TTL Week 1 in review

[Unregistered]

There are some take aways you can make from this. Initial red card gets a 2 game suspension, they upped to it to 8 games prior to them hearing this case. To me they read the referee report and felt it was seroius enough to keep that coach from coaching till they could hold their meeting (3 teams, the 8 game ban kept him from coaching any of his teams until this review). Then the review happens and he gets a 26 game ban. Basically a suspension for the fall season. There is NO way this is simply a misunderstanding between the ref and the coach. There had to be a physical threat or physical action from the coach.

I have seen coaches tell a ref they are Fing terrible and get thrown out and get just a 3 game suspension. There is more than a coach just looking out for their player.

[Unregistered]

There are some take aways you can make from this. Initial red card gets a 2 game suspension, they upped to it to 8 games prior to them hearing this case. To me they read the referee report and felt it was seroius enough to keep that coach from coaching till they could hold their meeting (3 teams, the 8 game ban kept him from coaching any of his teams until this review). Then the review happens and he gets a 26 game ban. Basically a suspension for the fall season. There is NO way this is simply a misunderstanding between the ref and the coach. There had to be a physical threat or physical action from the coach.

I have seen coaches tell a ref they are Fing terrible and get thrown out and get just a 3 game suspension. There is more than a coach just looking out for their player.

I suspect the referee "alleges" he was touched physically and the witnesses cannot exonerate the coach and the coach can only admit he was out of line and can't remember.

I know of a club where the coach told the referee he was a "terible f'ing referee" while shaking his finger at him after the game. The referee told the coaches DOC who told the referee that "coaches just want to be heard." With that kind of culture being condoned, I'm not surprised referee abuse has escalated to situations like what led to this 26 match ban.

You either disown all referee abuse or you condone it.

[Unregistered]

I suspect the referee "alleges" he was touched physically and the witnesses cannot exonerate the coach and the coach can only admit he was out of line and can't remember.

I know of a club where the coach told the referee he was a "terible f'ing referee" while shaking his finger at him after the game. The referee told the coaches DOC who told the referee that "coaches just want to be heard." With that kind of culture being condoned, I'm not surprised referee abuse has escalated to situations like what led to this 26 match ban.

You either disown all referee abuse or you condone it.

Unfortunately, there are some terrible referees out there.

None of which excuses any abuse of the referee by players, coaches, or spectators. None of these has any business confronting a referee at a match, or after it. The exception is coaches may submit comments after the match.

Actually, there are several kinds of referees.

1) Good ones; who get more calls right than wrong, who keep up on their training and hone their craft, who maintain appropriate levels of fitness, and who have the temperament to manage a game well in the face of difficult players and coaches. (Including the courage to send them off if needed).

2) Limited ones, who may not have the skill to ref higher-level matches (say, a premier match among high schoolers), but are fine with lower-level matches. Some older refs who no longer can keep up with top-level players physically may fall into this category, as well as part-time refs who like to make a little money, but can't dedicate the time to becoming "pros", essentially.

3) Inexperienced ones, who are learning the game and climbing the ladder of responsibility. These will make mistakes along the way, and "ruin" a few games with poor calls or decisions. That's OK; as long as they are learning and growing. Before you can be a good ref, you have to be a bad ref. These need experience and guidance and feedback including constructive criticism. "You're a f'ing idiot" is not constructive criticism.

4) Terrible refs, who don't bring even the mimimal amount of professionalism to the game, or lack the temperament to supervise 22 players and a handful of coaches without losing their sh1t--and who don't have inexperience as an excuse. THESE need to be identified and excluded from the referee pool; I'd rather have a newbie ref who makes a lot of mistakes but is trying to learn, then an *****hole with a bad attitude who doesn't care about the game.

Fortunately, there are more of 1, 2, and 3 than 4; unfortunately, the number of refs of category 4 is not zero. But even then--the way to get rid of category 4 refs is the coaches complaint form. If one coach files a form saying "this ref stinks", it probably won't get much attention, but if every coach does... that's how you move a bad referee onto the ref assigner's don't-call-back list. No matter how terrible a ref may be, coaches, players, and fans are not entitled to tell him that to his face at the match.

[Unregistered]

I suspect the referee "alleges" he was touched physically and the witnesses cannot exonerate the coach and the coach can only admit he was out of line and can't remember.

