Flew out of Baltimore about 8:45pm and arrived in Iceland about 6:30am their time. After collecting my luggage and clearing customs, I was met by a driver carrying a sign with my name and transferred to the Rekjavik airport. At the Rekjavik airport, I met Klara Bjartmarz, the tournament director, and we flew the 45 minutes into Akureyri together. After a five minute cab ride to the hotel, we checked in. The rooms weren't quite ready yet, so I had time for breakfast of mueslix and juice before getting settled. The hotel is a boarding school during the school year and a hotel during the summer: two twin beds, a closet, and a bathroom en suite. The referees each have private rooms. I was pretty exhausted and napped until about 2pm when I was awoken by a knock at my door. The Swedish referee, Jenny Palmqvist, had come by to introduce herself. She seems really nice, is about 35 and has been a FIFA referee for some time. She asked about Kari and Sarah and will be attending the Olympics next month. We agreed to meet for dinner about 8pm. By then, Moiken Jung, the German referee, had also arrived. She's younger, 23 and not yet a FIFA referee. The three of us had a buffet dinner with Klara. After dinner, Jenny, Moiken and I walked downtown to stretch our legs and see the area. We called it a night about 11pm.

Started the morning by jogging with the two referees from last night, and Tonje Nordby, the Norwegian, who had arrived late last night. Tonje is a year or two older than me and is a FIFA referee just getting back to serious refereeing after having her first child. After the jog and showers we met for breakfast and were joined by Kirsi Savolainen, from Finland, a FIFA AR trying to make the jump to the referees list. All five of us went downtown to the supermarket for water and fruit before returning to chat and have lunch. The technical meeting was at 1:30pm and we reviewed the tournament procedures, team colors, and the like. We met Ingi Jonsson, our on-site observer for a meeting at 4pm. He reviewed the teams' colors for tomorrow's matches so that we could make decisions about which jerseys to wear, told us what time we'd be picked up for the games, and gave us a quick reminder that violence is to be dealt with severely and that tackles from behind are to be treated as SFP. His biggest advice was, "Relax, have fun, and make friends." We met again that evening for dinner together, again the buffet at the hotel.

Match Day:
Norway v. Germany

Referee: Martha Sinclair (USA)
SAR: Kirsi Savolainen (FIN)
JAR: Marino Thorsteinsson
4th: Johannes Valgeirsson
Observer Ingi Jonsson

My evaluation:
Final was 3-1 Germany with 2 yellow cards, one for each team. The first 15 minutes or so were chaos. I swear both teams played kick and run, and the ball didn't go out. I thought I might die of exhaustion in just those first few minutes. After that it did settle down somewhat. The yellows were both for tactical fouls. The first one was a solid card, against #8 Norway. The second one was weaker, but was the even up card, just a couple of minutes later, maybe the 38". Beyond that, a couple of times I took away an advantage and I should probably have carded #3 Norway for either of two fouls near the box or for persistence. Perhaps I should have dealt more assertively with a player who encroached on free kicks, but as the player at fault was #10 Germany who got the card for them, I don't think a card would have been the right answer.

The five of us went downtown and did a little shopping. Afterwards some of the local ARs took us horseback riding and then sightseeing in the nearby area. We all went out to a local Italian restaurant for dinner.

Match Day
England v. Sweden

Referee: Martha Sinclair (USA)
SAR: Askell Thor Gislason
JAR: Stefan Adalsteinsson
4th: N/A
Observer Thorarinn D Gunnarsson

My evaluation:
Sweden won 1-0. England had several good chances though, and it was a fairly even match all the way through. I felt better about this one than about the game on Friday. My running definitely was better, I finally felt like I had a little juice in my legs. No cards, although I was very happy with the way I dealt with #15 for England after a few obvious enchroachments on free kicks. I pointed out the three times with a similar mechanic to PI, and it worked like a charm. I waved down a foul flag from my SAR, and I feel pretty good about doing that. I'm pretty sure that it was the right decision based on the responses of the players and coaches. That's the good news. The bad news is that I was late with several (3?) flags from my ARs for offside and didn't make a player leave the field after a trainer had come on. The coaches both seemed pleased and the England delegate made a point of coming up afterwards to congratulate me on a match well called.

Feedback from the observer:
He thought I called it too tight in the first half. I need to ensure that if a trainer has come on the field, the player leaves the field before returning. The late AR flags. He questioned why I waved down the AR on the foul. He would like me to run a stricter diagonal.

An interesting situation came up in Tonje's game that merited some discussion. She had the German GK come out of the box and play the ball with her hands and she gave the FK but no card. So there was much review of the situation and what color card it should have merited.

