Things are falling into place among the ranked teams in both the men’s and women’s polls, and for those who are looking for a game to see in person, the local Division I teams are playing well and competing with quality opponents.

Men
As the season enters October, the rankings seem to have settled down as teams get in a groove and fall into place. #1 Maryland had to overcome a 2-1 deficit to College of Charleston in the second half, but emerged with a 3-2 victory and a firm hold on the top of the rankings. Connecticut hosted Notre Dame in front of over 5,000 fan and emerged with a 2-1 victory, their 32nd straight at home. That is the 7th-longest such streak in NCAA history. Akron cruised to a 4-0 win over Buffalo to secure their spot as the #3 team in the country, while #5 Santa Barbara beat UC Riverside, 3-1 in their conference opener.

In other Top 25 news, #7 Marquette beat Providence in their Big East opener to stretch their win streak to 10 games. Meanwhile. Cornell, who has risen to #23 in the polls on the back of a 9-0-0 start, scored three goals in a win over Penn. That gave the Big Red 26 goals on the season, one more than they scored ALL of last season!!

Potential fallers in the poll this week could include #14 Creighton, who didn’t score a goal this week in losses to Tulsa and Drake. They had already fallen from #11 last week and could continue to slide. Penn State lost a tough 1-0 decision to #10 Indiana in the Big Ten opener, but a 1-0 loss to Lehigh will hurt.

Locally, #19 St. John’s outscored opponents 5-1 in wins over Columbia and DePaul after a tough week last week. Though neither team is ranked, getting back on the winning side of things could push them back to their #13 ranking of a week ago. Speaking of winning ways, Stony Brook has run their unbeaten streak to six games after a 1-0 win over Albany over the weekend. Hofstra wasn’t so fortunate, dropping a 3-2 decision to UNC Wilmington. Long Islander Adam Janokowski (Coram) made four saves in the game.

Women
In women’s soccer, simply put, the ACC rules! Five of the top ten teams in the country hail from the Atlantic Cost, including #1 Florida State, #3 Virginia, and #5 Duke. The PAC-12 isn’t far behind with Stanford (#2) and UCLA (#4) also in the top 5. The Seminoles boosted their record to 11-0-0 with a 2-0 win at N.C. State. The Cardinal is also unbeaten after a close call with Oregon this week. Virginia packed over 1,500 fans into Kloeckner Stadium for their 1-0 win over Duke, giving the Cavs their first win over a ranked team this season and boosting their overall mark to 10-2-1.

Fallers could include #12 Oregon State, who lost 3-1 to Cal, #14 BC, who lost at home to Pepperdine, and #10 Maryland, who dropped a 1-0 decision to Virginia Tech.

Still others are climbing up the polls thanks to prolific offense. Georgetown got five goals from Soph Daphne Corboz in an 8-0 win over Pitt in the Big East. Marquette scored seven goals in two games, defeating Louisville and Cincinnati, also in Big East conference play. Memphis tallied nine times in wins over East Carolina and Marshall as well.

In local action, the Stony Brook women went 1-1 as they opened America East Conference play, dropping the opener to Albany before topping Binghamton. St. John’s sophomore and Bohemia, NY native Deanna Murino (Connetquot HS) scored her first game-winning goal for the Johnnies in a 1-0 defeat of Rutgers. St. John’s then blanked Seton Hall, 4-0. Senior Megan Klement, a defender, scored her first career goal in the contest. Junior Jen Gibbons, a Bellport HS grad also had a goal. Over at Hofstra, LIers Jill Mulholland (Levittown) and Lulu Echeverry (East Meadow) continued their strong play with goals in a 3-1 win over James Madison

 

Florida State remains unbeaten and untied atop the national polls for the women, and men’s #1 Maryland also stayed perfect as ACC competition kicked into full swing this week. However, as usual, the Top 25 didn’t go unscathed this week as several top tier teams took a tumble. Though the perennially strong programs still hold strong, parity is becoming a household word in the world of college soccer.

