Wow - what a difference

[wardtc]

Watched the Sweden and Trinidad/Tobago game after watching the Iran Mexico game. What a difference in ref styles! The Mexico/Iran contest was exactly what I expected. The Sweden/T&T game was a blood bath. Players literally throwing other players to the ground with no call. What's up?

I learned a lot about positioning, especially in game flow, and prediciting where the challanges would come from, but what should a new ref take from the foul (or lack of foul) calls?

Any thoughts?

[Nevadaref]

Were the players accepting of the contact that was allowed? Were both teams playing physically? Was it mostly upper body contact? At the upper levels of play more of the pushing/shoving/holding is allowed and less of the kicking someone else in the feet/legs is tolerated. The big boys are expected to battle for the ball and position, but they are also expected to be skilled enough to control their kicks and challenges and not hit their opponents when going for the ball.

I was in Vegas working the club soccer regional for the past few days and haven't seen these matches on tape yet, but perhaps that will help explain some of the differences you perceived in the two games.

[wardtc]

Yeah, they were quite physical in the upper body area. Pushing, holding, pulling, charging. Yes it seemed like both sides were accepting, with Sweden fouling a little more. Good thing I'm a bush league ref. If that were my game, I'd think control had totally gone to the dogs.

However, when I watched it a second time, I discovered what I didn't see the first time. The Advantage clause. It was a great educational tape for ref's. My wife thinks I'm crazy as I rewind, replay, rewind, replay, rewind, replay each and every foul. Also learned on close challanges - watch the feet not the upper body.

I'm going to go back and look at Mexico/Iran when I get time under the same pretext. Also watching the positioning helped a lot particularly on plays that go into the corner. I've got an adult rec league tonight, and will use some of what I saw.