Thailand
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Monday November 22nd
A diary from the
FIFA U-19 Women's World Cup
in Thailand, November 2004.
It is my day to sleep-in, post
game day, and wouldn't you know it, my doorbell was ringing at 0720hrs.
It was a maid,
wrong room. This is too funny! So I got up, went for breakfast, then off
to the pool. We are to meet at the pool at 1030hrs
for a recovery session, so I will do a little of my own pre-recovery
on the poolside.
I was not there long before others started arriving as it was a beautiful
sunny morning. I went off to my post-game
massage at 1000hrs. This time I had a Thai massage which is done on the
floor. Everyone has been raving about this
massage as it is deep tissue/muscle and well worth the pain you have to
endure. This is similar to the type of massage
I have at home and know that it works. As I am not sore today, I thought
that I would try something different. Jacqui and
Michelle (Aussies) were also there having just finished their massage
and keeping me company. So I was not on the
floor for more than a couple of minutes with the masseuse working my lower
shins when she had a funny look come on
her face. She stopped and felt the inside of my left bicep and looked
me in the eyes and said "sick, you sick". First of all
I was in shock....I have never heard her speak any English, and secondly,
oh oh, I've been caught! Michelle started
laughing her head off from the look on my face as both she and Jacqui
knew that I was sick, so it did not come as a
surprise to them, other than the masseuse being able to figure it out
in 2 minutes of touching my legs.... how freaky!
So let me explain. Jacqui, Michelle and I have basically been on the toilet
since returning from Chiang Mai. We are the
most careful eaters in the group as Jacqui is allergic to yeast, and Michelle
allergic to seafood, and me just plain picky.
We found it difficult to eat in Chiang Mai as you never really knew what
you were ordering and the people did not speak
english very well, so you never got what you thought you ordered. Remember
we were laughing about the mystery
meals? Well we were not laughing for very long. On our game day lunch
the staff said that they would make the 3 of us
spaghetti. As Jacqui is allergic to yeast, she had the spaghetti sauce
over rice, not pasta. (It took them about 45 minutes
and three tries to get that right!) We requested just tomato sauce, nothing
fancy. Well it came with meat sauce. It smelled
fine and actually tasted quite good, so the 3 of us ate it against our
better judgment.
Michelle was the first to get sick starting the following morning. I was
not aware of this as she and Jacqui had already
returned to Bangkok right after their game and I was still in Chiang Mai.
I started later that day back in Bangkok, but
thought it was just a reaction to the stressful game, heat, and drinking
lots of water. The following couple of days were really bad for Michelle,
but she did not say why so we thought she was just really tired. It was
not until Wednesday
morning that she finally told us about her stomach problems. Well I told
her that I was the same, and then Jacqui said
she was too. Oh oh, the spaghetti sauce. Now we feel really sick wondering
what we have eaten!
Remember I was cramping during training, well Michelle and Jacqui were
the same. We did not let on the real problem
as we just thought it would go away. As I had to then leave Wednesday
for my game in Phuket, I started drinking a lot of
electrolyte drinks as I knew that anything I ate was going right through
me. So I was handling my little problem fine until
the second half of my game yesterday when I became nauseous and dizzy.
I did everything I could to get through the last
45 minutes of that game, I felt terrible. Then the flight home was brutal,
I was constantly dizzy and almost vomitted twice
on the long trip home. I was so happy to get to the hotel and get
some rest, I have to get better. Others went for a late dinner as we have
not eaten since lunchtime, 12 hours ago, but that was the last thing I
wanted to do.
So that brings back to laying on the floor in shock. Michelle
had started on pills yesterday after notifying the Sam the
fitness instructor of her condition. I had started pills this morning
after having such a bad day yesterday and realizing that
I am getting worse. After my massage we went back to the
pool to meet Sam for the recovery session. As I was not
going to tell her about my little problem, so Michelle did it for
me....what a friend! Sam said that explained a lot as I was
the only one here losing weight and she could not understand why.......at
least there is something good coming out of
this! So Sam wanted to take me to the doctor, but I asked her for some
time to see if the pills will work.
We had our pool session....I could handle training like this everyday,
and then it was off to lunch to meet with everyone
else who just came back from training. What a day to miss at training,
they did the beep test! After lunch it was to the
game analysis meeting for the afternoon. They of course showed
the clip from the "close call" goal on my game,
showing the good positioning of myself and Virginia and the teamwork
in making the right call. They also showed 2 of
my very close offside calls, showing my correct positioning to make
the calls. I did not realize how tight the calls looked.
