This is probably the worst foul I’ve seen at the high school level in years:
It is also a horrendous example of refereeing as there was no red card issued. Here is a local news report with some relevant details before we look at the refereeing failures.
Trojans’ 4-1 girls’ soccer loss at Pinecrest on Thursday….Ernie Fisher, regional supervisor for soccer officials in the Cape Fear region, said that the officials calling the game originally did not assess Sturtz a penalty. However, Fisher said the officials conferred shortly after the game ended and agreed Sturtz should have been called for a flagrant contact foul….The loss was Pine Forest’s first of the season, leaving the Trojans with a 10-1-1 record. They are still alone atop the Mid-South 4-A Conference standings with a 6-0 record.
Let’s start looking at the context of the game right before the foul. The fouling keeper is losing 4-1 in a non-conference game. The losing team looks like it has a good record so if they are losing 4-1 they are in an unusual position of being dominated.
If the North Carolina system is anything like my region, this game probably does not have the #1 crew on it, but it probably has a decent crew for a non-conference game between two good teams.
There are several points of refereeing failure on this sequence. The referee could have prevented or at least dramatically lowered the probability of a serious injury to the attacker and the eventual ejection of the keeper but he failed.
There are seconds left in the game and a big through ball is sent. There is one attacker breaking through the back line. At this point there are four things that can happen.
- The ball has too much pace and either goes out of touch or goes back to the keeper.
- The attacker misplays the ball and allows the defense to recover back on her
- The attacker is offside when she receives the ball
- The attacker is 1 on 1 versus the keeper and things get exciting
#1 and #2 are easy outcomes. No referee intervention is needed.
In this case, the assistant referee on the bottom of the screen raises his flag to indicate an offside violation. At this point the referee should be aware that offside or 1v1 are the two most probable outcomes. His head should be on a swivel and checking the assistant referee every other step as he sprints forward. As soon as he sees the flag go up, the whistle should be blown as there is no chance for another defender to come back and get involved in the play nor for an onside attacker to make a clear run on the ball. If the whistle is blown before the attacker touches the ball, she’ll slow down and break off. Even if the keeper continues to launch herself into the attacker, the net speed is far lower and thus the collision is slightly less dangerous. There are twenty yards and almost two seconds to prevent the collision.
Looking at the film, I think the attacker is onside the entire time, but that could be a matter of the angle. I won’t question an offside call from a time zone away. The center has to trust his assistant referee when he goes up with an offside. Getting the offside right prevents the injury and ejection.
Once the offside decision is botched, it is attacker versus keeper.
Here the referee royally screws the pooch.
Once it is 1 v 1, the idea of a Denying an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity (DOGSO) has to be on the referee’s mind. Minor fouls given the situation can be red card worthy if the attacker is prevented from taking a great shot on goal. The keeper launching herself into the attacker is not a minor foul. It is violent, vicious and it has no tactical reason. No one plays soccer in mid-air while flying forward. There is no need for a flying form tackle. The only point of that action is to harm the attacker for either frustration or intimidation purposes.
Once the assault has commenced, the referee has to go red. He has some flexibility as to how he writes it up. The best write-up is Violent Conduct, a justifiable write-up is DOGSO, an understandable but wrong write-up is Serious Foul Play. But that is irrelevant. He needs to have a red card out within the first three strides towards the keeper for game control.
The red card is needed to avert any potential brawls. The refs lucked out, there was no brawl and no immediate retaliation. If it was a men’s game, I would be shocked if there was no one in the face of the keeper at the very least. The referee hauling ass with a red card visibly in his hand asserts control and tells pissed off players that justice will be done and the referee recognizes the severity of the situation.
Furthermore, the referee went straight to the keeper. There is a player on the ground in obvious distress. Even a quick run by to make sure she is conscious and then summon on help for the attacker before heading to the keeper minimizes problems.
This should be an automatic red. Even if the referee missed it (How????), his assistants should have seen something. If I was in the middle, I want at least one of the assistant referees to scream, wave their flag, shoot flares into the air, and otherwise making a massive scene to convey the game critical information that the keep needs to go NOW as a 100% red. The visible assistant referee trotted to the middle.
