Question Number: 23462

Law 6 - Assistant Referee 6/12/2010

RE: Select Under 19

Erik of Arlington, TX USA asks...

While watching the USA vs England World Cup match, I was also paying attention to what the referees were doing and how they were handling the game.

When Clint Dempsey's shot trickled past the goalkeeper, the assistant referee was still way up even with the top of the penalty area.

Shouldn't he have ran down toward the goal line with the shot? Luckily for the USA, the ball had enough on it to make it to the back of the net. He would have been completely out of position to judge whether or not the ball crossed the goal line if the goalkeeper managed to reach back and stop the ball making it a close call whether or not the whole ball passed the line.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

The assistant referee should have been as close to the goal line as physically possible. I didn't notice the ref's position and movement. But I note that Dempsey's shot was taken from some distance out and was blistering. (After all, if it was an easy shot, Green wouldn't have bobbled it.) There's no human who can follow a shot and make it to the goal line at the same time as the ball does.

I mentioned to my wife as it happened that I remind my newbie AR's at U12 to follow the ball as best they can because we don't know how good the keepers are and we don't know if they will stop the ball or not. Now I've got a good example to give them for a teaching moment.

Edit: I just saw a replay and noticed that the AR was sidestepping staying with the 2nd to last defender. He, just like all the rest of us, didn't expect for the goalkeeper to bobble the ball and evidently didn't feel the need to run to the line. This was probably not a good decision, but there were no other players between him and the goal to block his vision. Still, it could have been difficult for him to see if the ball was completely over the line if Green had managed to dive on it.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Yes. This shows why we are instructed to follow the ball to the goal line until the keeper has control of the ball.

Everyone (including the AR) expected the keeper to easily handle the ball. Again and again, however, experience shows that the unexpected happens in our game.