Two Down!

Ok...so I have officially refereed 2 World Cup Games, and I am happy with both of them. Yesterday I refereed the match between Germany and Korea DPR. This was an important game as it determined 1st and 2nd in Pool B. For Korea, they needed to at least tie to ensure that they made the quarter final because if they lost, and Guana won, Korea would be out.

I worked with a new crew for this game. Yvonne (El Salvadore) was with me last time, but my other assistant, ,Vivian (Netherlands), and Kirsi (Finland)were new. It was a good team, and the atmosphere before the game was very relaxed. The evening before the match we did some meditation and visualization with Esther (psychologist) which was very helpful. I definately felt more calm before this game than I did before the last one because I knew what to expect and I had already been to Hamilton 2 days before so the stadium was familiar.

Both teams were so well-behaved that they really didn't need me there. I called only 18 fouls in the whole game and had no cautions. Those are the games where you can let your guard down and then mistakes happen, so I worked very hard to make sure that this was not the case. Germany scored in the 4th min against the run of play, and Korea DPR was able to tie the game up early in the second half. From that point on, I really got the impression that both teams were happy with a tie, and so was I!

Today we had a recovery training session in the pool, and this afternoon we are going to the Stadium in Auckland to watch the 2 games there (England vs Korea and USA vs France). It is cool when we go to the stadium because we get to sit up in the VIP lounge and there are hot drinks and snacks for us. They even have waiters that serve food on platters...we are so important! hahah

I have also included a photo of our aerobics training session from the other day. That was funny! Watching referees try to do aerobics!