I am almost certain that I’ll see this clip at least three or four times over the next year at various clinics and training sessions.
terraformer
Damn, that’s American football, not “rest of the world” football. Dual-sport player?
Red card for sure, and possibly sitting out several games for the rest of the season (if not all of them).
Jerzy Russian
Can there be an after-the-fact penalty like a suspension in this case? Also, would a red card have resulted in any consequences after the game? If not, what would the point of a red card be since the game was nearly over?
Shygetz
…WTF was that?!?
Edmunddantes
This is labeled the last play of the game. So are we to assume there is little to no time left in a game that is 4-1?
Why not just be overly quick on the whistle as you say for the second you see a flutter from the AS?
Are we to assume this keeper is probably sitting for at least 2 games or more too? Nothing about her actions make any sense. Why is she flying through air an area where she can’t touch ball with hands as if she was doing a flying punch that goalies use to clear balls, not to mention the ball is safely on the ground rolling past her?
Not knowing how long the season is, but I’d consider something that takes away a quarter to half of the schedule fair punishment. There is no conceivable reason for her actions with even a plausible “course of game:trying to make play on ball” excuse.
Steeplejack
The advancing player looked on-side to me, too. But, like you said, angles.
Amazing ref failure(s). And I’m surprised a fight didn’t break out. I think the white-jersey players were just in shock.
Eric U.
that’s an illegal play in the NFL
RSR
I’m pretty amazed White kept their composure.
Big R
I wonder if the keeper knew that the refs were sucking on their whistle. Like it’s been a rough game all night, so she knows she can get away with something.
RobertB
@Eric U.: I think that would be a legal NFL tackle. If the runner is heads up and looking at the defender, the defender gets more leeway. The runner wouldn’t be defenseless. However, in a NC women’s soccer game…
Lurking Canadian
I’ve never seen anything like that in a soccer game. A red card seems too light a punishment, to me. That looks like the kind of thing that should get you a multi-game suspension, if not barred for life. Or arrested.
And I agree with what others have said. Unless our camera angle is really weird, the attacker was onside by about six feet when the pass was made.
daveNYC
@Big R: Usually ‘getting away with something’ doesn’t mean a flying headbutt. That’s just straight trying to fuck someone up.
Lucky it was a women’s game, I’m pretty sure that if it was a bunch of dudes out there shit would have gotten violent right quick.
rp
Aren’t you being a little hard on the refs? Obviously they screwed up by not immediately calling a flagrant foul, but I’m not sure it’s fair to say they could have reduced the risk of injury. I don’t think there was any way to predict that the goalie would do something absolutely insane like that. This is all on the goalie.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
WTF! (The video.)
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Richard Mayhew
@Jerzy Russian: Yep, the state association issued a 2 game suspension and the school is tacking on more.
As for why the red card is needed even at the end of the game. There are a couple of reasons.
a) Avoid a probable brawl (they lucked out)
b) Maintain control of the game (the refs probably had lost it by then)
c) Avoid getting hauled into a referee disciplinary committee that is pissed at you (the ref crew failed. A lot of people will be looking to avoid working with those guys if they can)
d) Protect the keeper from retaliation the next time the fouled team sees her… If these two teams play again at any point in the keeper’s remaining career AND she is on the field, I don’t expect her to emerge safely from the first corner kick as there will be either an elbow to the head or a cleat to the Achilles as the fouled team does not consider justice to have been done yet.
e) This is the easiest example of Violent Conduct you can ever fine, have some pride in your work and get the easy things right!
Richard Mayhew
@rp:
I agree, the decision to launch herself into the attacker is 100% on the keeper.
However the decision is either not made or ineffective if the whistle is blown the moment the flag goes up. The attacker upon hearing the whistle will almost certainly slow down and pull off her run. I am not saying that the referee can prevent everything, but pro-active refereeing and getting the simple things right mechanically prevents a lot of problems.
I am not too hard on the preventative part of the equation, the ref was a tad slow on the whistle but that is understandable. I am looking at massive failure after the foul.
LAO
Not soccer related — so O/T on an open thread — but my favorite story of the week so far. Inky’s Escape From Captivity.
rumpole
I’d also note that this happened outside the 18. Had it been a boys’ game, there would have been a fight. (Hell, had it been me and a bunch of other 46-year olds, the fight would have come first, and then the lawsuit.).
