This one really goes against all of my naive American perceptions of the Canadians as peaceful and non-violent.
You have to hand it to this crazy mom. She not only lost it, she got an off-duty cop and her husband involved in the fracas. Perhaps, if she tried a wee bit harder she could've incited an all-out sideline soccer brawl.
Not too much soccer craziness at the weekend's tournament in Lake Oswego. One California team's parents were worth mentioning. They were yelling and complaining up a storm. At one point, one of our players commented to my daughter that they "were worse than our own parents." Now, that's a statement!
And they were full of class. When one of our moms complained loudly about a call, one of their dads yelled out, "Shut up, lady." Nice. It's soooo nice to see your duaghter has a positive role model.
After the game, I overheard two of the dads talking excitedly about how they "were talking shit" to the other team's parents.
Well, done, Sport. With that checked off your list, you can go on to haranguing a 12-year-old girl, making a teenage ref cry and hey, maybe starting a brawl on the sideline. After that, there's always the Jerry Springer show for you.
A furious mother charged onto the field during a girl's soccer game in northern Norway last weekend. A 13-year-old girl from Bardufoss was physically attacked by the enraged woman during a football tournament. Not content with shouting insults at the opposing team from Bardufoss, the woman stormed onto the pitch. "A The BOIF girls were called a range of nasty names, and were also told to "get their ugly asses off the field", NRK reports. The "The referee was completely "shaky", and the players were crying," Eriksen said. The Tromsø team leader would not comment on the matter, which has been reported to regional football authorities.
female parent from the visiting team came running onto the pitch and
attacked a 13-year-old. She pushed the 13-year-old onto the ground, so
the girl was lying on her back," Tor Eriksen of the Bardufoss regional
sports association (BOIF) told NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting).
excitable mother from Tromsø was not content with insults and flinging
a girl to the ground, she then took a stranglehold on the referee and
had to be restrained by BOIF leaders.
Just got finished with a tournament in Oregon and heading right back for another one. Ah, to quote Dorothy Parker: What fresh hell is this?!
Nonetheless, the tournament CSPs were out in force this past weekend. The most annoying trend was the "I'm Talking Loudly as if No Opposing Parents Exist" CSP. These are the ones who comment on the game, and specifically on opposing players in earshot of the opposing players' parents. Some of these CSPs - we'll call them LoudTalkers - are trying to be provocative. Many, I think, are just plain ignorant.
I was fortunate to sit near a group of them Friday night in a game that pitted an underperforming Premier team vs. a district team. While the game was close this gaggle of goofballs commented loudly on how well their daughters were playing, how the other team was playing dirty and not getting whistled, and sharing nugggets of soccer strategy with an entire section of bleachers. As soon as our team went up 4-1, they got a lot quieter.
What amazes me about these ignoramuses is their bland willingness to proudly display their football ignorance like a presidential medal. All game long, they showed a basic lack of knowledge of legal tackling (i.e. it doesn't matter if the defender tackles the ball before the player, it's always a foul when their little princess gets touched). Would they walk into a museum and begin loudly extolling their mis-knowledge of 19th century impressionist painting or how Thomas Kinkade is the greatest painter alive?
The other comment on this point has to do with the commentary on opposing players. You're talking about somebody's kid or the teammates of somebody's kid. How do you think the opposing parents feel about that? How would you feel if they were loudly dissecting why you're kid is a terrible midfielder?
I believe the next time I hear this sort of conversation, I'll walk up and introduce myself and say, "Pardon me, you've been very kind in analysing our team's poor (thuggish, unskilled, fill in the blank) play. Could you tell me your daughter's number so that I can return the favor?"
You know these ones. They're the parents who scream for a yellow or red card when a foul occurs (or they think one occurs).
That's a card, ref
You've got to pull a card out for that one.
The absurdity of these claims are extreme. First of all, very few of these parents are trained referees, and while referees often get it wrong, they are at least trained to judge things like intent, seriousness of the foul, consistent patterns. These parents see something they don't like and immediately call for the card.
Secondly, do they actually think that yelling for a card will cause the ref to award one?
Oh, now that I've been reminded by the sideline, I do think that I shall award a yellow card to that player
Unlikley. And when parents begin yelling for cards, it's an insult to the parents on the other sideline. Typically, they respond by issuing their own call for cards. So, now you have two sets of idiots issuing congtradictory calls for referee action.
This fosters antagonism between the parents. Not a good thing. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen a fight break out between parents over this yet.
Here's an idea for an automatic red card rule. Any parent heard shouting for a card shall immediately be awarded one in the color of red and ejected from the sideline. For good measure, let's make them sit in their car for the next 3 games.
Ah, tournaments. They bring out the best in the CSPs. My favorite is the parents whose coach gathered them together before a game, telling them to keep it positive. When their team then went out and played a notably subpar game, a sizeable number of same parents began making negative comments: "Come ON, Girls!" (said, dripping with disappointment), loudly critiquing the refs, and verbally jousting with the other team's parents.
Well, at least when the players dont' listen to the coach, they'll know where they get it from.
