Reprinted from The Diagonal Vol. 5, No. 1, (May 1998)
How to Watch World Cup '98
[Editor's Note: It may seem rather pointless to reproduce an article on watching World Cup '98
now that it's over! However, much of the advice given here on how to relate what senior referees do in
high level professional games to what we do in youth games is still valid. Think about it as you
watch some of the excellent soccer now available on local television.]
From June 10 to July 12, the World Cup finals will be played in France.
Every game (one or two a day, most days) will be televised in the US in English by either ABC
or the cable networks ESPN and ESPN2 and in Spanish on Univision. You should be glued to your TV!
Why? Because . . .
- it's fun! Even if you didn't play yourself as a kid, surely by now you enjoy watching the
game when it's played well? This is as good as it gets.
- everyone (in soccer) is watching! The World Cup is the one event that is watched by the entire
soccer world. The things that happen there have an enormous influence on how everyone in soccer
thinks, for the next four years and beyond. No discussion of offside since 1994 has been complete
without talking about the non-call on Romario in Brazil-Holland in WC '94. Be there when the next
one happens.
- you can learn a lot! About refereeing. It's not just the best players in the world who are
there. The referees chosen for the World Cup are the elite among the world's top officials.
When you do watch, don't get discouraged if you can't see and call everything accurately (i.e., the way the
referee does!) from the TV picture as it happens. Usually, during running play, the TV picture is
a fairly wide angle view, to show how play is developing. It's often very hard from that view to
see enough detail to make a call with any confidence. On the other hand, sometimes it is clear,
what happened, even from that view. If it isn't, you'll usually get shown a close up replay (think:
"Would I have been close enough to see that?"). And we have lots to look at, even in the
wide angle view. Here's what to look for:
- Positioning
- Watch the positions the referees take up for restarts and during dynamic play.
Usually, they'll be close to level with the play, but off to the side to get an angled view on it;
rarely directly behind. Occasionally, they'll be in front of the play, waiting as it comes back
towards them! Given the speed at which these games are played, their coverage is just remarkable.
- Focus
- Especially for games when you sit back and enjoy the soccer, watch how often play is called
back for a foul that you didn't notice because it happened just behind the play (while you were
watching the ball moving on to the next player). It makes you realize how focused the referees are
on covering the potential trouble spots (after the ball has gone, before it arrives) rather than
just watching the game.
- Fouls
- They'll let lots of things go that we (especially with younger children) should call. There are
three reasons for this. First, these players are just comfortable with a much greater degree of
physical contact ("trifling and doubtful" means something quite different than it does for us).
Second, dangerous play is very seldom called - the thinking being that, with players of this level
of skill, if a play did not actually result in a contact foul and if it didn't cause an opponent to
back off for fear of being hit, it probably was not out of control and so wasn't really
dangerous at all. Third, if the team that was fouled retains possession, the referee will very
likely signal advantage and let the play continue. (Watch for it. The TV commentators often miss
this and wonder why no foul was called.) Players at this level of skill usually prefer to continue
the attack if they retain the ball, rather than give the opposition a chance to get players back on
defense. In our world, this is much less often the case.
- Law
- Don't fall into the trap of second guessing the referee's performance on the basis of TLOG.
These referees know TLOG backwards; they very rarely make any mistakes of that kind. If they don't
call something the way you expect, think about it very carefully. There's probably something else going
on, or something you don't understand well. And speaking of not understanding, be wary of any coments
made about TLOG by US announcers (at least in English), especially about fouls, misconduct, and offside.
- Control
- The principal issue for referees at this level is balancing the desire to let the games flow
("as little interference as possible") with keeping the passion with which they are played
from boiling over. It's a very tricky balancing act. Some will succeed; some will not. We can only
admire.
[Editor's Note: This article was slightly revised from the version that originally appeared
in The Diagonal ].