but they were clearly not as good as their ranking would have suggested. I suppose that suggests a pattern and history of cheating. That makes me feel better about the current level of my son's team, to know that clubs like Legends FC need to cheat to get their rankings.
 
sigmabody said:
I suppose it's somewhat a testament to the overall integrity of the rest of the leagues/venues that this particular experience feels like a glaring outlier over the last ~3 years. We've had good and bad refs, and lost some games on bad calls for sure, but this is the first time in my perception which any game has been clearly rigged.

Of course, I'll probably look at games in a new light now, especially when playing Legends FC and/or at Silverlakes.

Flip side: We thought the Legends team would be strong coming into the game, given their rating, but they were clearly not as good as their ranking would have suggested. I suppose that suggests a pattern and history of cheating. That makes me feel better about the current level of my son's team, to know that clubs like Legends FC need to cheat to get their rankings.
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Legends definatlely likes to supplement thier teams with mulitple players from higher level teams. If thier ECNL and ECRL teams are scheduled to play the same day, you can expect them to reschedule one of the games for "reasons."
 
sigmabody said:
I think, for our game, the most generally obvious corrupt call wasn't one of the two mentioned (both of those led to scores, but they were certainly not the only suspect calls). The most obvious, in my mind, was when our defender was pushed over from behind in the second half, just outside our box, and the ref blew the whistle. A couple parents let out verbal "finally" sighs, because we'd had so many calls against, and it seemed like we were finally getting a call. Then the ref signaled a free kick for the Legends FC team.

... off a push in the back of our player, who had done literally nothing, and was playing the ball at the time. For most of the parents, this was probably the point where people came to the conclusion, with certainty, that the ref was bought and the game was rigged, and complaining about the officiating turned to jeering about how stupid the situation was. This was well into the second half at that point, though, and although we kept playing (and the final score was close), we knew it was impossible to win, cause it was rigged from the start.

For myself, I'd already concluded the game was rigged, based on the early slide tackle call, which led to the first score of the game, and demoralized our team. It was an impossible call by the laws of the game: an actual foul (which even the ref told our player didn't happen) should have been a card due to the breakaway opportunity, and a dangerous play would have been indirect, not a penalty, even as a ridiculous justification for the call on the otherwise clean play. Incompetence alone doesn't explain making a on-field ruling which literally doesn't exist in the rules of the game. 100% rigged, by Legends FC, imho.

Proud of our kids, though: they played a good game, even if the losing outcome was predetermined, and would have one without the obvious corrupt calls. Maybe Socal League will take some action at some point, but not holding my breath.
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Just catching up.

Yeah, youth games are well known for being rigged. You really need to talk to your DOC about increasing your fees to cover referee bribes. In fact, I'm surprised your DOC and/or coach hasn't already brought this up. Definitely have a conversation about how much would be needed to meet that requirement.
 
TeamDadJokes said:
My favorite was ECRL playoffs, slammers vs legends at Silverlakes. 3-4 ecnl players helping legends. Referee making a bunch of phantom calls. We knew about the home field advantage but what happened in the end was wild. 3 min left slammers up 1-0, center starts calling fouls against slammers holding the ball at the corner flag. He adds 5 min of extra time. Then starts making ridiculous calls to give the ball back to legends. Even an offsides on a throw in. The whole match is on YouTube.

Slammers won but then the ref gave legends a bunch of free kicks the next game to come back on differential and sent them to Virginia.

I never thought this stuff was really happening until I saw it first hand last year.
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Would like to see this video. Can you share the link. I'm against all forms of corruption and things like this need to be punished!
 
TeamDadJokes said:
My favorite was ECRL playoffs, slammers vs legends at Silverlakes. 3-4 ecnl players helping legends. Referee making a bunch of phantom calls. We knew about the home field advantage but what happened in the end was wild. 3 min left slammers up 1-0, center starts calling fouls against slammers holding the ball at the corner flag. He adds 5 min of extra time. Then starts making ridiculous calls to give the ball back to legends. Even an offsides on a throw in. The whole match is on YouTube.

Slammers won but then the ref gave legends a bunch of free kicks the next game to come back on differential and sent them to Virginia.

