Attempt to play

Being able to recognize a DOGSO situation is one thing. It requires the referees to correctly identify that all four criteria for DOGSO are met. But the referee must also identify if an offense was as a result of an attempt to play the ball. This is a critical decision because it can determine the color of the card. When a DOGSO offense happens because of an attempt to play the ball, then the referee issues a yellow card. If a DOGSO offense happens not because of an attempt to play the ball (e.g. pushing, pulling, holding, and handball), then a red card must be given. 

What could be a little more difficult is when an offense like tripping happens, the referee must decide if there was an attempt to play the ball. One of the cues is how the ball, the attacker, and the defender are positioned.

Check out the video below as an example.

Urgency

When players from one team feel that they should have gotten a free kick but they did not, only to give away a free kick to their opponent a few seconds after, referees must recognize that there may be some emotional outburst or frustration expressed by some players. Simply calling fouls would not be enough to manage these players. Be proactive and preventative. Increase your presence around the foul spot. Show to the players that you are in charge.

In the video below, the referee's decisions (no foul and then a foul) appear correct. But he did not recognize the level of frustration among the players in white.

Shifting focus

As an assistant referee, your positioning is prescribed. In other words, unlike the referee, you cannot choose you stand. You must position yourself in line with the second-last defender or the ball, whichever is closer to the goal line. This sometimes puts you in an awkward situation in which you are not best positioned to observe everything you must observe.

If you have a play approaching your touchline but with a possible offside situation, you must observe the play (potential foul), the touchline (potential throw-in), and the offside line (potential offside). In addition, you must watch the referee to understand what help they need and what they can and cannot see. Consequently, one of the fundamental skills of a good assistant referees is to shift focus from one area of the field to another very quickly but at the right moment. This takes practice. Even experienced referees may struggle or miss something because they were watching something else.

Below, you will find a video of an assistant referee on a youth game demonstrating a great skill of constantly shifting focus. When you are on the line next time, ask yourself if you are as attentive as this assistant referee is.

Flash lag effect

There are many reasons why we, as assistant referees, get an offside decision wrong. Sometimes, it is because of we are not focused. Some other times, we are not properly aligned with the offside line. But there are times when we get our call wrong even when we are properly aligned and remain focused. One of the reasons for this is the flash lag effect.

Your eyes trick your brain. Sometimes when two objects are not moving in the same direction, there is a delay between what our eyes see and what our brain registers. It causes a certain object to appear in our brain that it is in a different spot than it actually is. There are numerous websites that explain this effect so if you are unfamiliar with it, we recommend you take a look.

Here is an example of an assistant referee incorrectly calling an onside player as offside, even though he was properly aligned with the second-last defender.

Wait and See

Why is the wait-and-see approach so important for an assistant referee? Especially when you have two attackers with one being in an offside position and the other in an onside position, you want to give yourself extra seconds to raise your flag to make sure that it is indeed the offside player who plays the ball, interferes with an opponent, or gain advantage. If you raise your flag and an onside player plays the ball, your flag was premature. A premature flag could easily take away a goal.

The video below shows how important it is for an assistant referee to wait and see. If the AR had raised his flag prematurely, this goal would not have happened.

Delay Restart

Have you given a yellow card for DR (delaying the restart of play)? If you see a possible DR, how do you know if the incident deserves a yellow card?

There are numerous considerations that a referee must take into account. Here, we will just focus on three considerations (there are other considerations but they can be covered in a different post). Today, we think of an instance where a player kicks the ball away after the referee's whistle.

- How much time does the player have to think?

Did the player kick the ball immediately after the referee blew their whistle? In other words, did the player have the time to think of what they were to do? It does not take more than a second for a player to realize that the referee has blown their whistle. So if you, as the referee, say that the player kicked the ball away after they had some time for them to think, you may consider issuing a caution. On the other hand, if the player was already in the process of kicking the ball and the whistle blew, then you may not want to blame the player.

- Does the opposing team try to restart the game?

If the team that will take the free kick does not act to resume play (e.g. moving toward the ball to retrieve the ball), then the restart was not delayed by the player who kicked the ball. If the team that will take the kick tries to retrieve the ball and the ball is kicked away (notice a small nuance difference between "kicking the ball" and "kicking the ball away"), then the restart is delayed. Of course, this is not to say that the team that will take the kick must act to retrieve the ball for a card to be issued. It is merely one of many considerations.

- How far is the ball kicked?

Similar to the point above, if the ball was kicked away by a yard, was the restart truly delayed? It may deserve a yellow card for a different reason, but maybe not for DR. But if the ball was kicked 10 yards away, it is likely that the restart was delayed.

Below, you will have a video that describes these three considerations from a match in Michigan. 

Anticipate

Have you caught yourself struggling to keep up with an attack? Have you had to sprint as fast as you could to stay close to an attack? Players are fast and the ball moves even faster. In addition to running faster, what can we do to keep up with the play?

Because soccer officiating is not a 100-meter dash race, we can have a head start. In other words, if we can recognize that a long forward pass is about to be made, we can start moving. Below, you will see a video of a referee who started moving after the ball was kicked forward. As a result, he had to sprint hard. What if he had moved a second or two earlier, by anticipating the upcoming forward pass? He would still have had to run, but probably not as fast. Or if he had sprinted as fast, he would have been even closer to the play.

Now, how do you know when a forward pass is about to be made? When a player looks up and identifies an attacker with some space in front of them and/or without a defender, it might be a good sign that you should start moving. Or just by looking at the player, you may notice that they bring their kicking leg back to prepare for a long pass. 

Don't forget who is behind you

 Incidents in the penalty area are critical. They may lead to a PK, a canceled goal, or a controversial decision because of the proximity to the goal. But even if there are 12-15 players inside the penalty area, don't forget there are other players, too. Watch the video clip below. The referee was focused very much on the players inside the penalty area upon a corner kick. Many of the corner kicks, indeed, travel into the penalty area. But remember that there are other options. 

Look around. Pay attention to where other players are. Anticipate the next play. What are the options that the attacking team has?

SPA is about S+S+O

We talk quite a bit about DOGSO (Denial of an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity) and how it has four criteria (i.e. distance between the offence and the goal, general direction of the play, likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball, and location and number of defenders). What kind of criteria do you think exist for SPA (Stopping of a Promising Attack)?

Although the LOTG do not provide us with a specific set of criteria, one of the ways we can judge if an offense is a SPA or not can be summarized as S+S+O. What does this mean?

S: Speed. The higher the attacking speed, the more promising the attack.

S: Space. The more relevant space the attacking team has, the more promising the attack.

O: Options. The more options the attacking team has, the more promising the attack.

Unlike DOGSO for which all four criteria must meet, SPA does not come with a "mandatory check box." Furthermore, S+S+O is one of several ways to judge SPA. But keeping this S+S+O concept in your mind could help you identify SPA on your next match.

The video below is a good illustration of how to use S+S+O to judge SPA.