Let's take an example from this past weekend. We were involved in a game where the official was less than perfect. Our game ended 5-5. A college soccer game should never end 5-5.
There were frustrations, but as an athlete you have to keep your eye on the prize.
The officials are another condition around a game like the field, weather, fans, missing players or other factors. You have to manage what you can control and manage them according to the conditions. Every referee has tendencies that you have to read and work around.
Your job as a coach is to look past everything and see what's really going on.
Our first conceded goal was a penalty kick. Nothing to do there. A high ball through the middle was inadvertently headed backward by a midfielder, caught our defenders off guard and a hard tackle was laid during the chase. Can't blame the ref.
The second goal was the result of a pressuring defender not being supported and a pass sneaking in behind him to the goal scorer. The referee did not cause this.
Their third goal was off a free kick in front of our box that was the result of a dive (the kid's 4th on the day). But on the free kick, our wall split and the ball passed through on the way to the net. Not the referee's fault. He may have let the player's diving continue and made the call against us instead of cautioning the player, but the wall splitting was our doing, not his.
Their fourth goal was off another free kick from the same kid diving. This was off to the corner of the penalty area. Again, you can fault the ref for not cautioning the player and awarding another free kick, but it was not the ref's fault that the ball passed by two of our players to an unmarked opponent on the far post.
Their fifth goal was the result of a player having the ball too long, at the top of our box, with his back to the net while his teammate cut through unmarked , taking a pass and scoring.
We were then down a man for the last 15 minutes as one of our players was awarded a second yellow on a collision (with the same player diving). That player kept playing, and very well, while ours was on the outside of the fence looking in.
At the end of it all, down a man, we scored 2 goals in the last 10 minutes to earn a point.
Watching the game on video showed me that we were certainly the away team, but that's life. And it also showed that more focus on the game and learning to not be distracted by other factors would have helped us at certain instances.
If we blame the ref for the result, then the guys think he's the sole problem and we have nothing to work on.
And think, this is my opinion from our bench. I am sure their coach thought something wasn't perfect as we also scored five goals, 2 from set pieces. He would also do his team a disservice if he blamed the ref and didn't address that his team was beat twice on restarts and allowed 2 late goals with an extra player.
If we go over each goal conceded, we have plenty to work on, and that is where our next two sessions are going.
We did a lot of things very, very well. Scoring 5 goals in a game is good stuff. Playing through frustrations and coming back to salvage the day was a fantastic moment for the guys. Lamenting on game conditions would only tarnish the good things we can take away.
Our next two sessions will revolve around 1v1, small group and team defending.
The guys did their jerseys a great service yesterday and they knew it. And addressing the issues that caused our goals will make us even better.