Men
Only four men’s teams remain unbeaten and untied as we head towards the end of September (#10 Marquette, #25 Cornell, #25 UC Riverside, and High Point). The biggest upset this week came in #2 Notre Dame’s 2-1 loss to Big East rival Louisville. It was their first blemish of the season. #3 Old Dominion’s 4-1 loss to Drexel in their CAA conference opener was also a shocker, but #6 Charlotte, #11 Creighton, #20 Dayton, and #22 NC State also lost to unranked opponents, sending the top 25 into a bit of a tumult.

Locally, #13 St. John’s got all it could handle in a 3-0 loss at UConn in their Big East opener. For the Huskies, it was revenge for a 1-0 loss to the Johnnies in last year’s Big East final at Red Bulls Arena. You could tell the game meant something to both teams as the match featured 27 fouls, five yellow cards and a red card for St. John’s.

The Hofstra men are 6-1-1 in non-league play after topping Jacksonville 3-1 this week. They now head into the meat of their conference schedule with a game against UNC-Wilmington. Massapequa’s Mike Annarumma scored his first goal of the season against the Dolphins, North Babylon’s Tyler Botte picked up an assist, and senior goalkeeper Adam Janowski of Coram made four saves.

Women
While the Maryland men have been the story in the early season, no one should be falling asleep on the Lady Terps. The team, which is playing nine freshmen and two sophomores on a regular basis, is unbeaten in North Carolina (beat UNC, tied Duke, and beat Wake Forest this week) and in first place in the powerful ACC conference. Senior Becky Kaplan and junior Hayley Brock have led the way for this young group, accounting for 15 of the Terps 23 goals on the season.

Another team making some noise on the national scene is West Virginia. The Mountaineers beat #8 Oklahoma State on Sunday in their first Big 12 Conference game, giving them two wins over Top 10 programs this season (#2 Stanford was the other). They could make their first appearance in the Top 25 this coming week.

#9 Penn State has gotten off on the right foot in Big Ten play, outscoring opponents Northwestern and Illinois, 8-1 this week. The scoring surge is led by last year’s national scoring leader Maya Hayes. After posting 31 goals and eight assists a year ago, Hayes has picked up right where she left off, scoring four goals and two assists in the last three games.

On the local scene, Levittown’s Jill Mulholland is currently leading the Hofstra women with 5 goals and 12 points. The Pride are 6-4 as they get set to open conference play against James Madison this week. It’s also been a big couple weeks out at Stony Brook. Head coach Sue Ryan picked up her 200th career win with a victory over Manhattan, and the Seawolves have also topped Lehigh and tied Loyola to push to a 6-2-2 mark on the season. They were ranked 7th regionally for the fourth straight week. They open conference play on Thursday at 1 pm at Albany.

It was a tumultuous week in the women’s Top 10, while the top of the men’s rankings dominated their opposition. Several LIers continued to make an impact, particularly on the men’s side.

Men
The Top 4 of UConn, Maryland, North Carolina, and Akron were a combined 5-0 this week, with Akron winning their third straight over #7 Indiana, 1-0, in a battle of Top Ten teams. In fact, none of those teams gave up a single goal. The same can’t be said of #5 South Florida, who dropped a 1-0 decision to unranked South Carolina. #16 UC Irvine was the only other top 20 team to lose to an unranked opponent, falling to Stanford, 2-0. #24 Tulsa fell to #12 UCLA, and #25 Washington was a 1-0 loser to top-ranked UConn.

Locally, St. John’s climbed three spots to #15 with wins over Princeton (3-0) and William & Mary (2-1). Massapequa’s Daniel Herrera scored in the Princeton victory, and Patchogue-Medford’s Jimmy Mulligan was credited with his first career game-winner in the win over the Tigers. Elsewhere, Stony Brook was a 3-0 loser to #10 Charlotte, and Iona dropped 2-1 decision to USF.

