Nep-Tuning Out
…And I’m spent.
This past weekend was spent in Virginia Beach at the Neptune Soccer Classic. Having injured myself on Tuesday, I was unable to play but decided to go anyways. It was hard to only sit and watch, all the while feeling like I should be out there making a difference in the game, but the team played well and looked like advancing to the knockout stage after day 1.
Game 1 saw us with a 2-1 lead late in the game. Before explaining how this unfolded, I must shed a little light, for the uninformed, on the “advantage” rule. Advantage comes into play when a player with the ball is fouled. If his/her team loses control of the ball or would not benefit from play continuing, the referee blows the whistle and calls the foul. If the player’s team maintains control of the ball and also would benefit from play continuing, normally seen as continuing to move forward in attack or being able to get a shot off on goal, the referee plays advantage, and let’s play resume as if the foul never occurred. The ref sees a foul in the box as one of their players goes down. The ref plays advantage as the ball rolls to another attacker who shoots at goal and misses. The ref blows the whistle and calls a penalty kick. So… he lets the advantage materialize and THEN calls the foul when they miss their shot? Ridiculous. We go ballistic. Well, a few people do, including one of ours who was shown a yellow card for yelling at the referee and then must’ve said the magic word because the referee showed him his 2nd yellow which meant a red card and an ejection. They converted the penalty to make it 2-2 and we had to hold on with one less player for the remainder of the game. Draw. 2-2. The ref later admits to having blown it. Yeah, thanks. A lot of good that does us, asscorn.
Game 2 started with few clouds in the sky at 1pm with 90+ degree temps. Yeah. Hot. We won 2-1 on a late goal that I believe struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced down and in the net. I might be mistaken since I had sweat in my eye. We left the fields feeling good about 4 points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw) from 2 games and, after hearing how the other teams in our group had done, we knew we needed a win against our opponents on Sunday in order to advance.
Game 3. 8:30am. After a night of partying this one was not fun. Close game. A bouncing ball found the head of the opposition and then the back of the net. 1-0. We, on the other hand, were not as lucky and thus bowed out of the tournament with 4 points on a 1-1-1 record.
All in all it was a good weekend but I missed playing. I need to recover swiftly.
This past weekend was spent in Virginia Beach at the Neptune Soccer Classic. Having injured myself on Tuesday, I was unable to play but decided to go anyways. It was hard to only sit and watch, all the while feeling like I should be out there making a difference in the game, but the team played well and looked like advancing to the knockout stage after day 1.
Game 1 saw us with a 2-1 lead late in the game. Before explaining how this unfolded, I must shed a little light, for the uninformed, on the “advantage” rule. Advantage comes into play when a player with the ball is fouled. If his/her team loses control of the ball or would not benefit from play continuing, the referee blows the whistle and calls the foul. If the player’s team maintains control of the ball and also would benefit from play continuing, normally seen as continuing to move forward in attack or being able to get a shot off on goal, the referee plays advantage, and let’s play resume as if the foul never occurred. The ref sees a foul in the box as one of their players goes down. The ref plays advantage as the ball rolls to another attacker who shoots at goal and misses. The ref blows the whistle and calls a penalty kick. So… he lets the advantage materialize and THEN calls the foul when they miss their shot? Ridiculous. We go ballistic. Well, a few people do, including one of ours who was shown a yellow card for yelling at the referee and then must’ve said the magic word because the referee showed him his 2nd yellow which meant a red card and an ejection. They converted the penalty to make it 2-2 and we had to hold on with one less player for the remainder of the game. Draw. 2-2. The ref later admits to having blown it. Yeah, thanks. A lot of good that does us, asscorn.
Game 2 started with few clouds in the sky at 1pm with 90+ degree temps. Yeah. Hot. We won 2-1 on a late goal that I believe struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced down and in the net. I might be mistaken since I had sweat in my eye. We left the fields feeling good about 4 points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw) from 2 games and, after hearing how the other teams in our group had done, we knew we needed a win against our opponents on Sunday in order to advance.
Game 3. 8:30am. After a night of partying this one was not fun. Close game. A bouncing ball found the head of the opposition and then the back of the net. 1-0. We, on the other hand, were not as lucky and thus bowed out of the tournament with 4 points on a 1-1-1 record.
All in all it was a good weekend but I missed playing. I need to recover swiftly.
posted by I-66 at 12:32 PM
5 Comments:
Not a bad description of advantage from a player's standpoint. But remember, a player doesn't have to have the ball to be fouled. One thing to remember though, possession doesn't necessarily equal advantage. And Direction of play, number of defenders, position on the field, skill of the attacker, etc are all things that the referee must take into consideration in that 1/2-1 second time frame from the moment the fould occurs to the time he either blows the whistle or brings up his arms and yells "PLAAAAYYYY."
If the goal of the Advantage clause is to promote attacking soccer, and the goal of promoting attacking soccer is to produce goals, then if the team in game 1 was wronged in the penalty area shouldn't the opposing team be punished? If no clear advantage ensues (even if the referee applies advantage), then the referee may penalize the original offense.
Now I wasn't there, but from a referee's standpoint, I can tell you that just because the ball goes to the feet of an attacker, doesn't mean there's an advantage situation. Was the attacker in a good position to react; did he have a fair chance to play the ball; was he falling over? I don't know. Did he missed the shot from the middle of the goal area, or was did he have an outside wide angle?
All factors. That's what makes our job so hard.
Sorry for the long comment.
on the play in question the player who, after the foul, got control of the ball took 1 or 2 quick touches (can't recall whether he trapped and shot or trapped, setup and shot) before shooting. Truly he had no business not scoring from inside the 18 1-on-1 against the keeper. He was upright and seconds away from being challenged but there was no defender within arms length on either side and shooting from between the posts.
What raised our ire the most was the referees concession after the fact that he'd blown the call, in addition to the AR having already said that he blew it beforehand. It's one thing to blow it and stand by your decision, but another entirely to actually admit fault.
Fair point.
Again, I wasn't there. You were.
It would appear that the referee need not second guess himself and disclose that doubt to the players. Not a very good sale of the call.
Did he miss the shot because he was fouled?
nah, the guy who was fouled went down... the ball went to another who shot and missed uncontested.
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