Comments on: Rapids vs FC Dallas

By: CSR

CSR — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:31:21 +0000

I think you would be hard-pressed to justify a caution for PI if the only offenses are offside infringements. Indeed, from USSF’s Week 9 “Lessons Learned” they discuss PI thusly – “To disrupt play and ruin the entertainment value of a game, players persistently/repeatedly foul opponents. Such conduct often causes the frustration level of opponents to rise and, therefore, the intensity level of the game to increase. This can lead to dissent and retaliation. Recognizing players who persistently/repeatedly foul opponents is critical to game control. ”
The offending player is not fouling opponents in such a way to disrupt play and ruin the entertainment value of the match. Nor do his infringements cause the frustration level of his opponents to rise and therefore raise the intensity of the game. I’ve never seen retaliation for a player repeatedly being whistled for offside infringements and I’ve never seen this result in game control issues.

To be sure, the guidance later goes on to say – “There is no magic number of fouls that define persistence. The severity, the frequency, the time between the fouls committed, and the atmosphere of the game are all factors that the referee should consider when determining whether a player is guilty of persistent infringement.” Considering offside is one of the least severe of any foul and a player generally needs quite a bit of time to be whistled for several offside infringements, I can’t imagine a scenario where showing the yellow card for PI makes sense if the only infringements involved are offside.

By: isualum

isualum — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:55:27 +0000

I am not sure persistent infringement would be the direction I would go with it….Consider the other cards given in the game, would that be consistent with the other cards…

I always like to keep in mind on my cards how is this card helping the game.

I actually have never heard of persisten infringement given for offsides but I did sent this question over to “ask a soccer referee”. It usually will be a week or so before I get the answer…I will blog it when I get the answer…

By: Allen

Allen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:00:12 +0000

IIRC had one or two offsides called against him where the AR hesitated to raise the flag even though Oduro was making a move for the ball right off the bat. I know they should wait and not assume a player in an offside position will attempt to play the ball. But I’m pretty sure Oduro had one if not two where right from the get go he was going for it and the AR still waited.

Speaking of Oduro, I’d be curious how a player at the pro level gets 5 offside calls and doesn’t get booked for persistent infringement.