It’s March in PA and somebody decided that the youth leauge play should start on the same weekend as MLS. Let’s just say we American’s are so focused on American Football that we can’t agree on when the season should start. Today is also the IFAB annual meeting which means law changes will be voted on. Why do we write about this? I received an email and after reading it I recall discussions of how we referee’s are just supposed to make sure that somebody–> Players, coaches, outsiders– are not cheating the game.
Why do I say this? I guess I’ve seen too many people not understand the spirit of the game and expect that everything should be in the rule book. Listen the actual rule book is so long, nobody ever reads it. However if you do it appears the IFAB may eventually be looking to install a hockey style clock complete with a penalty box and penalty time.
In actual application it was nice to be a fan and take in the Crew home opener vs. Montreal. Funny day as two PKs were called with Crew members being fouled early on a corner and late in the game with a great move into the box late in the game.
Yes someday’s we learn things! Today 3.18 we learned that you can be offside if you play a ball in your own half, if you were in an offside position when the ball was played. This doesn’t happen very often, but today it happened once. In follow up the IFAB bulletin explains it in the question and answer document under Question 3: