Prior to the tournament

Well after spending my weekend at Goodwood Motor Circuit for their 73rd Members Meeting, I travelled to the Marriott Hotel at Heathrow Airport to meet my colleagues that I would be travelling to Dallas with.

I arrived around 6.00pm with Shelby Elson a colleague of mine to check in and relax in our rooms before dinner at 7.30pm with the theme loud / bad shirts (mine was rather pink).

The fines started at dinner for those whose shirts weren’t bad enough, that was me paying a dollar fine then, as somebody said they had great fashion sense and would wear the bad shirt I had bought.

Dinner was had by all and I must say the dinner was lovely, we then all relaxed in the bar watching some football, before retreating to our rooms around 9.30pm, ready for the early start.

We all had to meet downstairs for 6.45pm for breakfast, all in our Dallas Cup tracksuits, looking the part; we ate breakfast before going back to our rooms to get changed into our FA suits ready for the 10 hour flight to Dallas Fort Worth at 9.45am.

Let’s just say I could tell it was a 10 hour flight, body went numb, watched most of the films available, but it gave us all great opportunity to talk and get to know each other a little more.

Games

Day 6 – Game Day 1
This was the start of the tournament, and we had our first games to referee.

We had to be at the Crowne Plaza hotel for 7am ready for a referee meeting where all of the tournament referees would meet and would get talking to one another again, the competition rules were also read through.

We then headed for the football fields at Richland where we would get down to business and show why we are the best referees in the world.

I only had the one appointment today so I went along to watch my roommate Andy Ellis referee his first game at 9.30am.

My game came around very quickly and I had been appointed to the 11.30am KO between Truro College U19’s from England and Dallas Texans U19’s who were a local side. I would be running the line to a FIFA referee from Jamaica, an American Assistant Referee and a Spanish FIFA Forth Official. The game was extremely feisty with lots of free kicks, five yellow cards and one straight red for Denying an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity.

After my game I headed to watch Farai Hallam run the line on pitch 3.

Today I had learnt that the most important thing as an assistant referee is to take your time, I sometimes rush my flags which doesn’t do the best for my flagging technique, so I learnt to slow down and relax – don’t rush!!

After our games we all headed to the Cotton Bowl stadium for the Dr Pepper Dallas Cup opening ceremony, we headed down to the field of play to wave to the crowd and soak in the atmosphere.

Great to get the refereeing underway.

Day 7 – Game Day 2
A very busy day for me, a nice healthy breakfast of yoghurt and fruit ready for my first appointment as 4th Official at 10am, a game between Coerver Coaching (Singapore) Excellence Squad vs Crossfire Oregon 97 Green a very skilful but physical game.

My second game of the day I was the referee, an U17 Super Group game between Maebashi Ikuei High School from Japan and Arsenal Twinstars from America, this game was very difficult to communicate but I tried my best with using the non-verbal communication skills I had learnt the week previous, I was lucky enough to have four people coaching me at the game, Barry Gee, John Farries, David Allison (Football League Referee Manager) and Howard Webb. The game taught me to take my time with positioning, to stay on my toes but when needed let the players play around you, I needed to find my own space and work from there.

The games today were very skilful, quick and physical but a brilliant day’s football and a lot learnt.

In the evening we relaxed at home with our families, the Raine family with Farai Hallam and Keith Stroud joined us where we indulged in some grilled chicken and pizza.

Day 8 – Game Day 3
Quiet day refereeing wise for me with just the one Assistant Referee appointment to par take in the referee was a Japanese J League official called Genki Tawara the two teams were both from America, West Coast Kirsche v TSF Academy, I saw how the referee, officiated the game very differently to what I had back in England.

After the days games, refereeing myself and supporting my colleagues who also were refereeing, Andy and I headed to our homestays parents’ house for a lovely steak my favourite, was lovely to meet Laura’s parents and we found another golf fan in Roger, Laura’s Dad.

After dinner we headed to the Dallas Cup HQ for the Dallas Cup Referee Party, the theme being Margarita night, so I buttoned up my Hawaiian shirt, grass skirt and silly sunglasses. A great laugh at the party, hearing some karaoke that burnt the ears!

Two appointments for me tomorrow, an Assistant Referee appointment and a Refereeing appointment.

Day 9 – Game Day 4
It was much cooler in Dallas after some rain overnight; I had two games lined up for today, an assistant referee appointment at 12.00pm and a refereeing appointment at 4.00pm.

My games were both U15, fast paced and physical games. I practiced my positioning and staying behind the game line as well as working on my communication to show my presence when needed.

