The next match was U17 girls, Wisconsin (USA) against Real Betis, a professional club from Spain. Betis spoke no English, so once again I was translating on the touch line. Great match, and while USA was outmatched, they took the lead early on a bad blunder by the Betis keeper. It had a wonderful atmosphere, and the 37 degree heat wasn't slowing anybody down. There were a few bad injuries in the second half, which allowed us to grab some water which was much needed. Linda was the Swedish referee, David was on the line with me, and Bruno (one of my mates from Madrid) was the fourth. Bruno had a grand time joking to the American girls that they were only allowed to sub after a kiss. It didn't work once, much to his chagrin. Real Betis pushed hard in the second half and ended up scoring three straight to earn a spot in the Semi finals.
One of the matches I highlighted in my schedule was the U16 semifinal fixtures, and could not have asked for a better game. The match I went to watch was a repeat of last years finals between Zambia's Nike sponsored Lukasa FC against the professional squad Chivas Guadalajara in Mexico. Many of both teams players have already played with there club's first team. The match was killer! Zambia was pushing hard but could not hit the back of the net. The game looked bound to end 0-0 when 10 minutes from the final whistle, Zambia got caught in the offside trap which sprung a Chivas player who drove deep only to get it across to the other striker who simply tapped it in for the lead. In stoppage time, while Zambia pushed everyone high, Chivas put home a second on the counter-attack, thus cementing their spot in the most important game of the week against a Nigerian squad in the final.
Our week was highlighted by a meeting and presentation with Peter Frodjfelt, FIFA referee who refereed the European championships in 2008, including being fourth official in the final. His presentation was great, and after meeting him initially at lunch, I began to appreciate what a stellar person he is, and gaining great appreciation for the road to the top. He was honest humorous and approachable, and he gave a great talk for the eager audience. We also got to hear from Bobby Madley, who was just appointed to the Premiership and is part of their select (professional) group. He first spoke about using advantage and taught a class on when and where to consider advantage, but where his speech really excelled was when he moved on to motivating and inspiring the referees in the room. He has reached the Premiership at just 29 years old, whereas Peter began refereeing at 27, proving that as a 17 year old referee, the opportunities are endless. One of the things that they both stressed is the importance of setting up a road map of your goals and breaking it into smaller goals.
We concluded the presentations with the awarding of finals and the referee awards. Unfortunately, I came away empty handed in both aspects, but I have learned and developed so much this week that I am not bothered the least. When there are 140 refs going after 30 final spots, the majority will not get any, and the quality of refereeing here is so elite, its a real toss up as to who gets it. My assessments have been great for the games I have been given, but with the number of referees, I needed to have more difficult games, allowing me to score higher on the gradient. That is simply the luck of the draw, and at high profile tournaments, everyone dreams of reffing a final, but very few do. This is something I can set my sights on down the road, and strive to better myself to the point where I will get one. I must not forget too that I was appointed to two finals in Madrid when many refs received none, so I have had my fair share of finals these two weeks.
I will give match recaps of the finals, and also conclude the tournament in the coming days when I have some more time, but in the meantime, I will say that there was a string of very interesting events in some finals.
Kev
No comments:
Post a Comment