Week Three.

Considering how bad the ice got durning the small hours Saturday we were lucky to only lose the U4 games.  My thanks to the U4 Coaches for communicating the game cancelation to their teams and thanks to everyone else for your patience.  By game time Saturday the local roads were fine but the sidewalks around Midwest were still well glazed but we still had a great turn-out for the U6 games.

We had a few rules issues come up this weekend that I wanted to take a moment to clarify for everyone.

-During Saturday's U12 matches the referee was apparently calling some balls that touched the netting dead while letting others go.  I spoke to him afterward and he told me that that is how they call it at Pleasure Isle now, i.e., if the ball just grazes the net they play on.  I let him know that in the future we want all balls that touch the nets, to the side or above, no matter how lightly, to be blown dead.

-In one of the U10 games Sunday there was a foul call for sliding that confused many people on the bleachers.  In our league there is no sliding permitted, even if the player is not sliding into another player.  In this case the player went into a slide in order to make a shot.  It was a beautiful shot but he slid so the ref had to call it back.  Sliding is discouraged in indoor soccer because of the walls.  A player who slides near the wall might easily hit the wall or knock someone else into the wall risking leg, head and neck injuries. We don't want that.

-In the same U10 game there was a handball foul committed in the penalty area and the referee awarded a penalty kick, a direct kick, with the ball placed at the top of the circle (the key).  The Coaches were confused a bit and assumed that in U10 there should be no direct kicks in any circumstance.  The rule in our league is that for U10 all free kicks awarded for fouls outside the penalty area are indirect but penalty kicks awarded for fouls in the penalty area are direct.

Let me know if you see anything in a game with regard to the rules that you feel needs to be clarified either for players or even for the refs.