A&H

Strange Kick Off

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TheRefereeFrom2003

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Never seen a kick off like it!

Home team for every kick off (which was quite a lot, was a high scoring game) would just take a run up and boot the ball. Their player had a great kick on them, and kept putting it in the opposition corner every time. Away team would go mental, claiming he can’t do that. Whilst I’d never seen anything like it, I believed it was allowed in law and stuck to my guns and allowed it. Was a good tactic tbf, it put the opposition under pressure immediately. Suddenly they were taking a throw in trapped in their corner.

When I went home I checked the law and couldn’t find anything that says this isn’t allowed. After all, you can score a goal from a kick off, why wouldn’t this be allowed. It was just very unusual.

I have seen a similar tactic before, one player passes it back to the player with a big kick who launches it forward. But you tend to see the kick off is only ever played back these days. Not a kick off literally being taken like a rugby game!

This is allowed in law though right? Has anyone seen anything like this before?
 
The Referee Store
Yip, he/she can kick yon pigs bladder tay Yon Bonnie Bonnie Banks


next


its a restart, it can go anywhere, its in plsy when team touch it

throw, corner, goal,kick, goal, anything....back,front,side, upside down..
 
Anubis said:
Yip, he/she can kick yon pigs bladder tay Yon Bonnie Bonnie Banks


next


its a restart, it can go anywhere, its in plsy when team touch it

throw, corner, goal,kick, goal, anything....back,front,side, upside down..
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Then why don’t we see more teams try it? Seems a bit pointless to pass it back to a player to “boot it” when they could just do it themselves. A lack of knowledge of the laws or just tradition?
 
TheRefereeFrom2003 said:
Then why don’t we see more teams try it? Seems a bit pointless to pass it back to a player to “boot it” when they could just do it themselves. A lack of knowledge of the laws or just tradition
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It allows more time for forwards to get deep into the opponent's half and apply pressure when the ball lands. And if they time it well enough or a good kick, it becomes a long pass to their own player.
 
TheRefereeFrom2003 said:
Then why don’t we see more teams try it? Seems a bit pointless to pass it back to a player to “boot it” when they could just do it themselves. A lack of knowledge of the laws or just tradition?
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As @one says passing it back allows their own players to advance into the opponents half, which they can't do until the ball is played.
This seems an odd technique as (famously shown in the film goal) no player is going to move faster than the ball so it does seem like giving posession straight back.
But as ever, whatever works for them.
We are not here to dissect teams tactics etc. So long as what they are doing conforms with law we just get on with it.
 
One sums it up. We used to have 3 fast wingers and 1 tall guy on the halfway line as kickoff was knocked back, then it’d be kicked to the corner we were at. Thought process being opposition was under pressure instantly and we might win the ball. Here it just seems the guy was kicking it out of play. Surprised the opposition was bothered tbf. Although if he had as good of a kick as you said, also surprised he didn’t try shooting for goal
 
Nothing like desperately sprinting towards the goal after a shot from the kick off cause your club lino is gonna be no help as to whether or not it's gone in.
 
socal lurker said:
I'm really curious why anyone would think you couldn't do this.
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I’d guess just because it’s not a common thing to do. Maybe manager in OP case thought it has to touch another player or something first idk. If people dont see it often they probably just presume it’s not allowed
 
As others have said it is more beneficial to play it back and let someone else lump it, gives you more time to try and get an overload of players on either wing to try and get to the long ball forward. With the kicker taking it the best you can really hope for is a deep defensive throw-in, which all feels a little bit rugby union.

This tactic actually caused me one of my worst injuries whilst refereeing. I saw that the team kicking off at the start of the second half had three players lined up on the half way line close to the touchline. So I thought I'll show Mr Assessor that I can read the game, so as soon as the ball was kicked back I set off at full speed so that I was in a great position for the drop zone. Except the only thing that dropped was me as no sooner had I set off on said sprint did my groin excrutiatingly tear 🤦‍♂️😒
 
RustyRef said:
As others have said it is more beneficial to play it back and let someone else lump it, gives you more time to try and get an overload of players on either wing to try and get to the long ball forward. With the kicker taking it the best you can really hope for is a deep defensive throw-in, which all feels a little bit rugby union.

This tactic actually caused me one of my worst injuries whilst refereeing. I saw that the team kicking off at the start of the second half had three players lined up on the half way line close to the touchline. So I thought I'll show Mr Assessor that I can read the game, so as soon as the ball was kicked back I set off at full speed so that I was in a great position for the drop zone. Except the only thing that dropped was me as no sooner had I set off on said sprint did my groin excrutiatingly tear 🤦‍♂️😒
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🤣 Oh dear.

Minor development...
Try varying your position at kick off. This would save the need for sprinting and you'd have a game next week 😂
 
one said:
It allows more time for forwards to get deep into the opponent's half and apply pressure when the ball lands. And if they time it well enough or a good kick, it becomes a long pass to their own player.
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Bournemouth goal against Fulham on Friday was a perfect example
 
There was a female professional club that did this all the time. Not exactly who, but they had strong forwards and fast. The pressure on the defense worked so often that it was expected.

I agree its more a turn over, but if a defense isnt ready, it could be used effectively if not used often.
 
Back in the late 80's, long before the law regarding the direction of the ball moving at kick off was changed, Brentford would regularly launch the ball rugby style straight from kick off on the diagonal to the wings and as close to the opposition's penalty area as possible, more often than not it would go straight out of play.

A youth team I refereed on many occasions and my son played against a few times would regularly shoot straight from kick off, probably in the hope of trying to catch out the keeper, worked a few times for them as well. West Ham tried it against Chelsea at the weekend.
 
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