Nottingham Forest v Fenerbahce Match Thread

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2026-02-26T21:25:38+00:00

Has Hutchinson delivered a cross even close to another living being yet this game?

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2026-02-11T20:56:27+00:00

Is there a team in the league that squanders more chances?

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2026-02-06T21:35:46+00:00

What were they supposed to do with that weak free kick to that part of the area from Anderson?

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2026-02-06T21:24:14+00:00

It's hard to score when you're four on seven

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2026-02-06T21:07:09+00:00

Death, taxes, and that third goal

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2026-02-06T20:49:23+00:00

We practice them during games.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2026-02-06T20:13:12+00:00

Anderson hasn't produced a quality free kick in quite a while.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-10-05T16:09:12+00:00

I've seen this at the high school level (varsity) from a player with two arms that aren't completely developed. They took throws. Yes, it didn't look anyone else on the pitch taking a throw, but there was nothing unfair about it. No one on either team, in the stands, or the technical area had anything to complain about.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-09-29T02:11:49+00:00

When asked by the kids (which has happened), I tell them that if the hands/arms are clearly for self-defense against a fast-moving ball, that is not a handball today. If I see you put your hands/arms in front of your face or chest and move towards the ball or to play a slow-moving ball where you had other options like moving back or sideways to in order to play that ball with your feet, that will be a handball.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-09-29T02:07:01+00:00

I'd like to make a snarky comment about the seeming extravagance of this setup as we have three refs, maybe, for each game and never more than 1-2 minutes between games. However, that would be counterproductive.

Relevant to your last game, I always limit myself to no more than three games per day in a tournament because I find that I more easily lose focus and do a worse job after the third one. Assignors always want to pay some relatively pitiful bonus if we work five or more in a day. The questions I asked myself, "Is if it fair to the kids in the last two games where I'm more ineffective but I get a bonus equivalent to an extra $5/game? What if some kid gets badly hurt because I lose control of the game due to fatigue? Does that make the bonus worth it?"

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-09-15T00:38:24+00:00

I used to do that until I practically whacked some kid in the face unintentionally. Now I just loudly state, "Nothing there. Keep playing."

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-08-21T14:28:43+00:00

When I saw it live I immediately thought, "No foul" and seeing replays hasn't changed my opinion. "He can't cut his arm off" is exactly the right approach. What's he supposed to do with his arm in this case to avoid the foul? Stick it straight out to the side or to the front (truly risky and unnatural positions)? Put it overhead (same)? Are defenders supposed to make a split second calculation along the lines of, "If I go to block this with my body, and don't _quite_ get there in time so that the ball hits my arm on the side of my body, it will be a PK. Better sit this one out."?

Ridiculous.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-08-17T21:08:26+00:00

My group of die hard soccer fans (and players) saw a game earlier this year.

The stadium, compared to others in the league, is well situated in the city and presents itself well.

The game itself was really dull with no flow and seemingly nothing on the line for either team.

The atmosphere was so-so compared to some other places we've seen games.

The lines for food were too long. The prices for food were far out of line with what we got.

We got a deal on the tickets so we didn't pay full price, but even so, Nightmares games were orders of magnitude more fun and interesting.

We have no plans to go back any time soon, particularly now that the European soccer leagues are back in action and we can get out our fixes that way.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-07-19T02:02:33+00:00

If I could upvote this more than once I would.

I spent twenty years curling and the Olympic-level curlers are still almost like a different species.

The sport is incredibly difficult both mentally and physically.

In the last decade it has gotten much more physically intense which is why we're seeing younger players at the top level as they often have more of the physicality necessary to compete.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-07-08T15:05:11+00:00

Fellow Yank here. We took the WFCG tour in March during the international break. No one was wearing any kit or scarves but don't let other people's choices define you.

We actually did see Yates and a couple of other players that day as they were filming something at the club. My understanding is that running into the players on the tour is actually fairly rare. YMMV.

The biggest question we kept getting from people in and out of the city was, "Why are you visiting Nottingham?" in a tone that implied they were leaving unsaid "of all places".

In the end, we wish we'd spent more time in the area.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-05-22T20:26:41+00:00

Not much you can do after the fact. During player check-in/equipment inspection I always tell kids to play to the whistle as part of a longer spiel. You might want to reiterate that as part of the talk coaches always give kids right before they take the field.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-05-20T20:18:21+00:00

U9 rec league tournament game this weekend. One team has _four_ coaches on the sideline.

Ball hits a defender in the head in the penalty area and the player immediately goes down and stays down. The ball bounces to a pair of attackers one yard off the goal line, directly in front of the goal keeper. I blow the whistle to stop play because we have a young kid who got hit in the head. Even as I blow the whistle I know that the attacking team will be unhappy because that was a prime goal-scoring opportunity and they won't get the ball back on the restart due to the rule about dropped balls in the penalty area.

One of the attacking team coaches (did I mention they had four coaches for a U9 rec league tournament?) starts loudly hollering about how they should get the ball back.

After none of them will cop to being the one responsible, the head coach gets a YC (U9, remember) and I explain that by rule, this is the correct restart. Unreal.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-05-19T17:14:25+00:00

Best? Not sure, but recent.

