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It is always an honor to work a final match, in any capacity. There is no exception in this case. Kari has been selected to be the 4th official for the Bronze medal match of Germany v Japan. May the best team win and may the ball roll straight for the team of officials. Go USA.
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Soccer
Germany
Japan
USA
Official Sports International has always been a wonderful supporter of US Referees, and this event was no exception. They supplied us with 90 sac pacs to give as gifts to the referees and administrators at the 2008 Olympic Games. The bags were a big hit, with lots of use on the trip to the Great Wall (I hear).
In the photo below Kari, Marlene & Veronica are modeling the great new women's cut
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Soccer
USA
For most of our Quarterfinal match, Brazil was in full control of the ball and the play over rival Norway. After the first goal was scored on a rocket from Daniela at about 30 yards, you could see the Norwegians lose confidence. That was until the 81st minute when the Brazilian GK (the reserve GK) took down a Norwegian player near the touchline and Norway scored from the resulting Penalty Kick (
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Soccer
Brazil
Norway
USA
...and not just the WNT, USA will also have a team officials in the Quarter Finals representing! August 15th Kari, Veronica, Marlene and Dianne (of Guyana) will be the 3rd team for Brazil v Norway.
This is bound to be an exciting match. Brazil is on a hot streak, winning their group in the first round, in fact, scoring a hat trick yesterday versus Nigeria. Norway, as you may remember, is the
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Soccer
USA
Brazil
Norway
Nigeria
Many of you must be wondering, what exactly do we do when we are not working on matches. We actually have a tight schedule with many different things incorporated into our daily program. Every non-game day includes physical training. The physical training is scheduled is modified before and after game day to optimize our game fitness. Our fitness training alternates between workouts in the hotel
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Soccer
Well it has been a very good trip so far. I have been fortunate enough to see the Forbidden City and go to the Birds Nest before everyone else was there and get some good pictures. Daily physical training has been good and the on the field technical session have been good because they are working on situations dealing with team work as well as working on offside situations that can happen
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Soccer
China
The final assignments are out for the first round women's matches today (Aug. 10)
As you know team USA had Brazil v Germany on the first day of the tournament. We received positive feedback from our assessors and colleagues alike.
You probably figured out we didnʼt get a match on the second day (sans post); a nice few days of recovery. And now for the final day of matches in the group stages
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Soccer
USA
Brazil
Germany
China
Argentina
Well it has been a very good trip so far. I have been fortunate enough to see the forbidden city and go to the birds nest before everyone else was there and get some good pictures. Daily physical training has been good and the on the field technical session have been good because they are working on situations dealing with team work as well as working on offside situations that can happen and
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Soccer
China
We travel back to Beijing in hopes of getting to the Opening Cermonies. As you have read before disappointment set in for our trio. We had to stay in the hotel and watch from the TV. We did not have tickets and since Jair had to leave for Shanghai on 8-9-08, so he had to stay. We were not back when the bus left so we had to stay at the hotel.
So for first match, great game, great experience,
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Soccer
We depart the hotel at 5:30 for a 10 minute trip. The bus has a police escort that radios ahead we are coming and they stop all traffic at any intersection to ensure we arrive without any problems. People are standing on the streets as we pass by watching us. The first game is going on as we enter so we head to the locker room and begin to prepare for the match. We begin to change and put on
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Soccer
Today we depart for the city of Qinhuangdao, by train the 7 of us are taken to the train station and we are placed in an area and surrounded by security people that do not allow people to enter, then we board and ride the train for 2 hours to the city, with uniformed security people on the train with us and then we were met by more of the event staff for the venue.
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Soccer
Today we had the match between Cameroon vs Korea Republic. On a hot and humid night, both sides began the match playing a high-tempo, pressing game. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, with a caution to Korea in the 57th minute and a send off in the 90th minute. The match inspector was very pleased with our performance.
After the match, Jair headed to Shanghai to be the Fourth Official for the August
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Soccer
Korea
Cameroon
We returned to Beijing this afternoon and we are exhausted from travel and last nightʼs match. As wide eyed first timers, we wanted to share a little bit about our experience.
We are still pumped up from the match and the realization that we are now officially Olympians! As you probably know, the game ended in a scoreless draw. Last night was an incredible experience! Wu Lihe Stadium is a
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Soccer
* The USA will be represented by a trio in the Germany v Brazil match on Aug 6th. Yes, the same match up as the final of the Women's World Cup 2007. On Aug. 5th Kari, Marlene & Veronica fly to Shengyang where, on the following day, we'll be officiating in a stadium designed to seat 60,000 people and rumored to be a sell-out!
* The USA will be represented by a duo for the start of the group play
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Soccer
USA
Germany
Brazil
World Cup
Cameroon
It has been a long and exciting day. Starting with training, both fitness and technical, followed by a group mental preparation session with our "team" Psychologist. The goal of this mental preparation session was to learn relaxation techniques in preparation for the upcoming matches
The sun was out and it was hot today, we’ve heard anywhere from 35-40 degrees Celsius (95-100 degrees Fahrenheit)
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Soccer
FIFA
This afternoon we had a meeting regarding the Communication System, which we'll be using for the Olympics. Since only about 1/2 of the referees have used it before, we got a brief overview of how it works an some tips in its use. Each referee was then given their own system to manage for the duration of the tournament. In the attached photo you can see the bag with all the equipment. The belt in
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Soccer
Bright and early every morning we wait in the lobby of our hotel for our transportation to arrive to take us to our training sessions. Our credentials are a requirement every time we depart our hotel for security purposes. Today our training sessions were on penalty kick, offside, and assistant referee involvement. The penalty kick session was about the decisions of the referee when attackers and
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