Hofstra was 2-0 on the week with wins over Binghamton and Albany. North Babylon’s Tyler Botte recorded the first two-goal game of his career in the Binghamton victory, and had goal and an assist for a seven-point week. Coram’s Adam Janowski got his first career start in goal and made three saves to record the win. Hofstra is now 4-0-1, their best start since 1985.

Women
Parity is the word that best describes the top of the women’s college rankings. Four teams in the top ten (#3 OK State, #6 Penn State, #8 Marquette, and #10 Missouri) all lost to unranked or lower ranked teams this weekend, and #12 Louisville dropped a game to unranked Kentucky. In addition, #1 UCLA, #8 Marquette, #18 Portland, #19 Georgetown, and #20 Tennessee all settled for ties in what we would term winnable games this week.

Soccer America says that UNC is the team to watch. The Tar Heels (ranked #14 coming into the week) shut down Marquette, 4-0, and did it without several players who were part of the U20 women’s team at the World Cup. They are now 3-1-1 and are steadily climbing the board.

Hofstra split a pair of games this week, topping St. Bonaventure, 2-0, thanks to a goal from Levittown’s Jill Mulholland, but losing to Marist despite a goal from East Meadow’s Lulu Echeverry. Stony Brook fell to Rutgers, 2-0 this week, but Oceanside’s Ashley Castanio was outstanding in goal with a career-high 10 saves. St. John’s capped off their non-conference schedule with a 2-1 overtime win over Columbia, moving their record to 4-3 on the season. 

As college soccer teams across the country begin to hit their stride, Maryland continues to be the story on the men’s side, seemingly dominating all comers in just about every phase of the game, but there is plenty more soccer to be played. For the ladies, this weekend’s action didn’t elicit any changes to the Top 10, but there are some new names cracking the Top 25.

Men
The Terps tallied their highest single game goal total in more than two years with a 6-0 drubbing of #22 California. #2 Akron, #6 UNC, and #9 South Florida all recorded 2-1 wins, while #4 Santa Barbara topped Gonzaga, 3-0. #7 New Mexico was also a winner, defeating SMU, 3-1, and #13 Creighton won their own Ameritas Classic with a 3-0 win over Rutgers.

Locally, #18 St. John’s needed PK’s to dispatch Kentucky, 2-1 in the final of the South Carolina Gamecock Classic. Hicksville’s Tim Parker was named to the all-tournament team, and Medford’s Jimmy Mulligan had a critical pass in the Red Storm’s only scoring play in regulation. Sean Sepe, a freshman from West Islip, also had a shot on goal.

For the Hofstra men, Massapequa Park’s Mike Annarumma had the assist on the game-tying goal in the 29th minute of a 1-1 tie against Monmouth. The Hawks had received votes in the latest Top 25 poll, and the Pride now remain undefeated at 2-0-1.

Women
UCLA, Florida State, and Oklahoma State remained undefeated this weekend and hung on to the top three spots in the poll. But San Diego State, Washington, Texas A & M, BYU, and Mississippi all entered the Top 25 for the first time this season.

Among the locals, #18 Rutgers turned in a 2-0 win over Sam Houston State, and Stony Brook entered its first 4-game winning streak with a 2-1 win over Yale. Oceanside’s Ashley Castanio had two saves for the Seawolves in the win. The Wolves and Scarlet Knights will face off later this week. Hofstra dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to powerhouse Wake Forest, ranked #20 in the most recent polls. Old Brookville’s Rachel Nuzzolese had two shots for the Demon Deacons in the game that was played in Princeton this weekend.

Men
As the men’s 2012 season got underway it was Maryland who struck with the first big win of the campaign. The Terps shutout Louisville, 3-0, and exacted some revenge against the Cardinals, who knocked Maryland out of last season’s NCAA Tournament in the 3rd round. The Terps scored in the 9th and 30th minute, and then added a late goal in the 2nd half to seal the win.

