Shake Hands and Come Out Cheating

If you've been keeping up with recent commentary and op ed pieces in the press and on the internet you know there has been a serious debate regarding the fall from grace of the Lance Armstrong.  The discussion has run the gamut from the use of performance enhancing drugs, to the strong arm tactics of Armstrong to enforce the “omerta” or code of silence.  Interleaved been these primary headline making topics has been a more open discussion of cheating.  A serious debate has erupted not just over drug use but,  more applicable to every athletic competition, the gaining an unfair competitive advantage...what drives it and how can seeking a competitive advantage go too far and become cheating.

What does this have to do with a fun soccer game between the Fairfax Rowdies and the Orangemen?  A game that the Orangemen hosted at their home field under the lights of Bryant Alternative school on a brisk fall evening?  As it turns out, the referee during last nights game played a critical role in determining how and if either of the sides would push to seek a competitive advantage.  During the game it became clear that the necessity to report this referee to the league for abysmal performance on the field would be necessary.  When the officiating is poor and either team feels like they have been dealt an injustice on the field, tensions flare.  Not only that, there is a natural tendency to look for justice in the next call.  Sometimes it comes.   Sometimes field justice replaces the referees whistle.  Sometimes, calls are seen differently than might have actually occurred.   About two months ago, we had the same ref.  I wrote the blog, “And Field Justice for All”.  He hasn't improved and the same tendencies emerged.

The first goal of the game came on the kick-off.  The ref blew the starting whistle, the Rowdies kicked off.  In fact they really kicked off.  Gene, our keeper, wasn't ready to play.  He was standing at the top of the penalty area.  The whistle came as a surprise to most of the team.  Mooch had actually been on the sidelines having just been to the center circle with the ball pump that he returned to the bench.  He was running onto the field.  He wasn't even facing forward when the whistle blew.  He turned to look over his shoulder and saw a very high ball arching toward the goal.  Gene who had no idea that the game had even started took a step back and could only watch the ball sail over his head and into the net.  Now it was an exquisite kick to travel that distance and arch into the goal from the kickoff but the referee never confirmed with either goalkeeper if they were ready to begin.  Having just run onto the field Mooch asked the ref if he asked the keeper if he was ready before he blew the starting whistle.  The ref’s response what that it wasn’t necessary for him to check with the keeper before starting. Really?  In forty years of playing soccer this was the first game I've ever been in when the ref didn't ask the keepers if they were ready to play.   FIFA is silent on any requirement to determine if the teams are ready aside from the technical necessity that all players be on their side of the field, the ball be stationary in the center spot, and the opposing team be at least 10 meters from the center spot.  But clearly something happened that seemed unfair.  The Rowdies scored a goal by taking advantage of a referee willing to allow the them the opportunity to exploit confusion at the start of the game.  

Here Mooch describes what happened in his own words, “I would be upset if it happened when we were passively not ready.  I’m even more upset because I was the captain of the team who was asked by the other team to bring them a ball pump to inflate their ball for the opening kickoff and wasn’t even allowed to return onto the pitch to have a  look around before the whistle blew...which I suggest is actively not ready.  By the letter of the law it was a fair goal.  By the rules of sportsmanship and fair play not a chance...  In this case I don’t fault the Rowdies for exploiting the seam in the rules.  In this case I fault the referee for promoting something less than fair play at the opening kickoff.  At the center circle the ref was basically saying as he flips his coin, heads or tails, shake hands, and come out cheating.”

We have had at least three games this season with this ref and all of them have been dysfunctional.  This particular ref officiates from the center circle.  Maybe he walks +/- 10 yards from the center-line   He rarely blows his whistle...whereas some might consider this to be a good thing because he is letting play go on, it's not.  Because he doesn't blow his whistle because he's not paying attention to the game and doesn't know it's time to blow his whistle.  I noticed this behavior the first game this season, when incidents occurred not only was he not in

position to see the incident, on several occasions he wasn't even looking in the direction of play.  So when something happens...even as innocuous as the ball rolling out of bounds, he doesn't blow his whistle and he doesn't indicate who should take possession of the ball...literally the players have to ask him.  Almost every time. This is just one symptom...there are many more.  He also speaks in whispers, so even when he does give direction only one or two players

closest to him have the vaguest idea of what he is saying. By the way on one of these questionable out of bounds calls I heard Sam Ashpole  announce to everyone on the field that it touched him last thereby surrendering the ball to the Rowdies deep in our territory.  My hat’s off to Sam for the exact display of sportsmanship we are looking for at these matches.

