Hello from China

Last night the referees celebrated the conclusion of the first part of the tournament with the first round and Quarterfinals completed. We had a wonderful dinner at Villa Rouge a "french" restaurant (which serves Chinese food). We had the whole back patio for the FIFA referees and LOC members for dinner, live music and dancing. With only 8 referees and 11 AR's staying for the next round, there was much to celebrate as the WWC '07 has been a great success to-date.

With only 4 matches of the world cup remaining, we are all very anxious to see what is in store for us as we have some thrilling Semi-Finals coming up and of course the final and 3rd/4th place match.

Today we received assignments for the 2 Semi Finals. 2 referees teams from UEFA will be officiating. Dagmar from CZE is the referee for the Norway v Germany match and Nicole from SUI is the assigned to officiate the USA v Brazil match.

Now we must wait and see to see if the team remaining to represent CONCACAF receives another appointment: Kari Seitz, Isabel Tovar (MEX) and Rita Munoz (MEX). Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Also today Sept 25th, is a special holiday in China. Today is the mid-Autumn festival, where family togetherness is celebrated and moon cakes are eaten. FIFA was kind enough to buys us each a moon cake in order to experience the Chinese culture.