Red card and multiple games, even possible expulsion.
Lee
I did a frame by frame of the offside and I think the AR got it right (but probably by accident).
When the midfield passed the ball to the forward it looks like the forward is about even with the last defender and leaning forward. It looks like her left shoulder is just past the last defender. She actually went completely onside to get the pass.
I’m not sure the AR was in position to actually tell if her shoulder was past the last defender.
Glad to hear the state association stepped in.
West of the Cascades
Nigel De Jong does. I would welcome Richard’s take on that dirtbag’s foul on Darlington Nagbe last Sunday evening (I didn’t see Richard respond in the non-red-card thread that Cole posted), and specifically what sort of suspension is in order.
joes527
Watching my daughter play I’ve gotten used to referees that either don’t blow their whistle, or blow it … discretely. I think it is a habit from Saturday afternoon games with several fields playing simultaneously. They don’t want to confuse the players on the adjacent field. But I wish they would blow the whistle more and more assertively.
Richard Mayhew
@West of the Cascades: Check that post as I updated it with my response of WTF
scav
There’s another weird little detail i’m trying to parse out. When fist downed, the wite peens to have black players more closely alund and yet at most one seem to move toward her. The players that head near are the white ones coming from farther away (the very very end). Aren’t most downed players usually surrounded by more of a general scrum of concern? Something deeper seems off, but is it due only to the surprising nature of this act or something about the whole game? In no way know enough about actual on-field dynamics to be sure but it looks odd,
cmorenc
@Richard Mayhew:
In a FIFA-rules game, true. However, in an NHS (high school rules) game – the NCHSAA (NC high school athletic association) WANTS this foul recorded as a “flagrant foul” for purposes of proper disciplinary handling of the perp. I referee in the adjacent assignment (Triangle) area to the one in the game at hand, and our assignor Mark Kadlecik (who is also a USSF National and PRO referee who works MLS games) always makes it a point of emphasis in our preseason clinics and in-season emails to use the NFHS terms and classifications for writing up cards and fouls, NOT how we would technically write-up the same incident in a FIFA rules game – we only sew confusion up at NCHSAA headquarters where they are accustomed to a uniform terminology for serious physical fouls.
Just One More Canuck
sending that to my daughter’s coach – that’s just amazing
Paul in KY
@Steeplejack: Would have liked to see an end-zone angle on this.
Richard Mayhew
@cmorenc: Agreed, use sanctioning body appropriate terms but a red card has to come out. The paperwork will take care of itself later.
Germy Shoemangler
@LAO: That’s a beautiful story! They’re smart as hell, smarter than we probably know.
EDIT: also, what a great name: “Inky”
cmorenc
I note this game takes place relatively late in the spring season (girls HS soccer is a spring sport in NC) – a phenomena referees doing an end-of-season game over on the boys side have to be aware is that players who are in their senior year and not planning to play any further sports are sometimes easily tempted during their last-ever half of HS soccer into taking one last cheap-shot foul at an opponent, such as this one. This same phenomena is not nearly as common over on the girls side, but it does occasionally happen (girls are also notorious for patiently harboring grudges against a particular opponent and taking revenge in extendedly delayed fashion – who knows if something like that was behind this puzzlingly egregious foul? In any case, since the perp’s team is obviously among those playoff-bound, some female delayed-revenge thing (perhaps even on behalf of a teammate?) might be involved – with girls, the motivation for this kind of egregious foul can seem convoluted and baffling to male referees, except that we know of the dynamic and have to be aware of it.
magurakurin
@Eric U.: That was my first thought. That would be a red card in a Rugby match, too. That player should flat out be suspended…or jumped and mugged in the parking lot at night. If that had been a boys game, it would have been a bench clearing brawl for sure. That’s one of the most flagrant fouls I’ve ever seen in any game. Shocking.
Richard Mayhew
@cmorenc: Yep, the last game of the year/Senior Night between two 3-15 teams is always “exciting” especially if it is 5-1 at halftime for the visitors.
