The rule book defines kicking the ball as "...intentionally striking it with the knee or any party of the leg or foot below the knee." If a player extends a leg to the side and the ball stops right at his/her foot preventing the ball from rolling out of bounds, is he/she guilty of "striking" and therefore kicking the ball? What if they trap the ball by having it come to rest beneath the foot while the heel is on the ground as a soccer player might?

I called a violation in the former case with the justification that the player took advantage of his foot to gain an advantage. But was it kicking the ball as defined?

IMHO
 

In my humble opinion, I consider "striking" to be interchangable with "causing contact" therefor - violation in both cases.

Remember - soccer is a game played by kids who can't use their hands ;)

Seriously, any time the player initiates the contact with the ball and the ball hits them at the knee or below, it's a kick.

Sometimes you hear one of those genius coaches calling for a kick on the offense. Almost never would an offensive player intentionally kick the ball. I have seen it happen once or twice, just to prevent a bad pass from going OOB or something like that, but you're going to hear yells anytime the ball hits someone's leg or foot regardless of the situation. Just be prepared to enforce the rule as written.

If the foot is moved for a block, it is clearly intentional. To strike is any sort of hit/contact, not necesarily initiated by the player.

Whoa there. Are you saying that if a defender is just standing there and the offensive player throws the ball off the defender's leg it's a kick? If that's your "final answer", I beg to differ. The move <i>must </i>be intentional by rule. To be intentional, the player who gets hit must initiate the contact.

No, I'm not.

If the offensive player threw the ball at the defender's leg - that's still striking the leg, it's just not intentional, so it's not a kick per the rules on violations.

BTW, nobody better say anything bad about soccer!

Huh?
 

Why would anyone say anything about it? ;)
mick

How many times have you seen a loose ball, player runs after trying to get control, the ball hits off the players foot and the coaches start screaming for a kicked ball? I agree, that the act must be intentional. I believe that I can tell when a player intentionally strikes a ball with his/her foot and when it is simply incidental to the play (i.e. the scenario above). If it is intentional and the ball strikes at below the knee, violation.