Who made the best call #5

Congratulations Marcus fro winning the last Who Made the Best Call with his PAI decision. But Jason was a very close second (he was only a vote behind).

This time, we have four more clips.

Clip 1 (USL-2, Kaltilin Girbach, Offside)

Kaitlin is a very frequent name on this Who Made the Best Call series. She has been doing great this season. We have another great call by her. Her offside deicion was tight by less than a foot. But in addition, after she flagged the play for offside, she recognized that players were still running and chasing the ball. So she kept her eyes on them just in case something bad happened.

Clip 2 (USL-2, Jeremy Valentine, SPA)

As a South Bend player loses the ball to a Lansing attacker, the SB player holds the shirt of the LAN attacker. The hold is relatively small. But it was enough to stop the attacker from moving forward with speed. The impeding of the movement was clear. This is a tactical foul. Jeremy correctly recognizes it and issues a caution. It is easy to miss something like this. 

Clip 3 (USL-W, Carlie Castiglione, Offside)

We have another great onside decision by our official. This time, Carlie has an attacker onside by a few inches at most. She correctly recognizes this very tight decision to keep her flag down. From her correct onside decision, a goal was scored.

Clip 4 (USL-W, Meghan Brasseur, Advantage)

Meghan is another frequent official who is doing really well this year. This time, she gave an advantage during the build up of play, which resulted in a goal. Look how calm she is. She does not rush to blow her whistle when she sees a foul. She gives herself time to process what she saw and allows the play to continue.

Who do you think should win this time??

Submit your vote here.

Who made the best call #4

Congratulations to Kaitlin Girbach for getting over 65% of the vote to become the winner of Who Made the Best Call #4!!! I also have to share that her consistently good performance was noted not just by those in the refereeing community but also by media!! Check out what Michigan Soccer Network annoucers had to say about Kaitlin (and Justin)!! Marcus and Walid, we know you are good! (We also know they spelled/pronounced some of your names wrong.)

This time, we have four clips again. Let us know who you think made the best call!

Clip 1 (NPSL, Jason Cross, Offside)

In this clip, we have an attacker who is clearly in an offside position. The ball is passed seeingly to him but Jason applies the wait-and-see principle and allows an onside attacker to chase the ball. The offside player never interferred with play or with an opponent. As a result, the attacking team was able to win a corner kick.

Clip 2 (Marcus Barnett, USL-2, Penalty Area Incident)

Many referees hesitate to give a PK early in a game. It is more so if the referee fears that players will complain that a PK is "soft." But as the saying goes, "a soft-boiled egg is still a boiled egg." Marcus was correct to give a PK for a pushing offence by a defender.

Clip 3 (USL-2, Aaron Scherer, Reckless challenge)

Just like in the last clip with Marcus, we have another early decision. At the 3rd minute of the game, a black player commits a reckless challenge against a white player. While many referees hesitate to give an early caution, Aaron correctly recognized that this was a reckless challenge. 

Clip 4 (MLS, Nick Balcer, Remembering the basics)

We have allowed two national / PRO ARs to get featured previoulsy so why not another one. Here, Nick is working on an MLS game. He correctly raises his flag for a foul and recognizes that it is a cautionable foul. To communicate this information to his referee, he pats on his badge. As an MLS AR, he has all the gadgets from the communication system to VAR to beeper flags. But he still followed the basics because technology can fail.

Submit your vote here.