At half time during my game as referee the lightning detection alarm went off, this is when lightning has hit in the vicinity and we have to clear the fields until three blasts of the alarm sound. We saw lightning in the distance and heard very loud thunder.

The storm didn’t hit our area in the end and we were free to carry on our games after another short 10 minute warm up.

After the games we went home to freshen up before eating out with my homestay family and the Raines at a lovely Italian restaurant not too far away from home.

Day 10 – Game Day 5
Today was the Quarter Finals of the younger age groups at the Dallas Cup the U13’s and U14’s. Most of the FA referees had picked up games today, including me. I personally had a referee appointment for the U13’s between San Diego Surf and Cedar Stars Academy.

We turned up at the Money Gram Soccer Park to just realise what a hot day it was around 35C, safe to say we were going to cook.

A very good game, good football played, physical but the game had a very high tempo to it. Just the one caution for a reckless challenge during the game but lots of vocal management was needed. I was coached during this game by John Farries and Steve Dunn.

Steve picked out that I need to improve my running style to make it look like I’m working hard when I actually am, my arms are very stiff when I run which makes me look relaxed and like I’m not trying.

My game finished 2 – 1 with the winning goal in the last minute of the game.

After all of the games today we had the chance to relax at the Crowne Plaza hotel at the Dallas Cup Casino Night; our tickets gained us $2000 of chips, safe to say three quarters of mine went on playing Blackjack and losing.

You would earn chips when you win or lose them in my case and swap these for raffle tickets to win prizes, the prizes included a Taylor Made golf bag filled with golf clubs, a few signed shirts, a Champions League football and a cool box full of wine etc.

A very entertaining evening one refereeing appointment tomorrow an U19 Super Group Assistant Refereeing appointment.

Day 11 – Game Day 6
Today was a very relaxed day where I only had the one game which was between a Japanese team and Lewisham College (Charlton Athletic Academy), the game again was very skilful with the Japanese team winning 5-0. My last game of the tournament so one to enjoy and now time for a well-earned rest.

Day 13
Today I went to the Toyota Stadium to watch 4 of my colleagues from England officiate the U14 cup final:-

Referee – Jack Nield
Assistant Referee 1 – Lisa Benn
Assistant Referee 2 – Andy Ellis
Forth Official – Shelby Elson

One final word for Andy Ellis, I have home stayed with Andy, and I can say I came here as a colleague of Andy, but I will return home with him as a close friend. He is a great lad, and I will be keeping in touch with him when I’m back at home. Congratulations to Andy for getting a cup final appointment.

Training

Day Two – 1st Days Training
Well jet lag had really kicked in today; Andy and I woke up at 3am, fresh as a daisy… a very strange feeling.

I decided to get up and relax for a while in the house, had some fruit and yoghurt for breakfast before 6.45am arrived ready for training.

We were training at a school complex called Lake Highland’s; this was 5 minutes down the road from our homestay house. We were greeted by a 400m running track and the rest of our colleagues.

We did a light warm up before covering some technical training which was based on Assistant Referee techniques, the session was run by two of the coaches, Andy Hall from Birmingham and John Farries from Oxford. I learnt from this session just how much time you actually have to signal and that it’s really important to not look rushed and under pressure.

We then got onto the fitness session run by the PGMOL referees, today was the turn of Rob Jones (Jonesy) a Conference Premier referee, we took part in the same test that the Select Group referees would do for their fitness test, an interval training session which you will run 150 yards in 30 seconds and then walk 30 yards in 30 seconds, we completed a total of 7 laps as a group. Hard work, but it’s all worth it in the end.

Day Three
Up again at 6.00am ready for a 7.00am training session where we would again have a technical session followed by a fitness session.

The technical session covered the management of a corner kick which was run by Barry Gee; we were working on the positioning and communication that we would need whilst out in the USA. We learnt how key verbal and non-verbal communication is during this session. I want to improve my communication so this was of real benefit to me.

We then went for a warm up and an endurance session run by Peter Bankes a Football League referee. The session was set up over a full football field of play and was set to include:-
• 2 – 15 yard walks
• 2 – 15 yard jogs
• 2 – 15 yard ¾ pace runs
• 2 – 15 yard sprints
The session also included two full pitch length, ¾ pace runs.

Very hard work and definitely got the heart rate up, you know that you have had a good work out at the end.

Day 4
Well today we were training with 5 referees from Australia that were also refereeing at the Dallas Cup; we were covering the management of attacking free kicks which was tutored by George McCaffery.

Again this showed the importance of taking your time and having good verbal and non-verbal communication.