#4 UC Santa Barbara escaped with a season opening win over Loyola Marymount, scoring off a header with just over a minute to play for a 2-1 win. #9 Indiana shut down Cincinnati, 3-0, and Dayton finished the weekend 2-0 with a thrilling 4-3 win over Kentucky. In other games of note, St. Louis topped Drake, 1-0, and Virginia Tech beat Richmond by the same score.

A little closer to home, #13 St. John’s needed a Jelani Wiliams goal on a give-and-go in the final minutes of regulation to come away with a 1-1 tie against defending Patriot League champion Colgate. Redshirt junior Jimmy Mulligan of Patchogue-Medford did a good job of creating chances early on in a 2nd half that saw the Red Storm take an 11-2 advantage in shots and a 7-0 advantage on corners. Hicksville’s Tim Parker also had a great header that was blocked.

Fordham opened their season with a 1-0 win over Adelphi, and Iona fell to UC Riverside by the same score.

Women
For the second straight week, upsets led the headlines in the world of women’s soccer. This weekend, #1 Duke and #2 Stanford both lost. Florida scored five minutes into overtime to top the Blue Devils and overcome a two-goal deficit in the 1st half. This is the third straight time these teams have played to a tie in regulation, and was a nice revenge win for a Gators team that saw the Dukies knocked them out of last year’s NCAA Tournament on penalty kicks.

For the Cardinal, their 1-0 loss to unranked West Virginia at the Penn State Invitational ended a 25-game win streak. The Mountaineers scored in the 83rd minute to pull off the upset.

The beneficiary of all this could be No. 3 UCLA, who improved to 3-0-0 with a 2-0 win over No. 24 Illinois. No. 6 Oklahoma State scored four unanswered goals to top Creighton, 4-1 and move to 4-0 on the season. The Washington Huskies soccer teams are a combined 5-0 as the girls topped Syracuse, 2-1 to move to 3-0, their best start since 2005. Georgetown is also undefeated, topping Hofstra, 2-1. The Pride had beaten Temple on Saturday on goals by East Meadow’s Lulu Echeverry and freshman Jill Mulholland of Levittown.

In other local action, Rutgers outshot Siena 26-1, but needed an own goal by the Saints to pick up a 1-0 win.

Oceanside’s Ashley Castanio shut out St. John’s in Stony Brook’s 3-0 win. It was the first career shutout for Castanio.
 

Soccer America released their 2012 preseason rankings for men’s college soccer this week and there are few surprises at the top.

UConn, the former collegiate home of LI’s Andrew Jean-Baptiste, now with the Portland Timbers, went 19-3-3 last season before an upset loss in the NCAA quarterfinals. They return in 2012 as the #1 ranked squad with a deep and talented team, particularly on defense, where they are led by goalkeeper Andre Blake who had 15 shutouts a year ago and a record nine straight. Their challenge will be on the offensive end, where they need to improve on last season’s 1.6 gpg scoring average.

Akron, the 2010 national champion, has lost eight players to the MLS Superdraft over the last two years, but they still return nine players who started at least ten games last season. Goalkeeper David Meyes, defender Chad Barson, and midfielder Scott Caldwell were starters on the national championship team from two years ago and will be asked to provide leadership for another team that will rely on youth to provide their scoring spark.

Maryland comes in at #3. Though they lost their top scorer, 10 starters return for a team that won it’s first 12 games a season ago before losing four of five to close out the campaign. #4 UC Santa Barbara has two of last year’s top players, Sam Garza and Luis Silva, playing in the MLS now, but a solid group of transfers has them feeling like they can compete for the NCAA title. 2011 College Cup finalist UNC Charlotte rounds out the top 5, returning eight players from a team that knocked off defending chmps Akron, #3 UConn, and #2 Ceighton in last year’s tournament before falling to the Tar Heels on North Carolina.

