Trevor, Marissa with a touch of Nathan and Emi

Today's OiA features Trevor and Marrisa with Nathan and Emi thrown in for good measure! A cornucopia of officiating excellence!

Trevor is a Regional referee. In this clip he is patrolling the touchline (looking resplendent in Adjudicator kit). Watch as he is focused the entire time on his task. He easily follows the offside line, breaking into a light jog when needed. He continually switches his view from offside line to the play and back again, especially when he is moving back up the field. Strong, confident body language, but relaxed at the same time. Well done Trevor!

In this next clip, we encounter a player setting up for a corner kick. Scan over and we find the referee, Nathan, correctly positioned for the ensuing kick (near where the penalty arc meets the penalty area), per FIFA.

FIFA recommended positioning for corner kicks

The kick occurs and carries across the net and then over the goal line (for a goal kick). Emi is correctly positioned on the goal line and correctly signals goal kick. Finally, the clip ends and we see Nathan sprinting to his goal kick restart position.

FIFA positioning on a goal kick

And last but not least, OiA presents Marissa.  Marissa is working as AR. Marissa has been working hard and the results are showing! As the clip opens, Marissa is observing play, flag correctly held in her left hand. Play breaks and she follows. She turns and signals offside, but the referee overrules her. No big deal, she continues and runs to catch up with play. With the offside signal, Marissa correctly raised the flag in her *right* hand, straight up. She then lowered it to indicate the area of the field (far, middle, close). To make this a perfect sequence, we like AR's to signal offside by raising the flag in the right hand, straight up, then hold it there until the referee blows his whistle or signals to lower it. In this case the referee decided to not accept Marissa's signal and play continued. This happens and Marissa didn't pout or get angry, but worked to catch up to play. A fine example of teamwork from the referee (for acknowledging the signal, and Marissa for making the signal then continuing on). Well done, Marissa!

Rob, Matthew

OiA checked out some games at Mac Island today, and OiA liked what OiA saw. 
First we see Rob working the line like a boss.

The clip opens with Rob easily moving to keep up with the offside line. Ball goes to keeper, Rob turns and moves up field with the 2nd to last defender and switches the flag to the right hand. Watch as he checks the defender and the ball. The defense moves, he moves. At 29 sec he moves up field along with the defender. The clip ends with a ball out down the line from his position. Rob turns to the field and makes a nice, calm signal. The referee is shown in the clip and watch the two officials. They signal at the same time and there is eye contact, a great example of team work. Well done Rob!

Teamwork

Next, OiA observed a new official, Matthew. 
I'm always in awe of our young, new referees. They learn a lot in a short period of time then are asked to go put it into practice. 
In this clip, Matthew watches as the ball is thrown in, then calls offside at 17 sec. He moves back and raises his arm to signal indirect and holds it until the ball is touched by another player. Nicely done. To make this a perfect sequence, raise the arm signalling indirect kick when the whistle is blown. This clearly tells players that it's an offside.
Moving along, play comes back and a goal is scored. Matthew points at centre and moves to position. Sweet.

This next clip is the kick off right after the goal above. Matthew positions himself to the left of the centre mark. The ball is off the centre mark and Matthew notices and correctly advises the player to fix. He whistles to restart play then signals end of game. Matthews restart position on kick off was very nearly perfect - he was to the left of the centre mark, but he needed to be *behind* the ball. All-in-all, well done Matthew!

Kick off position as per FIFA