With that long introduction, let’s get on to a shorter recap of the game. The final score was 1 to 3.  The Rowdies played their signature passing game.  Scoring their second goal early in the first half as we sunk into our defense.  At that point it seemed like the Rowdies would begin running away with the game, however, Jan and Phil, who have never played in our new dual sweeper role together before began clicking.  Play after play they divided up the defense and one or the other took turns breaking up the attack.  The Rowdies were helpless coming through the middle and were force to attack from the outside.

Even though our new formation forces us to sink back and put nine orange shirts behind the ball, only Bob remained up top on at the center circle, we were not without an offense.  On at least four early occasions we were able to break out of the back and with Mauricio sending Emile sprinting from his outside left position to collect the ball and make a run on goal.  On two of these occasions Emile carried so much speed that he beat the defense and made a one v one challenge on the Rowdies keeper, Doug.  Unfortunately Emile hasn’t been out to play with us in over a year so his finishes went wide.  But the Rowdies were put on notice that the Orangemen were not going to sit back and let them attack.

With only one substitute on the bench Mooch made the decision to invite two players from the pick-up game that ended before they took the field.  The Rowdies had at least one underage player on their team and Mooch offered them additional players to they would have at least one or two substitutes.  Chris Harvan was the last Orangemen to arrive bringing us up to four substitutes...a very good number to have at any game.  When Chris and prepared to enter the pitch Mooch put him up top.  His impact on the game was immediate, joining Emile on the attack, always with Mauricio breaking out of the midfield and distributing a ball for Chris or Emile to run onto.  At the half-time the Orangemen defense had held solid and didn't allow any more goals keeping the  score locked at nil -2.

The second half started and we played very similar to the first half.  The defense was working well however it seemed like a good idea to let Jan and Phil get involved in the attack by making runs out of the back.  One of them could go forward as long as the other stayed at home.  This helped take pressure off the back and we also continued to attack with from the front.  Again the combination of Bob, Emile, Mauricio, and Chris running forward afforded a few more opportunities.  On one forward attack Phil came out of the back controlling the ball on his own and moving through the Rowdies like a hot knife through butter.  He dumped to ball to one of invited players who ran forward on the right.  Emile and Chris ran up the left side calling for the ball to be crossed in.  Finally the guest player crossed it in high and it arched high over the box, dropping perfectly onto Chris’ s foot which he was able to loop back across into the far side netting.  A wonderful goal for the Orangemen.  We were back in the game.

The Rowdies scored their 3rd goal when are back-line was a bit disorganized following one of our advances.  Four Orangemen we still above midfield when the attack game and our signature “W” line of five defenders was more or less in a straight line with one of the stoppers playing deeper than the sweepers, which also defeated the offside call, not that the ref would have called it anyway.  The last Orangemen defender allowed the attacker to get goal side which when he received the pass and turned on it allowed him an unobstructed shot on goal, which he took and finished putting us under a great deal of pressure to come back.And we were not without opportunities.

We continued to have breaking attacks with Emile leading the charge.  He had at least four more runs in the second half.  He is tall and fast.  Time after time with the ball at his feet he was able to push the ball past the defense and run on to it.  Each time as he sprinted forward you could see the gap open between him and the defenders as he simply outpaced them.   Alas as he tried to make the very last touch on the ball, his speed, his new shoes, and his lack of playing in over a year caught up with him and his coordination at top speed failed him.  Nevertheless, it was these consistent runs forward...at least eight of them during the course of the game, that gave us our best opportunities to score and clearly relieved the Rowdies constant attacking pressure.  Therefore Emile emerged as our man of the match.  

Also during the game there was a controversial call involving Jan.  Has he ran forward he lost control of the ball and lunged to keep it off the foot of one of the Rowdy forwards.  He played the ball clear and a second later the Rowdy attacker made contact with Jan foot.  He fell to the ground shouting in pain.  It took several more moments for the ref to blow his whistle.  The injury was bad enough for the game to stop for several minutes as he was taken to the sidelines and attended to.  Just before returning to action the ref issued Jan a yellow card and sent him off for 5 minutes.  This incident set off a number of other tension building tackles and tempers began to flair.  Once again the ref’s inability to control the game was leading to a degrade in sportsmanship between the two sides.  However I applaud both sides for ultimately cooling down and keeping their heads and getting on with the game.  All in all if was a good match and we should look forward to playing the Rowdies next season with a different Ref.