Speaking of the Tar Heels, the defending champs rank 6th in the preseason, and traditional powers UCLA and Indiana rank 8th and 9th, respectively. Locally, St. John’s comes in at the #13 spot. Most teams kick off their season this weekend. Look for scores and results in this space next week.

Believe it or not, while those of us here in the Northeast enjoy a few more weeks of summer vacation, the college soccer world has been at work since the end of July. The 2012 season kicked off this weekend, and what a weekend it was! Eight teams in the preseason Top 25 lost on opening day!

While #20 William & Mary lost to #1 Duke, #8 Penn State lost a tight battle to #7 UVA, and #13 Santa Clara succumbed to six goals in 21 minutes by #2 Stanford, #4 UNC, #9 Florida, #11 Memphis, #12 Notre Dame, and #23 West Virginia all lost in upsets to unranked opponents. Another top team, #5 UCLA, was down 3-2 to unranked UConn when their game was cancelled due to lightning.

Locally, Hofstra and assistant coach Tobias Bischof (also program administrator for the LIJSL Select PDP Program) knocked off Ohio State, 2-0. The Pride allowed just one shot on goal, and scored two second half goals, one by East Meadow’s Lulu Echeverry, to secure the victory.

In other local games, Rutgers topped Monmouth, 3-0, and Seton Hall blanked LIU, 2-0. Taylor Mims of Miller Place made a couple strong defensive plays for the Pirates in the victory.
 

Interview by Mike Woitalla for Soccer America

Kristine Lilly, the world record holder for national team appearances with 352, debuted for the USA at age 16 in 1987 and retired in 2010 at age 39. In Part 2 of our interview with the veteran of five World Cups and three Olympic Games, Lilly offers advice for young players and reflects on her youth sports and national team experience.

SOCCER AMERICA: What advice would you give to young players who are striving to reach the higher levels?

KRISTINE LILLY: Go after it. If you want something, work at it. Surround yourself with people who can help you. Listen to coaches. Have fun with it and go after it.

Do other things as well. Don’t just be consumed with soccer. Any athlete in any sport in my generation did more than one sport.

SA: On the boys side, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy has prohibited its players from high school ball. And there are also cases on the girls side where they’re asked to choose between club and high school. Year-round club ball also limits their ability to play other sports. Your view?

KRISTINE LILLY: I think it’s crazy. Telling kids they can’t do something that’s fun and part of their high school is crazy.

I think they’re trying to limit the number of games they’re playing -- and some kids are playing too many games -- and that’s the way they’re going about it.

But I think kids should be be involved in high school and having fun. And being a kid. One day you're not going to be able to play any sports and that stinks. So have fun while you can.

SA: At what point did you focus solely on soccer?

KRISTINE LILLY: Not until I went to college.

SA: What sports did you play in high school?

KRISTINE LILLY: Softball, basketball and soccer.

SA: You think playing the other sports helped your soccer?

KRISTINE LILLY: I think all the sports I played growing up helped my soccer.

SA: When you played other sports did you still play some soccer?

KRISTINE LILLY: I still did some soccer, definitely, but it wasn’t as consuming as it is these days. I played spring soccer. I’d do soccer stuff on my own. I’d play some indoor games.

SA: How did you get introduced to soccer?

KRISTINE LILLY: My brother, Scott, who’s four years older, played. Whatever he did, I wanted to do, whatever sport was in season. We had town teams. I played for my parks & recreation teams.

SA: What do you think of the state of women’s soccer in the USA? The level of play, the progress of the national team. Obviously other countries have taken women’s soccer more seriously so there’s more competition …

KRISTINE LILLY: I think there was always strong competition for the United States. When we won the World Cup in 1991 and 1999, it wasn’t easy. There were teams playing that were very successful. Maybe back then, the top 5 teams would compete for a world title, and now the top 10 have a chance of winning the World Cup, and that’s great for the game.

