Originally posted by Unregistered
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I was at a high school game recently where the AR made about 4-5 pretty questionable calls (ie calling off sides from 4-5 steps behind, calling balls out when they were still in, etc). The worst of which was either a handball in the box or a take down by the keeper (ball was played back by defender and keeper went through attacker to grab it) in the last seconds of a game that he didn't have the balls to call. It is what is it. If they were great officials they wouldn't be doing high school games. The thing about questionable calls though is they do cause a commotion on the sidelines. It's a natural response that should just be ignored. Too many times it's not and it what happens is really the officials fault.
The real problem in that game was the AR reacted to those normal moans and groans and started jawing at the crowd telling them they didn't know what they were talking about. One of the guys he happened to direct his ire at happened to be a former long time club coach who was a collegiate hall of fame player. Granted he might not know the rules of the game as intimately as a ref should but he certainly knows the game. He had an opinion and shot it right back at which point that AR got into his face and started jawing at him. He actually caused the problem himself and I bet he went home and told all his ref buddies how awful the crowd was. That guy shouldn't be working as a ref if he can't hold it together in that type of situation and the game suffers because he does still get assignments.
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