COSOA Website & Recruiting of New Officials: Please
remember to periodically check our Association’s
Website or give the website address (cosoa.org) to
your friends who
might be interested in officiating soccer games for
information and contact numbers. This is the time to
be recruiting new
Officials into our Association.
If you know anybody who is interested in officiating High
School Soccer matches in the Fall, feel free to pass along
my phone number to them.
T R A I N I N G
The rest of the Zidane-Materrazi Head-Butt story …
I thought it was interesting how the World Cup Final’s
most unbelievable event (the Zidane head-butt) was handled
by the Referees working the game. The event occurred in front
of the whole world, and yet was not seen by the Center Official.
This is not to discredit the Center Official, since he did
a great job throughout the game and entire tournament. We
all rely on our Assistant Referees to cover the stuff going
on behind our backs. The event also occurred in plain sight
of the Assistant Referee, yet there was no waving of the
flag or signaling of the incident to the Center Official
at the time that it occurred.
So how did Zidane get his Red Card? Did the Officials really
use the in stadium TV replay to make the correct call? Why
didn’t the Assistant Referee wave his flag and signal
the foul?
The correct mechanics for handling that incident would of
course have been for the Assistant Referee to wave his flag
and draw the attention of the Center Referee. After consulting
with the Assistant Referee, the Center Referee would have
ejected Zidane. Where was the signaling of the foul by the
Assistant Referee?
Zidane is a professional and committed the foul when the
Assistant Referee was looking at the play at the other end
of the field. However, the Fourth Official (the man in charge
of the substitutions) clearly saw the head-butt and communicated
the incident to the rest of the crew through their headphones.
So technically, the crew did not use the stadium TV to get
the right call. They had the right call before the reply
showed everything. The Center Referee conferred with the
Assistant Referee who had at this point seen the event on
the stadium TV and verified the need for the Red Card.
So how are the rest of us supposed to catch events that
happen behind our backs, when we don’t have a TV monitor
replaying the fouls or that much needed 4th Official? The
moral of the story is to do your best with what you got!
Take a look behind your back periodically to see what’s
going on behind you and if you miss something behind you
every once in a while … that’s just life!!! Although
we don’t want to miss anything (Violent Conduct in
particular), we are all humans and some things are bound
to happen out of our line of sight. It happens to the best
Referees in the world and it’s bound to happen to the
rest of us. Do the best with what you can see.