I know of a club where the coach told the referee he was a "terible f'ing referee" while shaking his finger at him after the game. The referee told the coaches DOC who told the referee that "coaches just want to be heard." With that kind of culture being condoned, I'm not surprised referee abuse has escalated to situations like what led to this 26 match ban.

You either disown all referee abuse or you condone it.

If they determined there was contact, then they gave the coach the minimum sentence.

[Unregistered]

UPDX and/or the coach should probably make some sort of statement.

[Unregistered]

UPDX and/or the coach should probably make some sort of statement.

Expanding their footprint by merging with more recreational players & coaches at Premier club pricing.

Is all we ever hear and it's hilarious.

[Unregistered]

Unfortunately, there are some terrible referees out there.

None of which excuses any abuse of the referee by players, coaches, or spectators. None of these has any business confronting a referee at a match, or after it. The exception is coaches may submit comments after the match.

Actually, there are several kinds of referees.

1) Good ones; who get more calls right than wrong, who keep up on their training and hone their craft, who maintain appropriate levels of fitness, and who have the temperament to manage a game well in the face of difficult players and coaches. (Including the courage to send them off if needed).

2) Limited ones, who may not have the skill to ref higher-level matches (say, a premier match among high schoolers), but are fine with lower-level matches. Some older refs who no longer can keep up with top-level players physically may fall into this category, as well as part-time refs who like to make a little money, but can't dedicate the time to becoming "pros", essentially.

3) Inexperienced ones, who are learning the game and climbing the ladder of responsibility. These will make mistakes along the way, and "ruin" a few games with poor calls or decisions. That's OK; as long as they are learning and growing. Before you can be a good ref, you have to be a bad ref. These need experience and guidance and feedback including constructive criticism. "You're a f'ing idiot" is not constructive criticism.

4) Terrible refs, who don't bring even the mimimal amount of professionalism to the game, or lack the temperament to supervise 22 players and a handful of coaches without losing their sh1t--and who don't have inexperience as an excuse. THESE need to be identified and excluded from the referee pool; I'd rather have a newbie ref who makes a lot of mistakes but is trying to learn, then an *****hole with a bad attitude who doesn't care about the game.

Fortunately, there are more of 1, 2, and 3 than 4; unfortunately, the number of refs of category 4 is not zero. But even then--the way to get rid of category 4 refs is the coaches complaint form. If one coach files a form saying "this ref stinks", it probably won't get much attention, but if every coach does... that's how you move a bad referee onto the ref assigner's don't-call-back list. No matter how terrible a ref may be, coaches, players, and fans are not entitled to tell him that to his face at the match.

There's a 5th type - the homer ref. The ref is going to call the game to favor the home team no matter what. The chance of the away team getting a PK short of a player being dismembered is zero, calls fouls on one team for minimal contact while ignoring significant fouls on the other.

These days with the ongoing ref shortage, without video you're not going to people to pay much attention to how poorly a referee is doing. Even when you have video showing ARs that are consistently 20+ yards behind the play, I've had a hard time getting anyone to do anything about it.

[Unregistered]

UPDX and/or the coach should probably make some sort of statement.

"After careful analysis and review of the incident involving our coach and an OYSA referee during a girls' match against Oregon Trail FC, we have come to the conclusion that everything is the fault of Westside Timbers".

[Unregistered]

There's a 5th type - the homer ref. The ref is going to call the game to favor the home team no matter what. The chance of the away team getting a PK short of a player being dismembered is zero, calls fouls on one team for minimal contact while ignoring significant fouls on the other.

These days with the ongoing ref shortage, without video you're not going to people to pay much attention to how poorly a referee is doing. Even when you have video showing ARs that are consistently 20+ yards behind the play, I've had a hard time getting anyone to do anything about it.

Sounds like you should start by getting your license and start reffing. That will obviously make some games better, then on your free time you could volunteer to mentor young refs.

[Unregistered]

Sounds like you should start by getting your license and start reffing. That will obviously make some games better, then on your free time you could volunteer to mentor young refs.

Agree..

Never seen a "homer ref." But seen lots of overly invested parents yelling "call it both ways" as if these guys/gals could care who wins. Parents that complain the ref wasn't "fair." One of the signs of a toxic parent.

Too many potential good refs are gone before they develop because of toxic parents, coaches and clubs thinking they have a right to complain and yell in the middle of a match.

Hopefully something changes, hopefully the 26 match ban handed out sets the tone. Those that condoned this type of behavior need to be removed from the sport.

