Several Days of Travel & 3rd Assignment

These last few days have been extremely busy, so there is much for us to fill you in. On Saturday, we traveled by train to Wolfsburg, which is 367 kilometers north of Frankfurt (tournament headquarters). The next day, since the match did not kick off until 6 pm, we had plenty of time to explore our surroundings. The city of Wolfsburg was established to manufacture the VW Beetle and the VW factory is located right next to the hotel. Also located next to the hotel is the Autostadt, an automobile museum. We spent the morning in awe of beautiful cars, learning about their design, and spent the afternoon relaxing in the hotel preparing for our match.


(Carol Ann, Marlene, Kari & Veronica at the Frankfurt train station)

Below are a few pictures from the Autostadt...





It had rained the entire day, so went into the match knowing and expecting that the wet conditions could have a potential impact on the match. The match between Brazil and Norway turned out to be very exciting with a final score of 3-0. Luckily for us, even though it is was a bit chilly, the field surface drained pretty well and the wet conditions did not have too much of an impact.



Sunday, immediately after we completed our match we heard the news about the appointments for the 3rd round of matches. Kari and Marlene will be joining Carol Ann (Canada) and Ivonne (El Salvador) to work the match on Wednesday between England and Japan, in Augsburg. Kari will be working as a 4th official.

Some of you may be wondering why this assignment is not being officiated as a trio. In fact, in women’s refereeing we do not have a true trio system. As the tournament progresses, we may be asked to work with other officials again.

Today has been very hectic as we began our day in the northern part of Germany, in Wolfsburg. We traveled for over 3 hours back to Frankfurt. Upon arrival, we had lunch, had a recovery training session, and attended the debriefing for Sunday’s matches. Kari, Marlene, Carol Ann, and Ivonne then had to grab their bags and head right back to the train station to travel for their assignment in Augsburg, which is another 3+ hours, and is located in the southern part of Germany. So in total, the majority of the crew for the next match traveled close to 7 hours and covered 614 kilometers. What a day!

I know I will be glued to the TV on Tuesday. Please join me in wishing them luck in their next game.