WSOC in national championship game 12 noon today...
- Thread starter dcf4psu
- Start date
This team is young and there is more talent coming in. I see the future through Blue and White glasses. C'mon PSU WVB, work the miracle.
I finally got to watch the contest.
The ref could have called a foul (and thus a PK) in that situation, but it wasn't quite as obvious as you depicted it.
First off, you have to consider how egregious was the foul. Did the defender gain a clear advantage from the foul? The Duke defender did push the PSU attacker in the back. The defender didn't gain a lot, personally, from the foul, in terms of obtaining the ball. The PSU player was impacted in her ability to get the ball. In this analysis you might call the foul, but it's not a certainty.
You also consider the location. If this play was made at midfield, the ref probably calls the foul. As you get closer to the goal, there is a lot more banging, pushing, etc., so the standard is somewhat different in evaluating whether to call a foul. In this situation, the location indicates a foul call was unlikely.
You also consider the position of the players. The PSU attacker was running parallel to the goal, and would have had to settle the pass, and turn her hips to get off a shot. If she were running toward the goal, the ref would have been more inclined to call a foul, though he would have waited to see if the attacker was able to control the ball and get off the shot, and if she was able to then he would not have called the foul. On this play, the pass seemed to be behind the attacker, so based on these criteria a foul call was unlikely.
You also have to consider the overall situation. It was 0-0 in the 2nd half of the National Championship game. In a situation like that, where making a foul call means a team is awarded a PK (and a really strong chance at scoring) the ref is usually going to be absolutely certain that the attacker was moving toward the goal, that the foul was so egregious that it took away a legitimate goal scoring chance, and that there really is no other option available other than to call a foul. These criteria very strongly indicate that a foul call was unlikely.
The color commentator, Julie Foudy, was correct to say that we've seen similar fouls be called. It's not black and white, and no two plays/situations are identical.
The ref was less than 10 yards from the play, and no players were blocking his view of the foul. He indicated right away that there was no foul, by waving his hands, and while I couldn't hear if he said anything, I'm pretty confident that he called out very forcefully that there was no foul.
I replayed the incident several times, and think that the ref made the correct call (or non-call). And while I've gone into detail what the ref was analyzing in the split second while he made his decision, I freely admit that others could draw a different conclusion.
