NSW referees well represented at Dallas Cup
Three referee’s represented New South Wales at the prestigious 36th Annual Dallas Cup International Youth Tournament that was recently held in April.
The Referees that took part in the tournament were Katie Paterson, Adam Vainauskas and Kearney Robinson.
Paterson and Vainauskas got the opportunity to referee crucial quarter final matches while Robinson had the honour of being an assistant referee in the U/19 Super Group Final which was also the closing game of the tournament.
Robinson was delighted with the entire Dallas Cup experience with the highlight meeting referee Howard Webb.
“The overall experience in Texas was amazing, the people were very hospitable, especially my host family.
“I also made friends from all over the world that I hope I’ll see again one day.
“I even met 2010 FIFA World Cup final referee Howard Webb which was pretty surreal, I had a poster of him on my wall growing up.”
Not in Robinson’s wildest dreams was he expecting an appointment in the final but when it came he was truly ecstatic.
“I certainly wasn’t expecting a final appointment as there were approximately 200 referees in attendance, let alone Assistant Referee on the super group final.
“From what I have heard they are generally given to FIFA officials, so that generated a mixture of emotions when I found out, which happened to be on my 23rd birthday.”
Mixed emotions were felt for the young referee but he was honoured when his name and nation were called out.
“I was excited, nervous and incredibly proud, especially when the names of the teams and officials were read out just before kick-off.
“I don’t usually hear these types of things as it all becomes a bit of white noise, but I will never forget my name being read out, followed by "from Australia".
All I wanted to do from then on was do my colleagues proud and do the best job I possibly could.”
Keaerney says the final was a tough affair but thoroughly enjoyable and it gave him the opportunity to work with a FIFA approved official.
“It was a great experience working with referee Sascha Amhof, a FIFA official from Switzerland.
“He did an awesome job controlling what was a really tricky match between teams from Mexico and Brazil.
“From my perspective it was one of the most challenging yet enjoyable matches of my career as we, as a team, couldn’t lose concentration for a second otherwise we risked missing something. “Thankfully by full time nobody was talking about the referees, only the winning team – Curitiba from Brazil.”
The Dallas Cup has enjoyed a rich history of combining marquee teams and talented up and coming players and has been an annual event held during Easter week.
As many as 180 teams divided into seven age categories ranging from U13s through to the U17s, U19s and the prestigious U19s Gordon Jago Super Group will be on show in 2014.
It is estimated that over 900 international players participate in the tournament each year and on average the Dallas Cup entertains over 100,000 spectators during the week long tournament.
The Cup has also played host to a number of football stars who participated in the tournament before making it big as the likes of English stars David Beckham and Wayne Rooney, Spanish legend Raul, Mexican ace Chicharito U.S. players Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley as well as recently retired former Socceroos ace Harry Kewell have all taken part in this mega youth tournament.
-By Nikola Pozder