Agreed, I would be surprised if there is no pre-game backstory between these two players (boyfriend, club play, previous hard foul, someone got shown up etc)
Jerzy Russian
@Richard Mayhew: Thanks for the response. You are a wise man.
cmorenc
As a long-time FIFA and HS soccer-ref myself – an educated guess on why the offside call is that the AR may have been guilty of ball-watching – even if for only a fraction of a second, that’s enough time for a player who was even with the defender at the moment the ball was touched forward to be a step forward of the last field defender by the time the AR looks forward at them.
Hawes
That was a foul in rugby.
cmorenc
@Richard Mayhew:
I completely agree this is an obvious, egregious red-card foul – but the HS association regards flagrant physical fouls as more serious than DOGSO fouls for disciplinary purposes.
joes527
@scav: the fact that the black team stayed back and dispersed is probably the only thing that kept a fight from starting. White team flying in from across the field and having to push past a ring of black team players would have ended badly.
Mnemosyne
@cmorenc:
From what Richard and others have said, the potential fallout from the ref not issuing a red card in the moment could happen in a later game or even the following season, which is why it was such a huge slip-up. Now someone else could get hurt down the line because the ref neglected to act in the moment.
eric
@rumpole: This! Were i coaching or that was my daughter, i would be expelled from going to games because I would have gone after the other coach. That is who needs the multi game suspension. You need to groom that out of the team’s culture. Poor sportsmanship is taught.
scav
@joes527: thanks. Those are the sort of details I can”t know. I’m just more used to seeing everybody around an injured player and no real bias on what color shirt lends the arm they pull themselves up by. In short, different circs.
Wyrm1
I saw worse in a game I played as a JV high school player. One of my teammates had a beef with a guy from the other team and basically “attempted to play” a ball in the air and pretty purposefully shoved his cleats into the other players face and raked his foot.
Thankfully, the offended party hopped up (blood streaming down his face) and told his own team to back off, otherwise there would have been a riot. I have no idea what his punishment from the league was because our coach told him he would never play soccer at our school again.
As a high school teacher now, I cannot even imagine how the opposing player had the maturity and presence of mind to settle the situation, since I doubt the referees or peacemakers would have been able to do so.
Richard Mayhew
@cmorenc: Agreed, I think my point is that even if it was a “clean” tactical foul by the keeper, the referee should have had red card as a possibility in his mind… a red card should not have been a surprise to him in a foul by the keeper on the attacker scenario… getting the paperwork right is far less important than getting the red card right as the paperwork could have been corrected once the video was shown.
They lucked out there was not brawl.
Dan Hughes
Watch it back again. It looks like the goalie went to pick up the ball, realized she was out of her box and tried to correct… lost her balance… possibly tripped over the ball a bit too… then came crashing down on the striker. I’m not sure it’s as violent as it seems.
West of the Cascades
@Richard Mayhew: Thanks!!
Richard Mayhew
@Dan Hughes: I am not seeing that…
I am seeing a keeper leave the box to challenge (OK)
I see her head tilt down down to track the ball (OK)
I see a keeper open up her hips to play with her feet (OK)
I see a keeper let the ball roll past her (OK)
I see a keeper leaving her feet as the ball rolls past her (Not okay but might not be a foul) –
—-if she wants to break up the attack and take the red card, picking up the ball here is a safe choice as a simple DOGSO)
I see a keeper launch herself into her opponent after the ball has gone past the keeper (flagrant foul)
Anonymous At Work
@Richard Mayhew: On point (d), if the goalie thought that that was a legit tackle, then the other team can legit claim the ball she is holding is in play and kick at it, really really hard.
I was wondering if there’s something ABOVE a red card.
Amaranthine RBG
The attacking player should be charged criminally.
She intentionally ran out and battered the opponent.
mere mortal
“I won’t question an offside call from a time zone away.”
Then you are no sort of soccer fan.
I’ve heard such calls disputed with absolute conviction from people who were watching a game an ocean away.
And three pints of Guinness in.
Great post, but wrong title. There is a fair argument to be made that no one in the state of NC did anything worse than that goalie in the two minutes before or after.
