Next round of assignments are announced

Wednesday was a relatively quiet day in Shanghai. Many of the referees who had traveled to other venues were either refereeing or traveling back to Shanghai. We had only a few referees for training this morning so we stayed at the hotel and had strength and core stability training in the fitness center. Kari, Isabel and Rita had their own cool-down session consisting of a spin on the stationary bike.

Later in the afternoon, we had a debriefing session for the following matches: Japan vs. England, USA vs. PRK and Sweden vs. Nigeria. We watched selected video clips for instructional purposes. The topics of discussion included foul recognition, advantage, misconduct, wall management, game management and offside.

At the end of the meeting, we received assignments for the next round of matches. Kari will be the 4th official for Japan vs. Argentina in Shanghai on Friday, 14 Sept. She will be working with Dagmar Damkova (Cze), Souad Oulhaj (Mar) and Ndah Tempa (Ben). Jen will be refereeing Brazil vs. China in Wuhan on Saturday, 15 Sept. Jen’s team includes Isabel Tovar (Mex), Rita Munoz (Mex) and Estela Alvarez de Olivera (Arg). The China vs. Denmark match drew a crowd of 50,000 so we anticipate a great atmosphere. The match promises to be exciting. For those interested in watching, please refer to the broadcast schedule link below.

We wrapped up the night watching two live matches in the referee lounge – New Zealand vs. Brazil and China vs. Denmark. At half-time, we played a few quick matches of ping-pong. The atmosphere was light-hearted and the camaraderie was truly enjoyable.