Question Number: 26070

Law 13 - Free Kicks 3/15/2012

RE: Advanced Under 19

Brian of chino, ca us asks...

This question is a follow up to question 26035

White is awarded an IDK. Player A steps on the ball before player B takes a shot on goal. The ball rebounds off the upright and hits the goalie before entering the goal.

In Law 13 it states 'the ball is in play when it is kicked and moves' so the question is stepping on the ball considered kicking?

In the situation above if we don't consider stepping on the ball a kicking motion yet the ball bounces in off the goalie is it still considered a goal since it touched a second player? Or is the play dead since the initial player never kicked the ball?

thank you,
Brian

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

Goal.

We often get so focused on whether the ball was put in play by an initial tap of the ball by player A that we fail to process what happened next - - the ball was put in play when it was kicked and moved by player B.

The USSF teaches that a tap on the top of the ball is not a 'kick' and that the referee must use a feel for the game to discern the difference between adjusting the ball with the foot and kicking it.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Stepping on the ball does not put it into play unless the ball moves a discernible distance. In this case, whether or not the ball moved by the stepping is irrelevant, since the ball was clearly put into play by Player B. The second touch by the keeper made the goal good.

Put into play and able to score are two different things, which must happen in sequence on an IDFK. First: the kick that puts the ball into play and then Second: the touch by any player other than the kicker which then allows the ball to score.

Let's say that Player B's kick instead exited the field over the touchline. Since the ball was put into play - kicked and moved, the restart will now be a throw in for the opposing team. If Player B kicked the ball into the goal, and no one touched it, the ball was in play when he kicked it, but since the ball can't score until it touches another player, the ball is out of play again when it left the field. Restart: goal kick for the other team.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Brian
Stepping on the ball does not put it into play. However the kick by Player B most certainly puts the ball into play and as the ball hit the goalkeeper before entering the goal the referee was correct to award the goal.
Had the ball gone straight into the goal from the IDFK the referee would not have allowed the goal and the restart would have been a goal kick.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

People have an idea of what an indirect free kick 'should look like' - a small tap followed by a teammate's blast. But there is nothing that says this is how it must be done. In fact, when you think of all the IFK's you've seen for offside, how few of them involved two people like that?

Rather than focusing on what it looks like, we merely need to look at the results. Did the ball go in the net without a touch by another player? Then no goal. Was there a touch, however so slight, by another player (and the goalkeeper IS a player)? Then it's a goal.