High/low press

Have you heard of high/low press? When a team has the ball around the half-way line or even in their own half, and the opposing team is pressuring them in an attempt to take the ball away from them, it is called "high press." In a similar situation, if no opposing players are chasing the ball and if they are just waiting for the other team to get closer to their own penalty area, it is called "low press."

Recognizing the level of press can help you with your positioning. If there is high press and the ball could be "stolen" by the other team, you can have a situation where within a few seconds, yoyu have a possible penalty area incident. In the mean time, if you have low press but if you (the referee) chase the ball, you will be far from the next phase of play following a long vertical ball. 

However, even where there is high press, a player or two may not have a defender marking them. In that case, it is easy to anticipate who will get the ball next. Check out the video below to identify who might get the ball next and how you might be able to adjust your positioning.

Delay Restart

There are times, as referees, we don't know if a player's action is delaying a restart (DR) or not. If it is, we have to issue a yellow card. But there are many instances where a player's action appears to fall short of a cautionable offence. What do you do when you are unsure?

The video below goes over six simple questions you can ask yourself. DR is not like DOGSO where you have to check all the boxes. For DR, you need to look at various considerations and decide if a player's action qualifies as DR.