We were using unconventional communications gear brought by Leonel, which was walkie talkies linked up with a headset, and while it was useful, it was not the easiest to understand. The three matches which I was A/R and fourth all went well, the games varied from routine to very heated. The highlight of the matches would have had to be during Leonel's middle, when the Venezuelan referee had spoken only in English to the players and had pretended to not understand Spanish, up until the moment where he heard something he did not like. At this point, he whistled and turned to the player, and in perfect Spanish (his native language of course) said, "you think that because I do not speak Spanish to you, I do not understand it?" and then proceeded to book him, plot twist.
The Canadian style of refereeing is very British, and quite unlike the Southern Europeans or South Americans. In Canada and Britain, we are much more tolerant towards trifling offences, and tend to attempt to man manage before throwing around cards. In Graham Poll's book, Seeing Red, he speaks of this difference, in the fact that British referees tend to let slide tackles with the studs up go when there is no contact with the player, only the ball, whereas European's punish this. The attitude itself is quite different surrounding the soccer, much alike the attitudes between the Canadian and Spanish professional team differ. The Spanish are dramatic, intense, and yappy, but they are the best.
In my assessment of my second game, I received a 72 on the British scale in which 70 is an acceptable standard and 80 is a near perfect game. I wasn't satisfied with this, and the reason I got this was my management of the players was suited to the Canadian players and not the Spanish, and I did not manage a penalty properly. I will have to adjust my refereeing to meet the demands of the Southern European game. During the day I went into Madrid to see the palace and a monastery and just hang around the old city. After my matches, I went along with a great group of guys (6 brits and 1 polish) to Madrid to see the nightlife. After asking for directions from many people, we stumbled across a Spanish night club and got the entire experience, from Spanish club music, to a live bongo drummer. It was a great time to meet so many Spanish people and I am so glad to have learned Spanish in school as it has proved invaluable this trip and I have become a translator, navigator. I can now say I have danced the night away at a Madrid Disco in flip flops It was a great life experience, and I am glad to say I can check that one off my bucket list.
I woke up for our daily morning meeting, then proceeded to go back to bed and wake up at 2:00 pm. While I would love to credit this to jet-lag, I reckon it was more due to last nights antics. The way I see it, is you must work hard to play hard. Match day 3 began with a lot of sleeping, followed by three very routine fixtures (U14, U14, GU17). The most interesting moment was when I applied the skills I leared at the CDSRA's man management session and as an assistant referee, I saw a player kick another player with the studs when they were both on the ground, then the other team was wound up. I had the referee send off the player, and then we made sure no fights ensued. They were very routine, and this now concludes the group stage. Tomorrow should bring some interesting playoff soccer, and tonight should bring some well needed rest, that is until the group of Croatians started drinking at a "quincenera" that was happening near the hotel.
Cheers,
Kevin Tupper
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