I never thought this stuff was really happening until I saw it first hand last year.
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Had a center ref do the same type thing at a Surf Cup game. Then when our coach started calling the craziness out the CR ran over and tried to start a fight with him. This literally happened, Ive never seen anything like it before and no our coach wasn't instigating. He was calling out the ridiculous calls but being reasonable. Then when the crazy CR was able to give the other team enough calls to finally score a goal and get 1 up on our team he ended the game 5 minutes short. When this happened both sidelines went bonkers. The CR stomped off the field and the lines refs chased after him. Once the CR got off the field he got in a fight with one of the lines refs who was arguing that there was still 5min left in the game. When this happened everyone stopped getting crazy because who's ever seen refs get into a fight before? The other line ref got in between the 2 refs that were fighting and broke it up. After all that people were just stunned.

This was at a Surf Cup which made the whole situation really odd because everything they do is usually top notch. Unfortunately for the fighting ref our coach was/is involved with Surf Cup Sports and put together the entire tournament. At the end of the game he huddled up the players / parents and apologized for what happened. Afterwords I was chatting 1on1 with our coach and he said that ref shouldn't be around children and that he's already spoken with people about what happened and the ref will be gone in the afternoon. Unfortunately for our team the game was over and there was no way to address.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
Had a center ref do the same type thing at a Surf Cup game. Then when our coach started calling the craziness out the CR ran over and tried to start a fight with him. This literally happened, Ive never seen anything like it before and no our coach wasn't instigating. He was calling out the ridiculous calls but being reasonable. Then when the crazy CR was able to give the other team enough calls to finally score a goal and get 1 up on our team he ended the game 5 minutes short. When this happened both sidelines went bonkers. The CR stomped off the field and the lines refs chased after him. Once the CR got off the field he got in a fight with one of the lines refs who was arguing that there was still 5min left in the game. When this happened everyone stopped getting crazy because who's ever seen refs get into a fight before? The other line ref got in between the 2 refs that were fighting and broke it up. After all that people were just stunned.

This was at a Surf Cup which made the whole situation really odd because everything they do is usually top notch. Unfortunately for the fighting ref our coach was/is involved with Surf Cup Sports and put together the entire tournament. At the end of the game he huddled up the players / parents and apologized for what happened. Afterwords I was chatting 1on1 with our coach and he said that ref shouldn't be around children and that he's already spoken with people about what happened and the ref will be gone in the afternoon. Unfortunately for our team the game was over and there was no way to address.
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WTF??? I saw a High School Ref lose his shit and run off the field at the half and never come back. This guy was way over his head and had no control of anything. He didn't make a call in the first half and the girls were beating the crap out of each other. Pulling hair, tripping, dirty pushes from behind and dude called nothing. Parents from one side were pissed off because one girl went to xrays and another tore her ACL. Worse than Rugby and why high school soccer is dangerous because many of the ref's suck. I think soccer needs to pay a little more for top shelf refs and even make ref a full-time career and not some side hustle, like pizza delivery guy. I'm willing to pay extra to make this beautiful game called with excellence, pure, clean and safe. You get what you train and pay for. Many of these are dads looking to make some extra scratch and stay in shape. I still remember this obese male ref that had no business being a ref. He walked the whole game only to walk faster if he needed to.
 
crush said:
WTF??? I saw a High School Ref lose his shit and run off the field at the half and never come back. This guy was way over his head and had no control of anything. He didn't make a call in the first half and the girls were beating the crap out of each other. Pulling hair, tripping, dirty pushes from behind and dude called nothing. Parents from one side were pissed off because one girl went to xrays and another tore her ACL. Worse than Rugby and why high school soccer is dangerous because many of the ref's suck. I think soccer needs to pay a little more for top shelf refs and even make ref a full-time career and not some side hustle, like pizza delivery guy. I'm willing to pay extra to make this beautiful game called with excellence, pure, clean and safe. You get what you train and pay for. Many of these are dads looking to make some extra scratch and stay in shape. I still remember this obese male ref that had no business being a ref. He walked the whole game only to walk faster if he needed to.
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I back the refs. It's a thankless job and you don't get paid a lot.

In our case a ref was even willing to fight another ref who was obviously giving a team a win. I think that was admirable.

I couldn't figure out if the ref was giving the other team a win because he liked that team or if something about our coach set him off and he gave the other team the win to get back at him. Or maybe the crazy ref was on drugs. Who knows. But he was gone that afternoon so I give Surf Cup credit for addressing quickly.
 
Anyone remember the Old Old ref at Surf Cup about 15 years ago? He would only ref the GU9 bracket when Surf Cup truly was "The Best of The Best"
 
Carlsbad7 said:
I back the refs. It's a thankless job and you don't get paid a lot.

In our case a ref was even willing to fight another ref who was obviously giving a team a win. I think that was admirable.