Unless a trans woman used a women’s restroom after seeing several dangerous looking men enter the men’s room. But that should go without saying.
scav
And wouldn’t the whoops! trip scenario would appartently really make the actions of the other players even weirder? Because if joe38 is correct, a fair number of on-site players read the situation as off.
dedc79
In hockey, they changed the rule on icings and now blow the whistle if a defensive player has a clear lead in a race to the puck. This helps avoid dangerous collisions against the glass.
I think you’re right that the head ref should’ve proactively blown the whistle after the sideline ref raised the flag, but i don’t think anyone knew (or could’ve known) what that goalie was about to do.
Captain C
I don’t see how that’s not both a red card and a (gratuitous) penalty-kick, with a long suspension for the assaulting goalkeeper. If I was the ref, I would be hoping there was a way to give the GK’s coach at least a yellow for his apparent inability to teach his team that gridiron hits are never appropriate in association football.
joes527
I’m _still_ trying to see the offside.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@daveNYC:
Yup. And I think “pretty” can be removed from that sentence without making it any less accurate.
Richard Mayhew
@joes527: I am not seeing it either, but our angle is bad. As we are looking from upfield through the back shoulder of the second to last defender, our eyes give the attacker at least a yard of free space to be offside but look on.
If the AR thought he had an offside to the point where he is going up with his flag, I’ll run with him. He should have a much better angle than the camera that shot the above video.
Anyways marginal offside calls happen both for and against attackers as part of the game. The center referee should trust his AR’s to go with their decisions.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@cmorenc:
Question posed in complete ignorance: would/will use of the preferred/required NCHSAA terminology reduce the appropriate discipline of the keeper? And what does the NCHSAA deem appropriate discipline for this specific instance of foul?
NickM
Was the “attacker” OK? Did she have to go to the hospital?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@cmorenc: I think my last question in #53 was already answered – hazard of white matter issues on my part – but is 2 games much for this kind or behavior? Or is it an end of season reality? Is it entirely clear yet that I don’t even understand enough to ask sensible questions?
I really enjoy the ref discussions, especially on the topic of game/player behavior management. And it’s especially fascinating when there are a couple of you who do that work involved. So thanks.
Richard Mayhew
@Captain C: We can’t invent sanctions.
If the referee awards a PK for a foul that is 15 yards out of the box, the game becomes protestable and the protest will win.
If we make an error of judgement where the foul was a foot out of the box but we placed it in the box for a PK or if we pulled the ball out of the box as we thought the foul was a field foul and not a box foul, that is a protest that will fail as it is a protest of judgement as the referee will say “I thought the foul was at spot X. At Spot X, the correct restart is Y…the video showed it was at Spot Z, but I made a human error in judgement oh well….” It is a correct application of the rules although an incorrect read of play. A PK 15 yards out of the box is an error of the law.
Also, I am extremely reluctant to do anything to the coach based on what I am seeing here. The player is responsible for her own actions and will face appropriate sanctions.
What grounds do I as a referee have to sanction the coach for his/her player’s actions? I don’t have dissent, I don’t have irresponsible behavior.
My obligation is to write up any factual information about the coach’s actions/reactions (if he cheered etc or if he tried to be a peacemaker/seperator) and let the NC HS atheletic board or his school district do anything with that information.
Again, if I sanction the coach for team based douchebaggery, I am making an error in law not an error in judgement.
burnspbesq
@Lurking Canadian:
Germany v. France, 1982 World Cup.
I wonder if that keeper has a poster of Toni Schumacher on her bedroom wall.
Richard Mayhew
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Different sanctioning bodies will have different responses.
My state high school association has a 2 game ban for fighting with a possibility of upping it based on severity of injury, instigators, extenuating circumstances and past history (a good with a previous suspension will get more)
My regional Men’s Amateur/Beer League has a 1 game ban for any red card that comes from the normal course of play but a 3 game suspension and fines for Foul and Abusive Language OR Violent Conduct (a FIFA term, high school term Flagrant Contact Foul)
The youth development leagues have a flat 1 game ban with the possibility of the discplinary committee adding on for all red cards
MLS does their own thing
European professional leagues will do their own thing…
It depends.
