So I’m sitting her watching FC Bayern vs Berlin. I’ve been a passive FC Bayern since high school. So anyway, in around the 75min the official sees a foul by Bayern on Berlin in the Berlin defending third. He motions the FIFA approved signal for advantage for Berlin to play through, in their defending third. I know these are pros and all but usually not a good idea in the defending third. The commentator then goes on to say , “A good advantage call”.  The following four passes by Berlin pin them even more into the defending third. In the 79min Bayern have a great head on goal. The player heading the ball comes through on the flick but it’s close. They then go to show the replay and the guy is perfectly onside with a well timed move. The commentator says, “I’m not really sure about that”. Meaning that, to him, the player was offside.

My problem here is that commentators seem to have about the same level of understanding of the laws of the game as some average high school players. I really do think these guys, the commentators, as gatekeepers of sorts should have a better understanding of the laws of the game. A good advantage isn’t one that is simply followed with position for the next four passes. Movement up the field or some tactical gain should result. Players moving through with the ball are onside and instances where you can’t be sure there is no offside. “If in doubt keep it down” (the flag that is). I want them to comment on things like that. Teaching the “great unwashed”, as it were. I have yet to hear a commentator voice opinion about the officials or laws and not show their ignorance. I notice that most of the guys that comment on the premiership tend not to comment on the officials, the Americans might what to look into that.

ALSO, good to see how the American riders did in the prologue of the Tour of Cali today. Lets see how they do overall.

Last Tuesday I did a HS boys match. I think the work “boys” is key here. One of the teams, the winning team, fought with each other through the whole game. If there opponents had been any good I don’t see how they could win a game. When a younger teammate would make a mistake, as everyone does, the captain of the team would rip right into him and continue till the kid would run away (during the course of play). It was unreal. All I could think of was the fact that if I played on such a team I would pass to the other team and tell my captain to fuck-off. It was a true example of a dysfunctional team dynamic. The coach is a guy that I have known for years and have loads of respect for. When I asked him about this messed up team he said he had no idea how it happened or how to change it. It was sad, cause I know he loves the game, coaching, and the kids.

The following day I did a Div III men’s match a few hours from home. The remnant’s of hurricane Gustav were coming through the area so the game got a late start, 75minutes. At that point I knew that I would be getting home really late and wasn’t in a very good mood. I also knew that it wasn’t the teams fault and I needed to keep my head in the game. As it turned out both teams played a tough, fair match. I only had one yellow card, 25 fouls (a bit much but not bad) and not one bit of dissent that I remember the whole game through. The other thing that caught my attention was the attitude of the players toward their teammates. I don’t know if I noticed it more because of the HS game the day before or not. Any time someones head would go down a team mate would say something positive about getting back into the game. There was no sniping with each other or any of the usual bitching that you get when teams are frustrated. I was so glad it turned out this way it made the late start a little more palatable.

So today I got to work games on either end of the spectrum. I woke up at 7:00 in order to make the 9:00 start time for a college spring match. I had a Div1 team against a Juco team (men). I have found in the past that these games aren’t so much about the results as about proving something.

The Juco guys are out to prove that they can compete with the Div1 guys. Some are actually being looked at by the Div1 coach. Some of the Div1 guys are out to prove that they should get a start next fall. Others are out to show the Juco guys that Div1 is all about speed and hitting hard. So basically we have a little testosterone fest with a complete lack of gray matter.

Because of the vast amount of rain that we’ve had the game was played on the in football stadium on FieldTurf. This caused the Juco team all manner of problems since they were not used to a flat fast playing surface. Plus we had 22 grown men on a field that was quite a bit smaller than a normal soccer field.

The game was back an forth for the most part but the Div1 team had the majority of control. It wasn’t until the last 10mins of the second half that it really got fun. At the point the Juco guys knew they were going to loose and started to get quite a bit chippy. The Div1 guys saw this and started egging them on. My favorite of the day was when a second string Div1 player nailed a Juco guy. His comment to the Juco player was, “I play division 1 soccer.” All I could do was laugh at him, what a tool. A short time after that the Div1 forward (they were playing a 4-5-1) got into it with one of Juco backs. The Juco player called the Div 1 player a “bitch”, to which the Div1 player responded, “Did I get in your head? Did I get in your head?”. We had 5mins to play at that point, so I told the coach’s to sub these to clowns out.

All in all an easy game marked with some stupidity. From that game I went and worked a u9 girls match. During this match a young lady wanted to take a  throw in, problem was that the ball belonged to the other team. This this she responded, “Oh pooh”. I almost stopped the game. The day had started with having my heritige and Mother’s character questioned. At the end of the day the worst I had was, “Oh pooh”. I figured that was the perfect place to end the day.