Today we went sightseeing, hiking on the lava, and finally to relax at the natural hot springs. Pretty full day, but great tourism opportunities in Iceland. We got back in time for dinner and then went over to the German team's room to see the tape from Tonje's situation. There is still not a definite consensus, but she now feels that it should have been a yellow. I concur, on the grounds that the distance from the ball to the attacker at the time of the foul was too great for it to be considered an OGSO.

Match Day
Norway v. Finland

Referee: Martha Sinclair (USA)
SAR: Sverrir G Palmason
JAR: Asgrimur H Einarsson
4th: N/A
Observer Arni Johannsson

My evaluation:
Finland 4-0. I think the game was actually decided at the coin toss, not during play. The wind was such that when Finland won the coin toss and elected to attack with the wind, that was pretty much the game. It was 4-0 Finland at the half, and Norway pretty much just lost their will. Then in the second half, Finland just packed their half and that's the way it ended too. One yellow card for PI against Finland. I waved down a foul flag late. I have figured out part of why I'm having trouble with these ARs. They flag offside position, not necessarily involvement. Despite the fact that I explain clearly what I want in my pregame, they're still flagging position, not participation. I was wrong on the foul. The GK's momentum carried her out of the box with the ball, but when I got the flag, the shot was already off, and Norway didn't complain, despite the fact that they complained about everything else, so I waved it down. I should definitely have gone over to the AR and talked about it at least. That's one of those things I know, and I wouldn't have messed it up at home, so I guess I'm still out of my element here. The observer also thought I should have given a caution to a player whom I'd warned in the first half. He's probably right, I didn't feel like I had a real good grasp of player management today.

Feedback from the observer:
Good running, good positioning. Ingi thought my decision about the GK was as likely to be right as the AR's and that the observer was unlikely to be able to tell from his position at midfield.

We all went out for a round of mini golf at about 10:30... it's wild to be able to do that, but it just never gets really dark here.

Low key day, everyone just kind of hung around the hotel and did quiet things. I think we're all getting ready to go home. We got the assignments for the finals tonight, pretty much as expected, but Kirsi was pretty upset to have a line instead of a middle. She is a FIFA AR and Ingi explained that because he expects the final to be a very difficult game, he wanted to put a very strong crew on it. Hence, Tonje, a FIFA referee, in the middle, and Kirsi, a FIFA AR, on the line. Kirsi sees it as a slight though and is very disappointed. The rest of us asked Ingi if he would consider changing the assignments to put Kirsi in the middle of one match tomorrow, but he categorically refused. Understandable, but at least we offered. Anyway, Kirsi was in tears at the meeting and then wouldn't leave with us. The rest of us went back to Jenny's room and Kirsi finally came back from a walk, stormed past us and slammed her door. Sometimes I hate working with women. The other assignments for the finals were as expected. Jenny will have the 3rd place game; I'm sure she'd have the final if Sweden weren't playing. I have the 5th place game, and Moiken has the 7th place game.

Match Day
Iceland v. Germany

Referee: Martha Sinclair (USA)
SAR: Ingvar Orn Gislason
JAR: Thorsteinn Arnason
4th: N/A
Observer: Thoroddur Hjaltalin

My evaluation:
A draw and Iceland won in kicks. Two physical teams, Iceland had overachieved and Germany had underachieved, so both teams felt like they had something to prove. Germany didn't start #3, the player that I felt really drove the team in their match against Norway. Still, they scored around the 20th minute. Iceland didn't quit though, and played hard through the half. I felt really good after the first half, no missed flags, good movement, everything seemed to be going well. Second half was not quite as good, but still fine overall. I did get one flag late when my JAR called the German GK for coming out of the PA to distribute the ball. As that's not something I would ever really call, I wasn't looking for it. We did go back and take the FK, but Iceland couldn't do anything with it. Iceland scored the equalizer about the 72" and then Germany brought on #3. It wasn't enough and the match ended in a draw. We had to do kicks to determine a winner and after seven kicks, Iceland finally won it. Here's the excitement of the match, the German GK moved off her line on one of the kicks, not just the standard one big step, but a step with the right foot, a step with the left, a pause, and then another step with the right foot. My AR and I had talked about how much movement was allowable and we'd agreed that the second foot was too much, so I looked at him, he looked at me and popped the flag, and we took the kick again. The Iceland player put the rekick over the crossbar, but Germany was irate. The coach actually yelled, "Bad American football!" That was kind of funny. Germany had a bad tournament, and got embarassed by the US team, so I think part of the problem was just they needed someone to blame besides themselves.

Feedback from the observer:
Very happy with match, positioning, communication and foul recognition. Agreed 100% with me calling back the PK. A great note to leave on.