obstruction

[Guest]

Last night I was playing in a tournament. Our defender was in the goalie box running infront of the other teams offensive player and was pushed in the back and fell on the ball. She was then kicked by the other team while they were trying to "shoot" the ball. Our goalie picked up the ball and everything was fine. Then the reff stopped the game and called obstruction on our goalie and defender. Can you do that?

[Unregistered]

Last night I was playing in a tournament. Our defender was in the goalie box running infront of the other teams offensive player and was pushed in the back and fell on the ball. She was then kicked by the other team while they were trying to "shoot" the ball. Our goalie picked up the ball and everything was fine. Then the reff stopped the game and called obstruction on our goalie and defender. Can you do that?

Obstruction is the old-fashioned term for what is now formally referred to as "impeding."
A player is guilty of impeding when they take an opponent's path away without themselves making an a legitimate play. Usually impeding is non-contact. Once there is contact, if there is a foul, it would usually be holding or pushing etc. This is an important difference since impeding is an INdirect kick and (most of) the others are direct.

One more thing needs to be said. Even though just putting yourself in an opponent's path is generally illegal, it becomes perfectly legal if you are "within playing distance" (2 steps?) of the ball. At that point, it is perfectly legal to "shield" the ball from your opponent. It is also perfectly legal for them to "charge" you in an attempt to get around your shield. They cannot smash you in the back or anything like that. But a certain amount of pushing is to be expected.

Now the way you described it, it certainly sounds like your defender was fouled. All I can guess is that the ref didn't see it that way.