Question Number: 28318

Law 5 - The Referee 4/9/2014

RE: Rec Other

Paul of Milton, Ontario Canada asks...

My question is about allowing advantage immediately after a DOGSO offence.

If the offence occurs in the penalty area, and the referee does NOT apply advantage, it is obviously a penalty kick that is awarded, and a red card shown.

Now, let's say the ref allows a few seconds for an advantage because an attacker has A SECOND SEPARATE CLEAR scoring opportunity. The attacking player takes a very poor, unprepared kick towards goal but the ball is totally off goal and leaves the field of play.

Did the advantage 'materialize', thereby replacing the awarding of a penalty kick? In other words, is this all considered ONE scoring opportunity?

OR... do I still penalize the denial of the 1st scoring opportunity (even though there was a 2nd subsequent scoring opportunity) and award a penalty kick because I determine the second opportunity did not materialize as an advantage?

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Paul,

As you say, the key is whether the advantage materialised.

If the ball falls to the feet of an attacker in front of an open goal and was easy to control, and he kicks it poorly then that's on him. Advantage has materialised.

If the attacker only receives the ball at a difficult angle due to the foul then you can wait to see what happens but go back to the foul, if he kicks it first time.

It's a bit like when a player still has the ball with 6 players in front of him and is about to shoot - wait a moment in case he gets it through them, but if he doesn't you can go back to the foul.

I once had a situation where a player running for an open goal with a defender sprinting across to cover was fouled. He stumbled, took 2 steps to recover, then took the shot. The defender blocked the shot.

However, he was only there because of the half-second it took the attacker to recover; even though the shot was good, he was still seriously disadvantaged from the foul, so I went back to the foul.

That's what you need to ask yourself - was the following opportunity still disadvantaged because of the foul? If so, you may be able to go back to the foul If there's no particular disadvantage on the 2nd opportunity, then we have advantage.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Paul
Each situation will be entirely different and there will be many factors that the referee will have to take into account.
Now the fundamental of the decision to play advantage it to allows play to continue when the team against which an offence has been committed will benefit from such an advantage and penalises the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time usually within a few seconds.
If the advantage is realised and the fluffed due to a poor play then the referee allows play to continue.
Now the advice on a penalty in the US is not to play advantage but to 'wait and see'. That gives the referee some thinking time to evaluate what is happening and make a call accordingly.
An example that I had last season was where a forward, on a one on one with the goalkeeper, was tripped. The ball goes to a team mate on his left who has a clear pass into the goal and he kicks it wide into the side netting. No-one complained to me when I went with the goal kick as it was a clear error by the player and advantage had been clearly realised.
In a recent game I called a penalty decision too quick on a deliberate handling and from the subsequent play a goal was scored. As I had called the penalty I could not award the goal so I sent off the defender and restarted with a penalty kick. The attacking team missed the penalty. It made no difference to the result but had the kicking team needed a goal to win? Advantage was the 'best' decision there.