Appointments were made for the quarter final games and my trio is off,
this is a good sign. The other CONCACAF trio is
going to Chiang Mai for the Germany v. Nigeria game. They have only had
one game so far as the El Salvador Referee
injured her ankle after their first game and has been recovering for a
week. The Canada v. China game will be officiated
by Anna of Italy which is a surprise as she did Canada's last game against
Thailand.
After the meeting we were told that we were invited to a village
for dinner. There is an ex-FIFA referee, Piroum, who is
with us everyday, morning till night. He helps the instructors at
training, assisting with the non-English speaking girls
team, and is there for the instructors and committee members for anything
they need. I am sure that he is the busiest
person here. He invited us to a banquet dinner at his village over
an hour outside of Bangkok. So we were on the bus at
1530hrs and off to experience some more Thai culture.
We arrived at the village and were welcomed by the many friendly
locals. The hall and village are on the seaway, so it is
very wet here, with most of the houses basically shacks on stilts. It
was not what most of us were expecting. The hall
is probably best described like a "tiki tiki" hut
on stilts, if that makes any sense. We were treated like royalty again,
the
people are so friendly. We had a great time and ended the night
with lots of dancing to 80's music. We all fell asleep
on the long trip back to the hotel.
Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day so a trip to a floating market about
2 hours outside of Bangkok is planned. Most of
us are going, even though we have to be up at 0600hrs. It is another chance
to experience the culture and we do not
want to miss any opportunities as the cut is coming in a couple of days
and our time here may soon be ending.
Up at 0600hrs and grabbed a quick breakfast before hopping on the bus and heading to the floating market. It is a very
long trip and we are hoping that it is worth it. We arrive and there are buses of tourists everywhere which is a good sign
as we were really wondering where the heck we were going. We have to get into long skinny boats, 10 in each and off
we go.
It is not until we start going for awhile that we understand where we are. It is a village on water, similar to what you see
of a rice field, combined with a swamp. Rows of dirty water with pieces of land exposed every once in awhile, but with
tall trees everywhere, not just flat land. We thought that we were just going to a market, but first we are given a tour of
the village. We pass all the houses, shacks on stilts, and see the locals squatting outside their homes washing clothes
and dishes in the water, some bathing, and some throwing out the garbage. This water is used for everything and the
village is very primitive. It is very interesting and I am so happy to have the opportunity to see this. Our first stop is at
the village temple area where there is a mini market set up. We thought this was the market and were happy to be told
that it was not. There is a lot of different food sold here, and I took a picture of a very old lady selling live snakes and
"things" out of pails. I took it just in time before a snake slithered its way out of the pail and dropped near my foot....that
sent me running away screaming!
We got back into the boats and toured more of the "streets" of the village. We went down main street which is triple the
size of the other streets and has a huge temple area. There are also businesses on the street like a post office and
beauty salon. There are old ladies in small boats that paddle themselves from door to door selling food. I guess it is
like a drive thru or take out. They paddle up to a house and have a large wok the size of the width of the boat right in the
middle and they cook up whatever the people want. At the end of the main street is the market.....and what a market it is!
It is open shops on both sides of the water, with locals paddling their long canoes also selling things. It was crazy and
I can't believe we didn't crash into anyone....there were boats everywhere. We had less than an hour to shop and then it
was back on the boat, a little more touring, and then to the bus. Most of us fell asleep on the long trip back to the hotel.
We then went straight to lunch as we were late and the restaurant was waiting for our return before closing.
After lunch we headed to the pool for the afternoon. As I started feeling dizzy again, I went to my room and slept for a
couple of hours before dinner. We all met for dinner and then we were off to the night market for another night of
shopping. This may be the last shopping trip, so Hege and I made the best of it. It was a very successful night! It was
another eventful taxi ride back to the hotel, then straight to bed as we are back training in the morning.
Up at 0630hrs to get ready
for training. I did not have a good night. I woke up twice in the
night dreaming that I was on a
boat in the ocean, only to realize that I was dizzy and nauseous. Sam
could tell as soon as I walked in for breakfast that
I was having troubles with my balance and looking pale. I insisted on
going training with the group, but was not allowed
to partake in the fitness. I hate sitting on the sideline. The fitness
training today was endurance. They ran in 3 groups
the length of the field combining walking, jogging and sprints. They moved
across the field doing 6 different sets,
6 times each. It looked very tough and I felt extremely guilty for not
being out there with them. Jacqui was unable to get
through the warm-up and ended up sitting with me.
