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Old Wed May 14, 2003, 04:14pm
JimP JimP is offline
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Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 2
Unless you were absolutely sure the defender intentionally passed the ball back to the keeper, it should have been a "no call". Did the defender definitely look to see where the keeper was before the ball was kicked? Did the defender definitely appear to send it toward the keeper? It's hard to make the call without being there, but I don't imagine the defender, coming in at full speed, from behind or the side, could do much beyond getting the ball away from a fast forward attacker, let alone direct it to the keeper. Besides, sending the ball to the keeper inside the 18 would be a high risk of an "own goal" if the keeper missed it, or bungled it, letting the attacker get in for a good shot.
As one state final level official told me, when in your own doubt on a call, you must be conservative and not give one team a big advantage that might change the outcome of a game. He gave the example of:when in doubt of a goal kick or corner kick, never make it a drop ball, always make it a goal kick. Applying this to your situation, when in doubt, it's a no call.
On talking to coaches, advise given to me was that beyond pregame business, never discuss your decisions with a coach beyond being polite and saying "that's what I saw coach", or if you did make a bad call, tell the coach "I understand your concern and I am going to discuss the situation with my peer officials". After a game always leave the site immediately. Further advise to me was if you make any mistakes, learn from them and become a better "ref", forget the situation, and move on.
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