-Sunday, April 20, 2008Y
Friday 18 apr
Went to a french restaurant for the opening ceremony function of e big football tournament event organised by my football company. The food is simple and nutritious, haha....its a french restaurant therefore the food were mainly consists of meat and bread, haha....The progream itself included the arrival of the competition teams and drawing lots oo the grouping of the team etc...
Saturday 19 Apr
THE REAALLLL TOURNAMENT STARTS..........haha....as wat i had indicated the link at my previous blog entry, the tournament is the biggest football tournament in the whole of Southeast
Asia so far, with more than a thousand people attending....AND i am the REFEREE of one of the match categories.
As for sunday, its also very tiring for me, went to referee the tournament after finished coaching my balestier boys...........So i worked from 8am to 7pm both today and yesterday, its was really extremely physically and mentally demanding for me, the skin of my toes were cracking, my body and face were burnt red, and my body temperature was one or two degrees higher than usual, my body ached from head to toe. I expects to recover this fatigue to my normal physical condition after 2 days, haha....
Let me shared about my refereeing experience in soccer during the last 2 days. Generally, being a soccer referee is not a easy task at all! it requires u to be focus on hundred percent thru out the match, think and make decision quickly, be fair and firm in your stand, able to handle the intense pressure of the match which is in the process of playing, and also to be firm in your stand when coping with verbal abusive, intimidations and pressure from the team fans, players and coaches. One second of concentration lapse will cost u making mistakes and wrong decision in the match, its physically demanding too wen one is required to run up and down the field.
Therefore, all the above aspects applied for me during the last 2 days of the tournament, Even though the pitches is only half sized football pitch played by those young players, it already metally and physically tiring especially when u are in the hot sun refereeing ten matches in one go!!! I did really prayed to God these 2 days that i would do a good refereeing job and i decided to leave everything in His hand with faith.
As for DAY ONE, it was a huge challenged for me, beside refereeing 10 matches continously, i am also being verbally challenged and sweared by team coaches, players and fans EVEN THOUGH ALL THE DECISIONS I MADE, EVERY FOULS I GIVE WERE CORRECT AND FAIR, BECOS I BELIEVED EVERYONE WANTS TO BE THE WIINER, STAND IN THEIR OWN AGENDA AND PROTECT THEMSELVES....I remembered a match which i am e referee, both teams were the best among all in the category, and both of them wants to be the winner. Therefore e match itself was very strong and tightly competed which i mus at my full best to officiate the game. Both team coaches were of cos offensive and abusive. Verbal intimidations and swearings could heard and seen and the atmosphere itself is hostile....Thank God tat i controlled the match well, and everything ran smoothly. During that night before the 2nd day of the tournament, i express my forgiveness to God on those team coaches, fans and players who had been nasty to me during the tournament when i was praying, and also prayed tat i could do a good job too.
IN THE END, everything jus ran smoothly, i received praises from team coaches for being fair and just at the end of the tournament, thank God tat He really took care of everything these 2 days!! "If God is with me, who will be against me???" this bible versed kept on mediating in my mind these 2 days, i believed if i do my best, God will do the rest! :D He did give me the spirit of boldness to conquer intimidations! He did give me the strength to focus mentally thru out the game and the strength to pull thru these 2 days!! :D
11:37 PM,Y
Por Vicente
