Team Sausage Fest (aka. Pussies) does Toh Guan soccer proud
Bad refereeing mars early street soccer matches
Carmen Lee
TEMPERS flared and rough play ensured during the preliminary street soccer matches of Street Challenge 2007, as the referee failed to control the participants, players said.
Due to the large number of participants, round robin matches for street soccer had to be held for the 24 teams on 18 October, two days before the main event.
Participants and spectators complained that the referee, Wong Adleena Radzie, 20, a second-year Material Science engineering student, was inconsistent and had little control of the matches.
Al Juffri, 22, a second-year undergraduate at Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering said the matches were out of control and violent because the referee did not call for fouls when players made rough tackles. She also failed to discipline players for spewing vulgarities during the matches, an offence under the rules.
In particular, Wong's controversial decisions during a match between teams Anderson and Sausage Fest drew boos from the crowd.
Her failure to pause the game when Anderson disputed a decision allowed Sausage Fest to score an illegitimate goal.
It all began when a member of Sausage Fest deflected the ball into his own goal after Anderson had kicked off from the half-way mark when the score was level at 1-1. Wong gave the goal at first.
But Sausage Fest protested that the goal should not be counted because of the rule that players cannot score from beyond the half-way line.
Wong, who did not see the deflection, cancelled the goal.
Spectators booed the referee's decision. One of those who saw the deflection, Desmond Kong, 23, a third-year Nanyang Business School student, said: "Everyone except the referee thought that it was a goal."
As the Anderson team gathered around Wong to question her decision, Sausage Fest shot the ball into their opponents' unguarded goal.
The referee blew the whistle and counted it as a goal - the score read 2-1 to Sausage Fest.
Wong's decision affected the psyche of the Anderson players. Eventually, they lost with a score of 3-1.
"It was really frustrating and unfair. Not only did the referee fail to pause the game, she allowed a goal that was scored when she was not looking," said the Anderson team captain, Oh Zhi Wei, 22.
But captain of Sausage Fest, Desmond Wong, 22, said his team was following the "play on whistle" rule, which states that the match will continue unless the referee blows the whistle.
He said that his team was unaware that the Anderson team was talking to the referee, adding that the referee's decision, to disallow Anderson's goal, was a good call.
Referee Wong stands by her decision to disallow Anderson's goal. "I don't believe in making judgements based on something I didn't see," she said. "I did not see the deflection, so I couldn't have allowed the goal."
However, Wong later said that she regretted her decision to allow the goal scored by Sausage Fest.
It was only after the match that she found out that Sausage Fest had kicked off from the halfway mark when they were supposed to start from the semi-circle area in front of goal.
Technically, the goal scored by Sausage Fest should have been disallowed.
The referee said she should have stopped the game when she was talking to the Anderson players.
"I admit that it was an error on my part, " she said. "I was very confused at that point in time, but I should have taken better control of the game."
A member of the NTU women's soccer league, Wong has refereed five women's field soccer matches but has never refereed men's soccer matches. She said she was not used to the fast-paced nature of street soccer matches.
After the controversy in the preliminary rounds, the NTU Sports Club added two linesmen to assist the new male referee on Saturday.
"The calls made today were much better," said Wong of Sausage Fest. "The referee was in full control of the match." Sports Club President, Kenneth, said he respects the decision made by the referee.
"We have an agreement that the referee's decisions are final, so we stand by her," the second-year Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering student said.
Carmen Lee
TEMPERS flared and rough play ensured during the preliminary street soccer matches of Street Challenge 2007, as the referee failed to control the participants, players said.
Due to the large number of participants, round robin matches for street soccer had to be held for the 24 teams on 18 October, two days before the main event.
Participants and spectators complained that the referee, Wong Adleena Radzie, 20, a second-year Material Science engineering student, was inconsistent and had little control of the matches.
Al Juffri, 22, a second-year undergraduate at Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering said the matches were out of control and violent because the referee did not call for fouls when players made rough tackles. She also failed to discipline players for spewing vulgarities during the matches, an offence under the rules.
In particular, Wong's controversial decisions during a match between teams Anderson and Sausage Fest drew boos from the crowd.
Her failure to pause the game when Anderson disputed a decision allowed Sausage Fest to score an illegitimate goal.
It all began when a member of Sausage Fest deflected the ball into his own goal after Anderson had kicked off from the half-way mark when the score was level at 1-1. Wong gave the goal at first.
But Sausage Fest protested that the goal should not be counted because of the rule that players cannot score from beyond the half-way line.
Wong, who did not see the deflection, cancelled the goal.
Spectators booed the referee's decision. One of those who saw the deflection, Desmond Kong, 23, a third-year Nanyang Business School student, said: "Everyone except the referee thought that it was a goal."
As the Anderson team gathered around Wong to question her decision, Sausage Fest shot the ball into their opponents' unguarded goal.
The referee blew the whistle and counted it as a goal - the score read 2-1 to Sausage Fest.
Wong's decision affected the psyche of the Anderson players. Eventually, they lost with a score of 3-1.
"It was really frustrating and unfair. Not only did the referee fail to pause the game, she allowed a goal that was scored when she was not looking," said the Anderson team captain, Oh Zhi Wei, 22.
But captain of Sausage Fest, Desmond Wong, 22, said his team was following the "play on whistle" rule, which states that the match will continue unless the referee blows the whistle.
He said that his team was unaware that the Anderson team was talking to the referee, adding that the referee's decision, to disallow Anderson's goal, was a good call.
Referee Wong stands by her decision to disallow Anderson's goal. "I don't believe in making judgements based on something I didn't see," she said. "I did not see the deflection, so I couldn't have allowed the goal."
However, Wong later said that she regretted her decision to allow the goal scored by Sausage Fest.
It was only after the match that she found out that Sausage Fest had kicked off from the halfway mark when they were supposed to start from the semi-circle area in front of goal.
Technically, the goal scored by Sausage Fest should have been disallowed.
The referee said she should have stopped the game when she was talking to the Anderson players.
"I admit that it was an error on my part, " she said. "I was very confused at that point in time, but I should have taken better control of the game."
A member of the NTU women's soccer league, Wong has refereed five women's field soccer matches but has never refereed men's soccer matches. She said she was not used to the fast-paced nature of street soccer matches.
After the controversy in the preliminary rounds, the NTU Sports Club added two linesmen to assist the new male referee on Saturday.
"The calls made today were much better," said Wong of Sausage Fest. "The referee was in full control of the match." Sports Club President, Kenneth, said he respects the decision made by the referee.
"We have an agreement that the referee's decisions are final, so we stand by her," the second-year Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering student said.
ROUGH PLAY: The new referee was in better control of the street soccer matches played on Saturday with the addition of two linesmen. PHOTO TAN ZI JIEAs written on page 38 of The Nanyang Chronicle, October 29, 2007.
