Day 7 – Wrap up

Now I’m on the train and I’m writing my last blog-entry about Gothia Cup 2009. The week has been a great experience even though we have had a few problems every here and there. I’ll probably go next year. Its been raining 4-5 out of 7 days but not a single drop of rain on any of my games, liseberg or the opening ceremony. Perfect!

I’ve goten alot of new experiences  and I will make good use of them. Farewell Gothia and lets hope we’ll meet again next year.

Day 6 – The End

Last night i was told I was a backup ref for today. How fun was that to hear? One of the refs wanted me to be their assisting ref though so that felt better.  I even got a ref. game during the morning. That game didn’t go well at all. Sure both teams were satisfied but the thirteen year old boys outran me.  That night I also found out that our group leader didn’t send in names of refs he wanted in the finals. Whats worse is that he even said no thanks to the finals our team were offered to participate in.

After the games we went to Liseberg (an amusement park), Universeum and the ref. party. We were able to test most of the rides and Universeum were interesting  even though we didn’t have that much time. The ref. party only included food this year which was kinda boring. Some of the guys played bowling and the rest of us watched them play. When we arrived back at our sleeping place I started packing for tomorrow.

http://www.liseberg.com/en/home/

http://www.universeum.se/index.php?lang=en

Day 5 – Game of the week

The day started with 3 games on my schedule but a few hours later I got 4 games and another one from another group of refs. that had some problems with injuries. That gives me a total of five games today. The most important game started 8pm. It was a 1/8th-final Boys 18. Kullavägens BK VS. Forest School. The english guys win the game and all that the swedish guys got was a red card. The game was probably one of my best performed ever, if not THE best performed game ever. Me and my two assistant refs were totally satisfied.

Day 4 – Red Card

No Liseberg today. Hopefullt tomorrow instead. I got a little massage instead. The day didn’t go too well and there are 2 games that I can point out. The first one are a Girls 14 game where the swedish team and atleast one crying girl in every situation. The coach on the american team was from sweden originally but have lived in San Fransisco for 14 years so he could speak both swedish and english perfectly.

The other game was a game that wasn’t mine originally but there was a missunderanding with the other ref so I had to take it anyway.That game ended with 2 red cads and one dismissal of a coach…all from the same team. I can’t give anymore details because of the ongoing investigation. The day ended with one hour massage before bedtime at 1am. Tomorrow I need to get up at 6.30am

Day 3 – Sunburn

Today there was 2 observations and two games on my schedule. Both of them went really well. One of them was as ref and one of them as a assisting ref or linesman as the brittish people say. The refs I was observing were ok but the need more practise. They got potetial though. Not much more happening today but tomorrow there will be Liseberg. Oh, and I got a sunburn… atleast where the ref. clothes didn’t protect.

Day 2 – Game on

Yesterday was all about meetings. Almost anyway. Out of my group i arrived first and therefore i could choose the best place for my bed, near a power outlet.

The number of games are as follows, 3 on monday, 2 on tuesday + 2 to observe, 4 on wednesday. The rest of the week is still unknown.

In nw group i’m the only ref participating in the opening ceremony. Luckily i found some old colleagues from Värmland that i’m going with instead.

The time is 7:20 am and i’m thinking about hitting the showers. My first game starts at 11:40

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The first day has ended and I only got 2 games today. My second of the three games were cancelled. Of the two games that I got the second one went alot better than the first one. five yellow cards in the first game and three of them were for improper behaviour. MI didn’t do a perfect game but ten again…it was theopening game. The other one did go alot better after all.

The opening ceremony were kinda boring to watch from the middle of the stadium but maybe it will imporve to next year. Song, dance, fireworks, presentation of all participating countries were on the agenda for the ceremony. Not a single drop of rain during the ceremony

Stuck on the train

Now i’ve finished eating my breakfast but the train is stuck in Hallsberg because of a broken powerline in Laxå. I got a few hours to work with so this shouldn’t be a problem. Now i got a perfect opportunity to sleep.

Gothia Cup – day 1

I’m on my way to Gothenburg to be a ref. in Gothia Cup. The day seems to getting better and better. When i wrote the swedish part of the blog the weather didn’t look good at all but now the sun is shining.
I also had some wonderful help making sure i got up in time so i didn’t miss the train. now it’s breakfast time so i’ll write more later.