First Impressions, day 1 matches, and opening ceremonies of the Madrid Sur Cup

0This evening I took a moment to think for a second during half time of the match I was refereeing, and then it finally hit me, that I was refereeing two U16 clubs from Spain in a tournament in Madrid, wow, what an experience. So far the trip has been a unique chance to really see soccer in a different light and to meet some fantastic people. It began yesterday when I arrived, and I instantly met dozens of people from around the world. 

After just over 24 hours in Madrid, I have met so many referees from all different backgrounds, mostly around 18-25 years old. The majority of referees here are from England, but I have also met refs from Cyprus, Spain, Poland, Venezuela, Belgium and Italy. I am sure I will meet more people in the next week at Iber Cup, as from my understanding, this tournament serves well as a precursor of sorts to the bigger, more international, and more prestigious Iber cup. 

I arrived yesterday just in time to attend the opening ceremony of the Madrid Sur cup, and was given a great window into the coming week. It was unorganized, but was still unlike any thing at any tournament in North America.  It began with a great deal of milling about outside, but it gave me a chance to meet many of my colleagues for the week. The focal point of the ceremony was a bongo band, which was then followed with all teams and referees walking around the pitch. It was quite a nice stadium, home to a league two team in Spain, seating around 4000. It was quite something to walk the pitch surrounded with cheering fans, an attitude that I do not imagine will last. 

The first day was very Spanish, that is very unorganized, spoken nearly entirely in Spanish, and allowed me to bear witness to some very good soccer. We received our assignments in the morning, and I was to referee, and do two assistant referees of under 16 boys matches. I was with a Spanish referee who spoke no English and an English Referee who spoke no Spanish. My limited Spanish has proved essential, and I have turned into a translator for the group between the Spanish organizers and referees and the British referees. 

My game went very well, I was assessed by a Spanish Football Federation assessor who spoke little English, and his comments regarding my performance was that it was "muy bien" or "Very good" so hopefully my marks are reflective. It was an interesting dynamic to referee two Spanish teams, the Spanish do not like their referees and are very eager to protest all calls. Using my Spanish on the field was something I was grateful to have. While I was able to communicate to the players during the breaks, my language during play consisted primarily of "no, no, no" "juega (play)" "Vamos (lets go)" and  "Calmate (calm yourself). I did not end up giving any cards, and the final score was 6-1 Morejas over Torremar. 

After my match, I saw the tail end of a u16 match refereed by three british referees. In this game that ended 4-3, the referee and assistant did not call a penalty which the losing side was convinced was missed. I was not there so I cannot speculate, but what I did see was a referee get chased from the pitch, and then while walking him to the bus, we were approached by numerous screaming spanish fans, irate with anger over this call. When you are the best  football country in the world, the football is taken seriously. The tournament directors were saying that this is not unusual for Spanish fans. 

Today (June 25) I went into Madrid, and will be refereeing another three matches tonight. I am refereeing with Leonel Abreu, a Venezuelan first division referee, and will be getting to use both the beeper signal flags and the communications headsets, I am excited to try this, and will update on how the game goes.

The floods have receded back home, and I hope that the city is beginning to return to normal. No pictures yet as i can't get my photos up, they will come soon.