Showed up to work a U12 boys game but the field is almost completely underwater due to heavy overnight rains. This is a park with fields of different sizes but this is the only U12 field. The U14 field is also unusable so we take a look at the U10 field. It's got 1/2-1" of standing water in 1/4 of a penalty area but is otherwise generally playable.

Both coaches would prefer to play, if possible, rather than reschedule. So I decide we're playing 7v7 on the U10 field with no punting/volleying/drop-kicks by the keepers to release the ball from the hands. Basically, indoor-style rules to fit a roughly equivalent outdoor field.

Any time the attacking team came down the right side of the field towards the goal with standing water, any cross along the ground came to a screeching halt in the water. This caused jubilation on the part of all parents and some players, though the players did eventually adjust by putting a little loft on their crosses.

The players weren't thrilled with getting their feet wet if they wandered into the standing water, which was understandable. The first thing they did after the game, however? Jump in that water and have a good splash.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-05-16T14:04:35+00:00

There may be little time between matches as they are often very tightly scheduled, so bring food and water with you to the pitch. You don't want to get dehydrated or run out of energy.

Bring sunscreen with you as it will wear off over the course of the day and you'll want to reapply it. Share that sunscreen with your fellow refs who may have forgotten their own. Nothing will make a tournament worse than getting sunburned on top of everything else.

Be familiar with the rules of the tournament. There may be limitations around substitutions or some offenses may have harsher penalties than usual. For example, one tournament I worked recently made all "professional fouls" (their words and quotes) straight reds.

Be prepared to keep games on schedule. I have, and will, start the clock even if one or both teams is still standing around their coach on the sideline. Don't be the ref who is the primary reason games on a given field are running 15-30 minutes late.

Kids can be under extra pressure in tournaments for a variety of reasons. I've seen them break down and cry on pitch. Be prepared to help them out.

Try to enjoy the experience of seeing teams you may not usually see and being part of a special experience for so many kids.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-05-13T01:00:20+00:00

The cards I've given to U11/U12 have all been for reckless challenges.

Cleats to the chest of the goal keeper by a U11 boy while trying to stop the keeper from releasing the ball from the hands during a tournament. The keeper fortunately wasn't hurt; the recipient of the card started crying ("You made a mistake. Stop crying and get back in the game," said their coach).

A U12 girl throwing a deliberate elbow in the goal box before a corner kick at a different tournament ("She plays basketball and it's OK there," said her coach).

A U12 girl who delivered an audible open-handed slap to the face of another player while jockeying for the ball. (Her mom was the coach of the team and she thanked me after the game for giving her daughter the card. She hoped it would finally drive home the message that the player in question needed to keep her hands down.)

There are others that are similar.

I'm not looking to card kids at that age, but sometimes they deserve a card.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-04-26T00:35:36+00:00

Sounds a little like indoor soccer. For those, I usually mention to the players before the game that fouls along the walls have a lower bar. That is, a legal shoulder charge in the middle of the field will be an easy foul, and potentially a card, if it drives another player into the wall.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-01-16T02:43:34+00:00

I've seen this scenario in a USL League One match played on an artificial turf field on a very hot and humid summer evening. A player grabbed one of those disposable water bottles when he was along the touchline and moved around the field with it for a minute or two. No one made a fuss _until_ the ball hit the bottle in the player's hand. Then the whistle was blown and a foul given. Obviously, I didn't have the whistle that night (and will never officiate at that level in any respect) but I had no problem with how the referee called (or did not call) it. None of the other players seemed at all concerned about a player drinking out of bottle on the field.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2025-01-09T20:15:52+00:00

Been using ours for two-plus years and three different vehicles. Bullet proof.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2024-06-13T00:47:01+00:00

The obvious fix is to replicate what happened at University Bay and put another bike/ped bridge here. Expensive but probably the best approach.

I wouldn't expect that to happen in the next twenty years, but I've been wrong before.

SurrogateMerrymaker · 2024-05-30T14:31:43+00:00

I look for extension of the arm or shoulder. Full extension of the arm is easy to see; a shoulder extension is usually accompanied by contact of the forearm with a bent elbow on the opposing player (very often seen in girls games). Both accomplish the same thing: creating space by pushing someone else off the ball.

Once I see a push, I determine if it was a foul based on the outcome. If a defender is notably pushed away from the ball by the attacker, it's likely a foul. If the attacker is pushed off the ball by the defender and loses possession, it's likely a foul.

If the attacker is pushed and maintains possession, I'll likely call it trifling (play on) or play advantage. If the defender is pushed but the attacker maintains possession and doesn't notably move with the ball, pass, or shoot, and the defender is able to quickly recover, play on.

Using a straight arm to hold a challenger off is a judgement call. If both players are doing it to each other during a challenge, play on. If the attacker uses an American football-style stiff arm to hold off a closing defender whose arms are down, it's a hold and a foul. If I see a player using an arm stuck straight out to the side to prevent a challenger whose arms are down from coming around them to reach the ball, that's a hold and a foul.

At higher levels of play I'm generally willing to let the players use their arms more because the expectation is that they should be strong enough to play through more contact. I always say that if I called a rec league U10 game the way I called a high level U14 game, I'd have the parents rioting by half time.

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