Who made the best call #4

Congratulations to Kaitlin Girbach for getting over 65% of the vote to become the winner of Who Made the Best Call #4!!! I also have to share that her consistently good performance was noted not just by those in the refereeing community but also by media!! Check out what Michigan Soccer Network annoucers had to say about Kaitlin (and Justin)!! Marcus and Walid, we know you are good! (We also know they spelled/pronounced some of your names wrong.)

This time, we have four clips again. Let us know who you think made the best call!

Clip 1 (NPSL, Jason Cross, Offside)

In this clip, we have an attacker who is clearly in an offside position. The ball is passed seeingly to him but Jason applies the wait-and-see principle and allows an onside attacker to chase the ball. The offside player never interferred with play or with an opponent. As a result, the attacking team was able to win a corner kick.

Clip 2 (Marcus Barnett, USL-2, Penalty Area Incident)

Many referees hesitate to give a PK early in a game. It is more so if the referee fears that players will complain that a PK is “soft.” But as the saying goes, “a soft-boiled egg is still a boiled egg.” Marcus was correct to give a PK for a pushing offence by a defender.

Clip 3 (USL-2, Aaron Scherer, Reckless challenge)

Just like in the last clip with Marcus, we have another early decision. At the 3rd minute of the game, a black player commits a reckless challenge against a white player. While many referees hesitate to give an early caution, Aaron correctly recognized that this was a reckless challenge. 

Clip 4 (MLS, Nick Balcer, Remembering the basics)

We have allowed two national / PRO ARs to get featured previoulsy so why not another one. Here, Nick is working on an MLS game. He correctly raises his flag for a foul and recognizes that it is a cautionable foul. To communicate this information to his referee, he pats on his badge. As an MLS AR, he has all the gadgets from the communication system to VAR to beeper flags. But he still followed the basics because technology can fail.

Submit your vote here.