Once Sam was finished the fitness training, she took Jacqui and I to the
hospital to see the doctor. I was the 6th person
to visit the hospital just from the referees and was not happy about it.
2 of the AR's have been out for the past week with
injuries after games and I was happy that I was staying strong and healthy.
Now I was having to go to the doctor not
because of something that I did due to lack of fitness, but because of
something out of my control. So I was put on
antibiotics, anti-nausea pills, extra multivitamins, and electrolyte powder
as I was dehydrated from not really eating
since Thursday. The doctor said that I would be better in 2 days, good
I will push it to tomorrow. I started the
medications immediately and returned to the hotel for a nap.
I awoke just before lunch and went to the restaurant to meet everyone
returning from technical training. I was finally
not feeling sick, so I was able to have some plain chinese soup. Hege
told me that they did more foul recognition and
offside awareness in training today. It has been two weeks of the same
training, but it is incredible how many are still
not getting it.
Today is the quarter finals, so we were off to watch the games Brazil
v. Russia and China v. Canada. The first game
was a shocker. We thought that Brazil would win with no problems, boy
were we wrong. Russia scored the first goal on
a beautiful header from a direct kick just outside of the penalty box.
Brazil upped their attack and tied the game just
before the half. In the second, Russia was the first to score again taking
a 2-1 lead with a rocket shot about 25 yards
out. Brazil put on the pressure, but Russia did a great job in defense.
It was a very exciting second half with Russia still
leading 2-1 at the end of 90 minutes. 4 minutes of extra time was to be
played. Brazil was attacking very strong. One
minute left to play and Brazil is awarded a corner kick....and they score.
The first 15 minutes of o.t. and it is still tied.
Brazil then scores in the 6th minute of second o.t., and then a few minutes
later scores again. Brazil won 4-2. The
surprise of the game for us though was that the Brazilian player #3 who
received the red card the first game from my
call, was still not dressed. Apparently she received a 3 game suspension!
The second game I am sure you all know by now, Canada lost to China.
I was not really surprised at this. Brazil, China
and Nigeria were all in the same group and all very strong teams. In Chiang
Mai, Nigeria played their quarter final game
with Germany and lost in penalty kicks. It was supposedly a great game.
The USA beat Australia in the second game in
Chiang Mai 2-0, not a surprise. So the semi-finals are set up to
be Brazil v. China (again) and Germany v. USA. My guess
is that China will beat Brazil, and Germany will beat USA. With Canada
now knocked out, things are looking good for me
to be staying for the next round, but who knows what the Instructors and
Committee are thinking.
It was back to the hotel and right to bed. We have training in the morning,
and for some it will be the last one. My
anti-nausea pills are working and I plan to be back at it in the
morning.
Well it is back to the grind
today and off to training. As this is the last training day for over half
of the group, Sam went
easy on us and we had an hour and a half of games after warm up. We split
into teams of 5 and had a round robin
tournament of volley football and 3-3-3. It was a lot of fun and quickly
became very competitive. After each game teams
had to be reminded that there is to be no contact or injuries, especially
after Michelle on my team took a hard knee to
the cheek which split her open and gave her a black eye. After the games
we still had two hours of technical training
which was focused on close calls on the goal line, whether the ball in
or out of play, goal or no goal, etc. Both of my
games had goal line close calls which were shown in game analysis meetings
as correct due to proper positioning.
The last set of games had 4 close calls in which 3 were questionable due
to poor positioning. Esse was the instructor
of my group and we learned a lot and had a lot of fun. At the end we did
concentration games to mix things up...he is
really an excellent instructor and motivator. Sonia has not been to training
the last 2 mornings as they have her working
the video analysis at the hotel to prepare for the semi's and finals.
It is too bad as I miss having my coach out here.
After training we were back to the hotel and had 20 minutes to shower
and get to a meeting. Today is the cut day. More
than half of the officials will be sent home. It is always a stressful
time, but I was feeling confident that I would be ok.
With Canada's loss yesterday and Germany's probable win over the USA,
everyone was talking that my trio was headed
to the gold medal game. The thinking was that wherever the
USA ended up, bronze or gold, we would be in the other
game and Sasha's trio would do the USA game. But of course it doesn't
matter what the 35 officials think, it's up to the
final 4 decision makers.
