Handball or ballhand

Recently in the Manchester United vs. Arsenal match there was a penalty kick given for handball.  I saw this live on Monday afternoon (the 13th) and thought it harsh then.  I was able to find a video of the game, unfortunately not one of just the incident, and it is located here: http://www.footytube.com/video/manchester-united-arsenal-dec13-67803.

At 12:30 in the video Howard Webb has played a wonderful advantage.  Park had been cut down but the ball bounced right into the path of Anderson, who plays it to Nani.  Nani takes on Clichy and beats him to the end line, only for Clichy to slip on the wet turf and fall.  As Clichy is falling the ball is played by Nani but goes directly into the extended arm of Clichy.

Here is where we must decipher what Clichy is trying to do.  According to the laws of the game a handball must be deliberate.  The guidelines from USSF say deliberate is intentionally handling the ball, i.e. slapping the ball, or making oneself bigger.  From what I can see here Clichy does neither.  His arm is extended not to make himself bigger but to balance himself in an effort to stand back up and defend, something that ANY player would do, meaning it is a normal playing position.  He clearly did not intentionally handle the ball as he made no clear attempt to touch the ball with his hand.

The AR called the penalty, not the referee.  Immediately after being recognized by Webb the AR motions his arm indicating to Webb, the center, that Clichy deliberately moved his arm to handle the ball.  From the replay this is flat out wrong.

I don't want to just throw the AR under the bus as I realize this game is a very high level and is moving extremely fast, but to make that call in the box is harsh.  This call could have completely changed the game, putting Man United up 2-0 and really putting the game out of reach.  We as referees must be able to slow the game down in our minds and instantaneously replay the events that just occurred.  In this case, we need to immediately be asking ourselves whether the hand played the ball or the ball played the hand.  Clearly the ball was played into the hand, which was in a normal position.  Therefore, there is no penalty for me.

One last point about this situation.  Howard Webb does well to protect his AR after the call has been made.  I always tell my ARs that I will sell there calls, unless I see something 100% different.  If I'm Webb and I give the penalty I will also protect my ARs and Webb does that well here.  Nasri and Clichy, particularly Nasri, are moving towards the AR and screaming at him.  Webb comes in, gets in between the players and the AR and moves them back, even giving Nasri a caution.  Excellent teamwork here.

State Cup games

Sorry it's taken me so long to write another post.  Life is not the same with a newborn, that's for sure.

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to work two games, both semi-finals in the club state challenge cup.  The first game I am the 4th for a U15 girls game.  I'm not been a 4th before but I did get to witness a few games this summer at Regionals where we had 4ths.  Given what happened in the Akron-Cal quarterfinal game last weekend I am taking this assignment very seriously.  Here is a thread regarding that quarterfinal game: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1604868

The second game is a U16 boys semi-final.  I get to center this one.  The two teams are actually part of the same "club"; however, they are in two different cities about 2 hours apart, Mount Pleasant and Columbia.  I expect a pretty high level match for this.

For me, in situations like this, I tend to get really nervous.  If this were just a regular season game with the same two teams I would be fine.  Just go out and do the games.  But because this is a semi-final, with these kids' whole season riding on this one game, I make myself freak out.  I played HS football, kicker, and did the same thing then.  I thought about it way too much and scared myself to death.  In the back of my mind, though, I know that once I blow the first whistle I will be fine. 

I tend to go into these games telling myself I will do everything I can to not be the focus of this game.  I want to call less and let the game be decided by the players.  Last week in the first round game I called a PK, which turned into the first goal.  Then, right after halftime, there were two penalty shouts by the same team.  Did the kid go down?  Yup.  By the defender?  Yeah.  Was I about to call another penalty?  Hell no!  It would have been a light penalty, not diving, just light, and I was not about to become the ref who gave the winning (and better) team a series of penalties to start the scoring.

Luckily the teams scored within 90 seconds of the no call, making it 2-0.  They scored two more to win 4-0.  Hopefully tomorrow's games will be just like the game last week.

Do you guys focus on particular points of your reffing "game" before "big" games?  Do you change anything going into what you would call a big game?

Tamberino stepping down

I read tonight that Paul Tamberino is stepping down as Director of Ref Development for US Soccer.  I'm not very high up, only a grade 7, but I know Tamberino's name; he's been around for quite a while.  He and Brian Hall have written Week in Review and I personally find that article very interesting each and every week.  When I first became a ref maybe 12 years ago there was nothing in the way of referee development like we have now. 

According to this blog post on Big Soccer there may be a bigger issue here.  If there is a bigger issue I am slightly worried that change will be rippling through the referee infrastructure too quickly. 

Who knows, sometimes change is a good thing, but sometimes too much change too quickly is a disaster.

Holiday Special

Hi everyone!  Sorry for taking so long to post, but it's been pretty hectic around my home for the past week.  Miles is doing very well and so is mommy.  Daddy is back at work but everyday is a rush to get home and see the two happy faces inside the front door.

I just put in my order to Official Sports (www.officialsports.com) due to their reduced prices for the Holidays.  Every year OSI runs specials which are pretty good.  This year I got two long sleeved pro shirts, gold and green, as I only have the Eco shirts in long right now.  With that came a pair of the US ref socks.  I added a new pair of Coolwick shorts as mine have served me well for three years but are getting worn out.  I added two more pair of socks, one old style and one new.  I got a red mouth-grip whistle (for grins and giggles) and some velcro for next year's badges (thinking ahead!).  Lastly, due to the cold weather, I got some Under Armour gloves.

So to sum up I got two long-sleeved pro shirts (retail: 96), 3 pair of socks (retail 35), coolwick shorts (retail 28), UA gloves (retail 25.50), red whistle (retail 6.50), and three badge hooks (retail 3.00) for a retail total of roughly $197.00.  Before shipping my total was $177.  Not too bad, considering the gloves, whistle, shorts, and hooks weren't discounted at all.

I'll also be selling my eco long-sleeve shirts for $10 or $15 which will help pay for this order. 

What will you be buying this Christmas?