eric
@Richard Mayhew: I find it hard to believe that HS rules do not allow for punishment against the bench for violence on the field. It may be after the game and not the referees call, but that is where I would go to if I were the opposing coach. Because if that goalie was my player, I would gone after her and made an example of her to the whole world. she would walk off the field in shame and never play for me again. So,given the inaction of the “offending” coach, I say suspend him/her too.
burnspbesq
Not by any stretch of the imagination defending the keeper for that foul. However, as a former keeper, if you’ve gotten pounded on every cross and corner for 88 minutes and gotten no protection from the officials (which is a hypothetical here, because we haven’t seen the entire match), the urge for frontier justice can be strong.
eric
@burnspbesq: yes, but that is what a discrete elbow is for. this was outside the scope of play. I understand the sentiment, but this is a high school “child” that got body slammed. and if the goalie had been abused it was up to her defenders to swing their arms a little bit more.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Richard Mayhew: I wonder if NC association has the possibility of increasing the suspension based on the kind of criteria your state HS assn does. Although I follow the sport sporadically at best, my default is FIFA terminology for foul, so I can get easily confused.
Sports comic from yesterday. I laughed.
Carnacki
It looked like a Roman Reigns spear from WWE.
cmorenc
@Dan Hughes:
I can assure you that the foul indeed WAS every bit as inexcusably deliberate and violent as it seems – I’ve refereed somewhere between 1500 and 2000 soccer games over my 19 year refereeing career, and the number of instances where a HS varsity GK would “accidentally trip” into an opponent in the manner shown in the video are as rare as giant nuggets of unobtanium. Here, the GK realizes she’s way outside her Penalty area, and that kind of leaping lunge forward only happens by deliberate action – a legitimate awkward trip, and her fall and posture going forward would not look anywhere so neat as that.
Seanly
Forget the uncalled flagrant foul – isn’t this assault & battery? Haven’t people been charged with a crime for behavior like that which is clearly out of bounds.
buddhacat
Is the goal-keeper related to Toni Schumacher? Hope not, that’s not a legacy she’d want to be carrying forward.
For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGq7VcaHoqo
Captain C
@Richard Mayhew: By ‘gratuitous,’ I was referring to the fact that a PK given as the last play in a game with one team ahead by 3 is kind of superfluous. I thought that penalties could be awarded outside of the box in certain circumstances of Denying an Obvious Goal-Scoring Opportunity (and the last player back taking out the attacker, who has already gotten the ball by the GK, with a hit that in some circumstances would draw a fine and suspension in the NFL or NHL would seem to be such a case, if there are any).
As to carding the coach, yeah, I understand that you can’t make rules up; I guess I was trying to say I’d be looking for any legit reason to card the coach (and I’d definitely include in my report if he was doing anything other than obviously berating his strong safety-wannabe goalie) unless he was obviously as horrified as the victimized team was. Is this (seeming to be OK with Gridiron-levels of violence, which we don’t know is the case with this coach) the kind of thing which would potentially get a coach a bad rep among officials?
Also, that looked totally (if barely) onside, but then I was a little biased knowing that I was about to see some Gridiron action from the opponents.
I’d love to hear the ref’s explanation of how that’s not a red card.
Captain C
@Richard Mayhew: By the way, I love these posts; when watching soccer I now spend a little energy and thought to tracking just what the refs are doing, and appreciating how difficult their job actually is.
Captain C
@Dan Hughes: Really? It looked to me like the GK launched herself right into the attacker while ignoring the ball altogether.
Richard Mayhew
@Captain C: it is not a Pk. In a non professional game, I am blowing the whistle, ending the game and hoping no riots happen. A professional ref will have to add time and restart with a direct free kick.
High school (& college) keeps the clock on the scoreboard. I would be doing my best to not stop the clock and hope the buzzer comes by the time I reach the keeper.
Agreed, if the coach of the offender team does anything at all stupid, I have a strong inclination to caution for his behavior but not for team douchebaggery
NorthLeft12
@Lurking Canadian:Pretty sure that being kicked out of that game and the next one is just the start for that Keeper. A longer suspension is probably due based on the violence of the attack. It the Keeper has some previous history, it should be that much harsher.
But then again, some leagues are absolutely terrible about these things. I have seen some awful fouls that did not even get a yellow, and forget about complaining or the complainer will get the boot.