After the session we went into a warm up and then took part in a speed and agility session run by Lee Swaybey, a Conference Premier referee. Sprinting is a massive part in any referees game so it’s important to practice, especially with the fast technical football that we will be refereeing at this tournament. We also practiced keeping our heads up whilst training to improve awareness on the field of play.

Another great session runs by the PGMOL lads.

Training evening with Steve Dunn.

We all headed to the Tolers mansion where we would have an informal training evening conducted by Steve Dunn.

We started the evening in our coaching groups, 3 academy referees, 1 PGMOL referee and a coach. We discussed what areas of our game we wanted to improve whilst out at the tournament. As a group we came up with pretty much the same areas, the areas that I personally wanted to improve on were verbal and non-verbal communication and communicating advantage.

We then had dinner which was extremely tasty fried chicken and fries. With a homemade chocolate brownie.

We then mixed up the coaching groups for Farai Hallam to head a quiz, a football quiz which had general football questions, name the ground and name the player, a very fun but competitive quiz we came joint second overall so a dollar fine for each of us to go into the pot.

After the quiz we gathered round the billiard table where Steve Dunn would cover some areas that we had spoken about previously from our games in England, we covered positioning at set plays first. Steve used poker chips to donate the players, the ball and the referee. This was so not only could we speak about the subject; Steve could show us physically what he wanted us to try in our games.

We next covered staying behind the game line and gaining and angle and spoke about whether we need to penetrate the penalty area or not.

Thanks to Steve Dunn for a great coaching session.

Day 5
This session was down as a light recovery session; we completed five laps of the running track at just under fitness test pace and then stretched before a fun game of hand ball.

A fun but beneficial session.

Dallas Cup

I started reading about the Dallas Cup as soon as I received the invite to apply, to read about some of the players that had taken part in previous years, really does open your eyes.

The huge scale of the tournament was evident when I arrived; the amount of young players, referees and staff in and around the Crowne Plaza Hotel was surprising to most of us.

The quality of the players that are taken to play at the tournament, there was certainly plenty of talent there, star players of the future for sure.

The Dallas Cup staff, managed by Andy Swift, work so hard to make the tournament better and better every year, I looked on social media two days after I returned home to see that the dates for next year

My thanks to the Dallas Cup staff for all their help and support during the tournament, they put on a great two weeks that was full of fantastic football and good fun.

Tourism

JFK Museum
This was a really historic and interesting trip to the JFK 6th Floor Museum, lots of conspiracy theories but great to learn about the USA and Dallas history and how things transpired.

We had an audio guide as we were taken through the different steps of the history of JF Kennedy, the whole tour takes around 1hr 30mins and it really does open your eyes and teach you.

We then headed outside to the area where JFK was shot, there is an “x marks the spot”, my colleagues and I had pictures taken on the X and also with the 7 floor building where the shot came from in the background.

A great trip out which opened my eyes for sure.

Dallas Cowboys Stadium Tour
As we drove towards the stadium it was clear to see the huge scale of the structure.

We arrived and headed inside for a VIP tour of the ground; as soon as we walked in we saw the sheer size of the place, a massive indoor HD TV screen in the centre of the ground, hanging above the field. This place was much bigger than Wembley and had a fully re-tractable roof. After learning how the stadium is the biggest in the NFL, but also boasts other world records we moved into the owners room, this is where he watches his games from with his two sons, in the stadium he has included his own TV network with around 12 cameras, these are for home team benefit so that he can challenge decisions made in the game without moving from his office.

We also saw the 5* nature of the whole stadium, when we saw just the convince area, where you would buy burgers and drinks during a fixture. The sheer amount of TV screens was amazing, there are more than 3000 Sony flat screen HD TV’s in the stadium, and this owner clearly loves technology.

We also viewed the dressing rooms of the cheerleaders and the home team, the Dallas Cowboys. The changing room was massive and was most definitely an eye opener.

Must say the trip was worth its salt, a great day out.

The Stewpot – Homeless Shelter and SMC Junior School
After training we headed to The Stewpot which is a homeless shelter. We fed and watered approximately 700 people in 45 minutes, some of us plated the food, some of us walked around the room filling up the water glasses and the rest cleared away. Some of the stories I had heard from the homeless people during the trip were extremely sad and upsetting but very inspirational. We witnessed people who had everything to now having nothing; it really does make you appreciate life.

After The Stewpot we headed to the SMC Junior School to meet a class of young students who had prepared some 10 questions for us, some of the questions were football specific and some were “what is your favourite food”, another great experience to have and seeing so many young children smiling was brilliant. We then headed outside for some pictures and to sign some autographs (yes autographs, none of us expected that) and to take some selfies. Such a brilliant opportunity to inspire some young children to get into football and more importantly refereeing.