People are investing on the women’s side, and it’s growing, and there’s more interest. It’s been great and you can see that in the last couple World Cups.

SA: You played for every U.S. women’s national team coach -- Anson Dorrance, Tony DiCicco, April Heinrichs, Greg Ryan and Pia Sundhage – (besides Mike Ryan, who coached the first four U.S. games in 1985). Can you speak to playing for these coaches?

KRISTINE LILLY: They were all different. They all had their strengths. They all had their weaknesses. They all had the opportunity to coach the top players in world and did the best they could.

It gave me a great opportunity to play for different people and see some different mindsets, some similar stuff. I grew as a player under each coach.

SA: Do you remember the first time you had a female coach?

KRISTINE LILLY: In softball and basketball in high school. In soccer I don’t think I ever had a female coach until April Heinrichs [2000-04].

SA: Do you see an increase in women’s coaches in soccer?

KRISTINE LILLY: Definitely, but we need some more women involved. I think it’s just a matter of time of more getting their foot in the door and feeling confident enough to compete with all the guys out there.

But you definitely see more female coaches and there’s definitely some great ones out there.

SA: Do you think it’s important for girls have female coaches.

KRISTINE LILLY: I think it’s important for females to coach. I don’t know if it’s necessarily important for girls to have female coaches. What’s important is having a good coach. If you’re a great coach, the gender doesn’t matter.

What’s good for girls is to see that females are coaching to set an example if they want to do that one day.  It’s important for girls to see women doing things, whether it’s in the business world or playing soccer.

(Kristine Lilly scored 130 goals in 352 games for the USA in 1987-2010 and was a member of two World Cup and two Olympic championship teams. She played pro club ball in Sweden, the WUSA and WPS. Lilly won four national championships with the University of North Carolina. She's assistant coach of the WPSL Eite's Boston Breakers, runs the Kristine Lilly Soccer Academy and is the soccer ambassador for Korrio, an integrated sports automation platform developer.)

RDS at Plainview, New York

It is hard to believe that almost a year has passed since the last Red Bulls RDS training was held at Peter Collins Soccer Park in Plainview, New York. For those of you who are scheduled to train there this July, here are some details from last year that will give you an idea of what it would be like.

Peter Collins Soccer Park is pretty cool for a couple of reasons. First off, it’s all grass fields. Also it’s the only soccer park where you get a chance to see enormous dragonflies hovering like helicopters over the fields. Another reason is that there is a gigantic farm-size shooting sprinkler. If you’re lucky, you can catch the biggest blast of water midway through the training session which cools you down faster than running into an air conditioned room.

Ricky King was the trainer for my group last year. Ricky is special to me because he was my first Red Bulls RDS trainer. He also is very encouraging and really gets out there on the field to demonstrate the activity. He even hangs out with us during break time, making funny jokes and giving us pointers on how to improve on our game.

The training days go by so quickly, but we cover a lot of ground. Even with two days of rain, we took advantage of the wet conditions by learning how to slide tackle. Ricky taught us to hook our foot around the ball in order to gain possession when you get up. We worked on 1 v 1’s, 2 v 1’s and combination plays so we can get around the defender easier. Playing in the rain was awesome!

Most days involved a skills challenge and every day we scrimmaged. As the weather turned sunny, we learned the L turn and U turn combinations with both feet so everyone had the chance to develop skills with each foot. There were 1v1 shooting and transition drills, with goalie participation so we could match our skills against theirs. Then the group went on breakaways. We really learned a lot.

The Red Bulls RDS is more than a soccer training camp. It has given me the confidence that I needed in order to succeed in any challenge that comes my way. This past year I participated in the NYS Eastern Olympic Development Team tryouts for the Boys 2000 Squad, with only a number attached to my shirt. The trainers who evaluated me knew nothing about me, other than my number and my performance at the tryout. I also tried out for a Boys U13 Premiere Club team. I really believe that I made the cuts because of my Red Bulls RDS training. Thanks, guys!
 

