A mid-game flag malfunction, ignoring outside influences & refreshing professionalism
It's no surprise that all the referees invited to work State Cup Finals with me were serious about their work. It was a real treat to work alongside them!
I worked 2x State Final games today as AR2 (G14 & B13).
Here’s what I’ll be taking away…
1. Higher level referees are really professional
For the first time today, after 7 months of refereeing, I had a center who did a full pregame talk and team warmup with the crew.
Obviously today’s games were Finals so they required a bit more attention.
But I don’t usually get that level of attention to detail with any other games I’ve worked.
Takeaway: As somebody who’s always been professional in his young refereeing career, continue to do so and treat every game seriously. This needs to be the norm.
2. Ignore outside influences
This was the first time I’ve really worked in front of a big crowd. There were probably ~200 people at both matches I worked today. Plus I was AR2 for both so the crowd was really right next to me.
There were a few times when people were yelling things like “OFFSIDE!” from the crowd behind me.
While I think I did a good job ignoring their comments, I definitely heard them and it probably took away too much of my focus from the match.
Takeaway: I think working in front of crowds and tuning out outside influences are just things I’ll get better at with more practice. So get more big games is the next step, I guess!
3. AR2 should only signal for subs when mirroring AR1
We had observers for all Finals matches this weekend and as always, it’s great to get feedback myself and hear it for others as well since that also helps me improve.
The feedback I got personally was that as AR2, I should only put my flag up for a substitution to mirror AR1.
I guess I put it up once too early? This is what I was told although I don’t remember it.
Regardless, it’s good feedback and an easy fix.
Takeaway: Only signal for a substitution as AR2 when I see it from AR1. Treat it like throw ins; slow and steady with my flag motion.
4. Flag tops come off sometimes
I did get to use buzzer flags for the first time today. That was fun even though I didn’t use the buzzer once!
But I probably should have.
I’ve had challenges as AR before. Many, actually. But today’s was definitely a unique one…
With ~15 minutes left in the match or so, I pulled my flag down from a throw in decision and the top of the flag flew off.
You can guess what happened next. The entire flag fell off my handle…
I actually think I handled the situation pretty well. I grabbed the flag and put it back on the handle. I knew it wouldn’t stay on with the top popped off but it was pretty easy to hold the flag handle a bit higher so the bottom part of the flag was also in my hand.
It didn’t disturb the flow of the game and went fairly unnoticed even though there were plenty of people behind me.
The only thing I was freaking out about internally was that the buzzer flags belonged to the center. I asked him how much they cost before the match and holy sh*t!
Needless to say, I did NOT want to be the person who broke his flags…
When the final whistle blew, I was able to find the top pretty easily in the grass where it had fallen off.
Takeaway: Even expensive flags come apart sometimes! When working with flags that have a screw on top, give both a quick tighten before each game.
Know a soccer ref? Feel free to share this with them 💙