[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by eh812
A player is on a breakaway heading down field when she is caught from behind around the 18 yard line. The defender kicks the ball directly backwords from this point and the goalie runs out and picks it up. The goalie reaches down and picks up the ball within 4 yards of the goal post and the ball wasn't going to go out of bounds. I call indirect free kick.

The insuing kick leads to a goal and the team's coaches that I called against are livid.

My reasoning for the call I made. When their are goal scoring oppurtunities it seems clear to me that rules become stricter. Though the defensive player may not have purposefully played the ball directly to the keeper in my mind that is what happened and took away a clear goal scoring oppurtunity.

After the game I talked to the coaches and they argued because the goalie had to move to the ball (Let say 10 yards) from her orginal position that it should not have been called.

Either way I think one of the teams was going to be mad.

In my humble opinion, you were incorrect to penalize the defending team. The rule applies to a "direct" pass to the goalie from a teammate. The defender in your play was attempting to steal the ball from the attacking player and was successful in causing the attacking player to lose control of the ball. That is all the defender did. The goalie then picked up a lose ball. The defender did not pass the ball to the goalie.