FCArmstrong

Ref, drink, sleep, repeat.

Ref, drink, sleep, repeat.

Ref drink, sleep, repeat.

Lots of games. Approximately 44 just for me of the 1087 that were played between Friday and Monday.

Lots of work for the crew of around 80 officials covering 20 futsal courts inside the Atlantic City Convention Center.

Lots of decisions. The average 40 minute futsal game has approximately 5x more decisions to be made than a 90 minute outdoor game.

Lots of stressed out parents. Since the court is the size of a basketball court the parents are allowed to sit just 6 feet off of the court and often right up the 2nd referees blind side.

Lots of languages. I heard some Dutch, Portuguese, French Canadian, Spanish and English.

Lots of pacing up and down the court. There are only two referees on the court instead of 3 like in American basketball so you are constantly trying to box in the play. Depending on the age group you may be watching end to end post up action or give and go passing.

No time to eat, drink or sleep. Since the referee head count did not allow for relief crews, the team that opened the floor at 7:30 in the morning was also the crew that ended the night at midnight.

Very little time to sleep

No time for recovery workouts or stretching.

Over the course of the weekend my referee crew only bust out our red card two times. Only two times! Both of those were for coaches who could not keep their cool and remember what the 6 tasks of a US Soccer Coach should be when coaching youth soccer.

It turns out that neither of them have a US Soccer Coaching license. One of our offenders did complete their Safesport.

USSF-ID: 1000-0000-0003-6457

The other offender hasn’t even completed Safesport according to US Soccer’s database. This would also explain why he took off with his coaching pass before the referee team could pull it from our table after receiving his red card.

That explains a whole lot!

We also had a yellow card for a coach who could not contain his frustration on his bench after his team gave up a goal because they missed their defensive assignment on a give and go. Upon the ball hitting the back of the net, he flipped a chair over in his team area. While that showed his passion, it is still not acceptable on a U12 girls game, since he is a nationally licensed coach who has passed his Safe Sport.