FHumpires.com
Pan Am Indoor Cup - Day 5
August 13 2010
Last day of pool play can bring some interesting challenges to the umpiring crew of any tournament. This can be particularly so if the teams in any pool are too close to call. The last day can be the deciding day of who plays who in the semi-finals.
At this particular tournament only 2 of the mens teams had their final positions known prior to their final pool match. That left 8 teams vying for position and 3 of them trying to score as many goals as possible in the event that goal differential would be the deciding factor. The women’s side was just as muddy.
I was scheduled to umpire the final match of the day, and as it happened one of the teams needed to win by 13 goals in order to avoid the top seed of the opposite pool. My colleague (Etmar of Venezuela) and I discussed the issues that could arise should one team be winning and still need to score more goals, and how their opponent might take being abused in such a manner.
Going for Goal-Differential
The first topic was what happens when a team enters the other team’s goal to retrieve the ball to hurry up the re-start? I have seen this become a point of contention and even violence in some matches and we obviously didn’t want to let things get that far out of hand. First it must be remembered that the rules of indoor hockey prohibit players from entering the opposing teams goal (Rule 9.15). We decided that should one player try to retrieve a ball from inside the other team’s goal that we would deal with it as a personal foul, stop time and alert the captain of the guilty team that they would not be allowed to continue to do so. Any further offence would be handled with cards and possible suspensions should things get out of hand. We would also make sure that the team being scored on would not take too much time in retrieving the ball from the goal and delaying the re-start of the match.
So here we are with a game plan ready for an onslaught of goals and what are we greeted with? Half-time score 1-0. Our plan was out the window and we were forced to go to plan B. The good news was that despite the game not going to plan, we had prepared for the worst and ended up getting the best. I relate this story because you can never really know how teams will behave or what will transpire in a match; you can only plan for the worst and hope for the best, and be ready to change your plan as the game evolves. This game in particular ended 2-0, a far cry from what we suspected.
You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get
I would also like to point out that this was my third game in a row umpiring the same team. This can happen in tournaments and it is important not to read too much into your appointments. I (like everyone else) would like to experience different teams and work with different colleagues, but sometimes that just isn’t possible from a scheduling standpoint. When I first got my appointment the day before I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. As the day went on it became clearer that my match was going to be the match of the day (or at least had the potential of being a real challenge). Be patient and be professional; after all we are at the mercy of the tournament gods and we need to be ready to umpire at our very best no matter who are the participants. The match I coveted the day before turned out to be a real snoozer and I was very happy with the game I was on.
I am appointed to one of the semi-finals tomorrow and feel pretty good about it. I must stress, however, that regardless of who is umpiring whatever match, all of the games on the second last day are important to the teams playing; that they are all semi-finals to them.
