Carded!

No, it wasn't because I looked young and was trying to buy cigarettes and alcohol.

We had a soccer game on Tuesday. The refs were terrible. They weren't biased, they were just bad. Not only did they miss calls all over the place, but they took every remark as a erpsonal affront to their authority. There were something like 8 yellow cards given out, many of them for talking back to the refs. My favorite was the one that he gave to one of our kids because, "He gave me a look." These were his words when we asked what the card was for.

Early in the game the refs made several calls for us neglecting to take advantage into account. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the rule it works this way. If, when a player is fouled, the result plays out in a way that is clearly favorable to the team of the fouled player, in access of what awarding a free kick would accomplish, then play is allowed to continue. This plays out in situations such as where an attacking player is fouled by the last defender, but a teammate ends up with the ball with a clear opportunity for a shot on goal. So, after a couple of clearly botched applications of applying advantage and after us pointing it out from the sidelines we decided to talk to the refs. At half time, the head coach asked the captains to say something to the refs about respecting advantage and he spoke to the refs about letting play continue when it's to our advantage even if our player is fouled.

The game ended in a 1-1 tie. We did score a second goal, but the refs both failed to notice that 1. the ball had crossed the goal line in the air before 2. being swiped back out by the hand of a defender who was marking the near post on the corner kick that led up to the quick flick shot. In over time our attcking forward made a push by their last defender and was taken down somewhere in the neighborhood of the penalty box. It was hard to say exactly becaus ethe lines weren't really marked on the field. The ball rolled right to an overlapping midfielder who, as the ref was blowing his whistle, pounded a 1-touch shot past the goalkeeper. Once again, rather than respecting advantage they called the goal back to give us a free kick. As I began yelling about advatage the head coach turned to me and said not to worry, as we were still getting a penalty kick. I pointed out that they were spotting the ball outside of the box, which left him incredulous. I walked down the sideline to ensure the ref could heard me and said, "Sir, We've already talked to you about advantage." At this point the ref from the opposite side of the field comes running across screaming at me to get back to within 10 yards of half field. As I am turning and walking back I think I spot the ref I spoke to pulling out a card, so when I got back to the bench I asked the players if I had just been carded. They affirmed that I had.

So, after playing soccer for my entire life in an untold numbers of games, where I often fouled players while making no attempt to gain possesion of the ball, in disregard for the rules, I recieved my first ever card reminding a referee about a conversation entailing how a basic rule of soccer works. Granted, I didn't use a friendly tone of voice, but still, what a lame way for it to play out. Especially since I've been much more deserving of cards in the past, both as a player and as a coach.