Question Number: 30301

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 4/16/2016

RE: Competitive Under 16

Aaron Speca of Virginia Beach, Virginia United States asks...

To PK or not to PK? That is the question ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVG7HpoMr4E

#20 white breaks in, gets the shot off, and looks to be prevented from going for the rebound by either the keeper or the defender running through. (Very exciting scoreless draw in this one!)

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
I cannot see any foul here. If there is contact it is certainly incidental and I would not be calling a penalty. To me it just looks like the player lost her balance due to her own feet movement
As an observation the referee is much too far away from the action. If this is a Dual System neither referee is well placed here to make a call. The match official in the AR type position is probably best placed to see contact yet if he was an AR he could not credibly or be expected to call this. The Trail referee, if that what he is, is much to far away to make a credible call even one of waving it away as no foul. He needs to be much further up the field of play closer to the penalty area and to the action.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Aaron,
It would only be a free kick if she was charged off the ball (or if the defender has clearly moved into a position purely to block her path).
In this case it looks like the defender keeps running forwards for the ball - which she is certainly entitled to do. As for the keeper, she picked her spot, the shot was taken, and she hasn't moved after that. Players are entitled to their spot on the field, so given she didn't move towards the attacker after the ball was last touched I would argue she couldn't possibly be guilty of an offence (in fact, it would be more likely that it's the attacker who is guilty of an offence if such a collision occurred).
It looks to me like the defender tried to run between the attacker and the keeper, there was a collision from both players converging on the one point (but it looks shoulder-to-shoulder, so nothing in the back), and the defender crashed into the keeper.
I can't see a foul here - although the view of the incident is blocked at the critical moment by another player.