So the meeting was very tense and drawn out. The Aussies had already been
tipped that they were being cut, so they
had already started packing and were not stressed out. Before
the names were read out I looked at Sonia and she
appeared ok. She was staring at me, but I was not getting a bad feeling
or anything. The 6 referees names were read
out, and Virginia was the last one. Whew, that's a good sign. Then the
AR's names were read out, and I didn't hear
mine. It cannot be true, I am cut. I feel like I have just
been punched in the gut. Everyone turned and looked at me in
shock. I tried to put on a brave face, but I was in disbelief. Sonia
and Esse went to look at the sheet being read out by
Jose Maria, I don't know if they got caught off guard as well. The UEFA
girls asked that the names be read out again. I
sat with my head down and carefully listened. Unfortunately my name
was not there. I cannot believe it....it is one of the
biggest shocks of my life. I have been cut.
I was feeling so many emotions, especially disappointment and confusion.
What did I do wrong? All I ever received
was praise at training and on the pitch. I had 2 of the hardest games
of the tournament thus far and performed as was
expected of me. Why?.....I don't understand.
Everyone was still sitting in shock staring at me and I just wanted to
run away, but could not. Those that were staying
were asked to leave so the rest of us could be spoken to as a group. It
was very difficult to stay there. I could not look at
Sonia or Esse or I would breakdown. That added to my confusion...if they
knew why didn't they tip me off like others had
been so I wouldn't have been caught off guard, but if they didn't know,
what happened. So we got the goodbye speech
from Jose Maria, explaining that some of us are being sent home to work
on what we learned here and improve, while
a few of us are excellent and that's just the way it is, cuts have to
be made. The last part of the sentence was said
looking directly at me and I felt sick. I don't understand. We were told
that many of us, whether cut or not, are being
considered for the 2007 World Cup and that there will be a gathering of
officials in March for training. I will keep my
fingers crossed.
So I went to my room and started packing. Michelle and Jacqui accompanied
me to lunch where we met the rest of our
group. They were still in shock, it was very hard. Hege and I decided
that we were going to spend our last afternoon
together at the pool....big surprise! Our group of 10 joined us and we
stayed out there together till the sun set at
1730hrs. We then showered and changed and met for dinner. It was our last
meal all together, and even though
Michelle and Jacqui were still feeling ill, they went out with a bang
starting their dinner with dessert!
After dinner is was off shopping....I know another big surprise!! It
was a scheduled excursion to the night market so we
were taken there by bus. After a couple of hours shopping my group of
10 decided to party my last night in Bangkok. We
had Jab, our liaison officer, stay with us to keep us safe and we were
out until 0130hrs. What a fun and eventful night!
We then stayed up until after 0300hrs before finally saying our goodbyes.
Michelle, Jacqui and I get to sleep on the
plane on the way home, but the rest of them have to get up in
a few hours for training. I sure wish I could be there
to
see that! They said it was their way of protesting my leave.... what a
group!
So I got about an hour and a half of sleep, then was up at 0500hrs
to get to the airport. I had an eventful trip home as
my plane in Bangkok broke down, thankfully before we took off, delaying
my flight almost 2 hours. Thank goodness the
connecting flight in Hong Kong waited for me as I arrived 10 minutes late.
Then in Vancouver it was questionable if
I would have my luggage, but eventually it showed up and all was fine.
I finally arrived home at 1500hrs on Tuesday,
0500hrs on Wednesday Bangkok time. I have only had 3 hours sleep since
Monday, but that's ok, I am excited to be
back home to my family. I was one of the first ones off the plane and
had my husband and children waiting there for me.
What a beautiful sight!! My daughter came running and looked so happy...and
taller. My baby remembered me and was
smiling so much I thought he was going to explode. He came right to me
and gave me the biggest kiss, biting my lips
very hard. I think he wanted to show me how long I have been
gone...when I left he had only 2 teeth, he now has 6!! I am
home..........and boy is it cold here!
I would like to thank everyone for their interest and support, especially
the EDSRA for giving me this opportunity to share
my experience. I have to thank Dave O'Neill for making the diary possible,
for his time, and support. I was told before leaving that my performance
was excellent, both on and off the field, and that I represented Canada
and CONCACAF very well. I did my best and had an experience of a
lifetime. I got the chance to experience a beautiful culture, meet wonderful
people, and have many new friends. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity
I was given and will hold my chin up to
see what the future brings.