[Unregistered]

Agree..

Never seen a "homer ref." But seen lots of overly invested parents yelling "call it both ways" as if these guys/gals could care who wins. Parents that complain the ref wasn't "fair." One of the signs of a toxic parent.

Too many potential good refs are gone before they develop because of toxic parents, coaches and clubs thinking they have a right to complain and yell in the middle of a match.

Hopefully something changes, hopefully the 26 match ban handed out sets the tone. Those that condoned this type of behavior need to be removed from the sport.

I’ve seen some bad homer refs, including ones favoring our home club’s teams. Still no excuse to abuse a ref. Our coach filed a complaint afterwards along with the opposing ref. Nothing happened except now the ref is always a homer but against us.

My biggest complaint is parents or coaches that give new young refs a hard time. No, much worse than that is the refs who won’t call fouls as defined in the LOTG and let girls games become rugby matches where girls end up with broken bones, torn acls and concussions. Doesn’t seem to happen in boys’ games, only in girls’ and way too often. Refs that swallow their whistles need to be sanctioned, retrained or cut. They are much more dangerous than a parent or coach yelling stuff at a ref and getting a 26 game suspension.

[Unregistered]

Checked the super secret red card list I see a few additions. DOGSO..man that's gonna happen. Especially at U-little with so many through balls, and balls over the top that turn into a foot race. Not much to say about that.

I noticed a fresh addition for a player getting 5 matches for abusive offensive language directed at a referee.

For a moment I thought, where does a player learn this behavior?

Curious how other clubs handle this sort of thing. OYSA punishment enough or do you kick him out of the club? I'm at a small club and we had 1 incident, no red card issued and ultimately gave the kid his walking papers.

https://oysa.affinitysoccer.com/tour...d=&gender=boys

[Unregistered]

Checked the super secret red card list I see a few additions. DOGSO..man that's gonna happen. Especially at U-little with so many through balls, and balls over the top that turn into a foot race. Not much to say about that.

I noticed a fresh addition for a player getting 5 matches for abusive offensive language directed at a referee.

For a moment I thought, where does a player learn this behavior?

Curious how other clubs handle this sort of thing. OYSA punishment enough or do you kick him out of the club? I'm at a small club and we had 1 incident, no red card issued and ultimately gave the kid his walking papers.

https://oysa.affinitysoccer.com/tour...d=&gender=boys

10 red cards on the boys side already this season. (Plus 3 reds from last spring season with suspensions carrying over to the fall). It does seem that the refs are more willing to show cards--which is probably a good thing. And that's without the high school kids playing--usually more reds fly at the older ages.

As a parent, I would view a red card to my kid as a soccer matter for the coach to handle, unless a) it's obvious misconduct which should have no part in soccer (fighting, spitting, cursing at the referee etc.), or b) the coach tells me there is a discipline issue. As far as coaches go (I'm not one), I would hope that there is no penalty to the player for DOGSO, 2CT, or even SFP if it's just a poor challenge rather than an intent to injure--these are opportunities for the kids to learn. VC, AL, and S probably merit some team discipline--this is when "run 'em 'til they puke" might become useful (and such tactics should be used sparingly). And if a kid is a repeat offender who won't accept discipline, (or does something egregiously horrible like deliberately stomping on someone's face), then dismissal from the club is appropriate.

In my several years as a youth soccer parent, I've only seen two kids dismissed from my DS's various teams--in both cases it was because of repeated practice misconduct (bullying teammates despite multiple warnings to knock it off), not because of any in-game infractions.

[Unregistered]

A depressing part of red card stats:

Many red cards given by Anglos to Latinos and
by Latinos to Anglos.

We still have a hard time communicating with each other.

[Unregistered]

A depressing part of red card stats:

Many red cards given by Anglos to Latinos and
by Latinos to Anglos.

We still have a hard time communicating with each other.

Any evidence for that? We can see from the names of the players who is "Latino" and who isn't (though many players with Spanish names grew up in the US and may be far more assimilated than someone who recently moved here), but we don't know the referees who ejected them. OYSA does not publish referee assignments, and there's certainly a good reason why.

FWIW, I've witnessed four reds handed out in recent months in youth games. Only one of the players sent off was Latino. That said, all of the cards were either for DOGSO or a second caution resulting from a foul, none for mouthing off (let alone VC or other acts that would get a player more than a single game suspension).