By Randy Vogt for Soccer America

Here are some more of the things I have learned in 35 years of refereeing (Read Part 1):

* In youth soccer, there are telltale signs before the match as to what type of game it will be. If the opposing coaches talk to one another before the game, some players on opposing teams are friends and the teams are lined up in order with shirts tucked in and are quiet when the ref is checking passes, chances are it will be a very pleasant game.

* Games at the U-10, U-16 and senior levels are all officiated differently. What looks like a red card in a pro game might not with younger players. You have to look at the intent. For example, studs way up on a sliding tackle, 99 percent of 11-year-olds would not know that’s a bad foul. A man or woman would. That would be a send-off in those games. At U-12, you simply blow the whistle very hard and explain, “Don’t do it again,” as someone could get hurt.

* What can be quite challenging about officiating youth soccer is the dissent from adults unfamiliar with the game can come from unusual situations. Some people yell if they believe the ref made a mistake -- whether it’s the direction of a throw-in at midfield or a penalty kick decision. Yet referees understand that a PK has a much greater impact on the game than the direction of the throw and question why people are getting so excited about a throw-in.

* It’s understandable that many people have difficulty grasping the subtleties of the offside rule. Yet many involved with soccer do not know that all defensive restarts inside the penalty area (not just goal kicks) must clear the penalty area to be in play, the kickoff still must be played forward, the coin-toss winning team only selects which side to attack (the other team gets the first-half kickoff) and all players on the field including keepers should have their shirts tucked into their shorts.

* The moment that I think that I know it all is the moment that game becomes very challenging.

* Many refs quit within their first two years of officiating with verbal abuse by kids’ parents being the number one reason for quitting. So before you yell at a ref or AR, just think how you might be exacerbating a referee shortage by doing so. And if you are so certain that the officials got the call wrong, why don’t you become a referee?

* Leagues with sportsmanship programs that place a high value on these programs have fewer discipline problems than those leagues without a program.

* Did you have a good time at the last tournament you attended? Chances are the tournament format had a lot to do with it. I’ve refereed hundreds of tournaments and have found that people tend to be happiest with tourneys that use a straight round-robin with a championship game if need be. The worst format is modeled after the World Cup: a couple of games of group play followed by several elimination rounds. It’s in the elimination rounds that things can get hairy with people scurrying to the tournament tent to complain about an officiating decision or that “our team did not give up a goal all tournament and was just eliminated in a shootout.”

* When I briefly lived in Florida over two decades ago, I officiated in both Orlando and Tallahassee, the state capital 250 miles away. All games U-13 on up had more than one official in Florida. I thought that when I return to New York, it will be quite challenging again as I’ll return to refereeing all games by myself plus have many more ethnic rivalries in New York than in Florida. Slowly, the situation in New York during the past two decades became better so that all youth games U-13 on up have three officials. Sadly, at least one New York senior league still has difficulty having all its teams pay for three officials per game. An example of how this plays out: I was an AR for a youth game while a men’s game on the adjacent field had no ARs. That game had as many cards as our game had fouls.

• Twenty-five years ago this summer -- as a young man refereeing the Pele Cup in Brazil -- I had the great pleasure of meeting Lynn Berling-Manuel, Paul Gardner, Dan Woog and Michael Lewis for the first time. What’s most memorable about that journey, a quarter-century later, was the surreal trip as our plane was diverted to some pretty exotic places. But that’s another story for another day …

(Randy Vogt has officiated over 8,000 games during the past three decades, from professional matches in front of thousands to six-year-olds being cheered on by very enthusiastic parents. In Preventive Officiating, he shares his wisdom gleaned from thousands of games and hundreds of clinics to help referees not only survive but thrive on the soccer field. Find out how to order your copy by clicking here.)