I couldn't figure out if the ref was giving the other team a win because he liked that team or if something about our coach set him off and he gave the other team the win to get back at him. Or maybe the crazy ref was on drugs. Who knows. But he was gone that afternoon so I give Surf Cup credit for addressing quickly.
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I back the good refs and the refs need better pay. It's a freaking dangerous job and a thankless one at that. My buddy's kid refed to earn extra money, like a kid would delivering newspapers in the old days and poor id took abuse from dad's who thought they knew it all. The side hustle needs to go away for high school varsity and top-level club, like a Surf Cup. Better pay with better refs needs to take over. I do remember a girl ref that was awesome. She controlled her side or the field if she was head ref. I yelled for an offside call once and she told me to shut up in a nice way and said I did not know the rules. Fact was, she was right. This was way back in my early days. I know better now:p:p:p:p:p
 
Re. refs.

My son and I went to an ACC game last weekend and I have never seen better reffing anywhere ever. The center ref and ARs were all communicating with the kids to keep them in line and explained their decisions when they were questioned. The end of the game got a little chippy and the ref held it all together. I was very impressed.

I'm sure they make more and are better trained than the refs we typically see at club matches here.
 
sigmabody said:
Flip side: We thought the Legends team would be strong coming into the game, given their rating, but they were clearly not as good as their ranking would have suggested. I suppose that suggests a pattern and history of cheating. That makes me feel better about the current level of my son's team, to know that clubs like Legends FC need to cheat to get their rankings.
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A follow-up on this: my son's team played the same Legends FC team today, opening game of the spring league, at a neutral location. In the previous State Cup game (with the very biased ref), only a couple months past, they had "lost" 4-2.

They won today's game 5-0. And it wasn't even that close.

It was nice to get some retribution after the State Cup game, to be honest. Refs for this game were also perfectly fine, as an aside (it was a pretty clean game, not many calls either way). It really makes me kinda wonder how the parents on the other side feel about their club cheating to win, and how involved they actually are in that process.
 
sigmabody said:
We had the unfortunate luck to play a Legends FC team in the Socal State Cup today, at Silverlakes. The team itself was fine (no cheating, played clean, etc.), but we were joking before the game that we hoped the refs were not biased because of the club's association with the complex.

That turned out to be prophetic: we were called for a penalty early on a slide tackle in the box on a breakaway, where our player was even with the attacker, got all ball, and made no player contact through the play (100% clean from a foul perspective, as confirmed by the ref directly to the player after the call, and no card issued, despite the breakaway). Per the ref, he called it a "dangerous play" based on a totally subjective call (which would be an indirect kick anyway), despite it being a totally and admittedly clean play, and awarded a penalty (which they converted). We lost the game by 1. It was the most biased ref/call I've ever seen in a club game (there were a couple other clearly biased calls in the game also, such as a push in the back called on our player who got pushed, but that call was the most consequential).

I want to be clear: I don't think the Legends FC team did anything wrong/dirty/cheating in that game, and I'm not in any way faulting their players or coach. But that was as rigged a game as I've ever seen in 3 years of club soccer, and as dirty of a ref as I've ever seen, and it's hard to ignore the association between the complex and the favored team.

Just a warning for people who might encounter the same thing.
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sigmabody said:
A follow-up on this: my son's team played the same Legends FC team today, opening game of the spring league, at a neutral location. In the previous State Cup game (with the very biased ref), only a couple months past, they had "lost" 4-2.

They won today's game 5-0. And it wasn't even that close.

It was nice to get some retribution after the State Cup game, to be honest. Refs for this game were also perfectly fine, as an aside (it was a pretty clean game, not many calls either way). It really makes me kinda wonder how the parents on the other side feel about their club cheating to win, and how involved they actually are in that process.
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Not the main point of this thread - but the same game can't be lost by 1 and also be a 4-2 loss. Were they the same game?
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Looks like the team is starting out Flight 1 this Spring with a bang after moving up a level. Good luck for the rest of the season!
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Thanks. I'm cautiously optimistic that the team looks pretty good still, even after losing a few top players from last season (who moved up to the top club team for the age level, who moved up to fill spots vacated mainly by players who moved up to stronger clubs and better opportunities). If they can play competitively at flight 1 this season and next, that will be a big step for the team (although I'm not sure the first game demonstrates that, all things considered; that Legends team is a pretty marginal flight 1 team imho).
 
That's fair. That Legends team was a flight 2 team in fall, and finished 2nd of 10 in bracket. But playing flight 1 over the winter, they went 2-5. Spring will make it clearer which teams are doing well and which may have bitten off more than they can chew.
 
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