A great day where we have made the days of around 1000 people in the space of 4 hours.

Fort Worth Stock Yards
After our recovery session we travelled to a place called Fort Worth which is a very historical place in Texas, the traditional Texas would be a good way of describing it.

As we drove into Fort Worth it was like we had entered a different country, everybody walking around in cowboy hats, steakhouse after steakhouse continuing down the street.

We had come here to have a tour of the Stockyards where all of the cattle was kept in the olden days, we viewed all of the old barns, pens and buildings around Fort Worth, a lot of the old pens are now used for shopping areas.

We then headed outside to watch the cattle run, which is when the cowboys take their bulls down the centre of the street, this really wouldn’t happen in England, I was stood 2 yards from a bull with massive horns with no fence or protection…. Madness.

We then went to find a bite to eat; steak was on the menu believe it or not, it was one of the best steaks I had ever eaten, so tasty and full of flavour.

After dinner we went to watch something so surreal and something that I would never see again, a rodeo night, people trying to stay on a bucking bull, people roping a calf around the neck and tying its legs whilst galloping on a horse – this was all timed, the children as young as 3 even went down to try and catch a ram with some duct tape on its back.

A very long day but it was another good one, very surreal and it opened my eyes but something I’m glad I have experienced.

Homestay

Day One
We arrived in Dallas at 3.20pm to be welcomed by George McCaffery the co-ordinator from England and a couple of home stay families, including the infamous Toby and Carol Toler. I was then driven to the home stay family where Andy Ellis and I would be staying for two weeks.

Andy and I were allocated the family home of Trey and Laura Norris. Laura and her daughter Laney welcomed us with open arms whilst also inviting, Farai and his home stay family over for a roast that evening. Trey would be arriving back on Thursday after being in Florida on business.

The Raines family and Farai arrived around 7.00pm ready for dinner, now there if there was one meal I was looking forward to most it would be a roast!! I must say this really showed me how good Laura’s cooking was, everybody’s plate was empty. Conversation had started and it soon moved onto American and Cockney lingo, and how different some words are in America to what they are in England, safe to say the banter and laughs were well under way.

A great day had by all, more tomorrow, up at 6am ready for some physical training.

Homestay BBQ
After the JFK Museum we all went home to relax before heading to Debbie and George Kondrach’s home for a BBQ evening, where we would get the chance to meet all of the other home stay parents.

They had made a lovely meal for everybody, some beef and garlic mash potato with salad and bread, melt in the mouth food once again.

We were then all tasked to stand up in front of everybody to firstly introduce ourselves and tell everybody one interesting fact about ourselves.

After this we all stayed and indulged in a few drinks to relax and we talked football, another great evening had by all, with a much needed chilled evening after the jetlag.

Relaxing with families
We found out that our home stay family were friends with some of the other families that had my colleagues staying with them, so they had organised for us all to head out for some Tex-Mex food.

Lisa Benn and Josh Few were joining us with their homestay family Carol and Scott Doggett, Farai Hallam came with Nancy and Scott Raine and their daughter Emma, whilst Andy Ellis and myself attended with Laura and Laney Norris, Trey was still away on business (Andy and me didn’t believe that he existed, now a long standing joke).

We all headed out first of all to play some crazy golf, which was a great laugh but ever so competitive! We split into two groups to make sure we finished the course in time, at the game that I was taking part In, Farai led for a few holes before he became over confident and Scott Doggett eventually won the tournament. Whilst my roommate Andy Ellis won the other tournament (he is golf professional however).

After a brilliant time at Top Golf we drove five minutes down the road to the Tex-Mex restaurant, well it’s safe to say I sweat with a mild curry so tonight was going to be a challenge. I chose Enchiladas from the menu and soon started to perspire, good job the iced cold drink saved my blushes.

Another great evening and nice to get to know some of the other families and fellow referees even more, we have all become so close already and will be friends for life.

Rest Day
We headed to Richland Fields where we are refereeing most of our games, we got chance to familiarise ourselves with the venue and then we split off into groups to get used to using the communications kit, splitting into groups to talk about what the expectations are on the communications kit should we use it.

We then headed out to our families to go shopping for the day; we visited a local outlet store and ended up spending more money on trainers and clothes.

In the evening we headed to the Dallas Cup HQ at the Crowne Plaza hotel, we registered that we were at the tournament and collected all of our passes and the passes for our homestay parents.

We then had half an hour to ourselves with Howard Webb who had flown out as a V.I.P of the tournament. He answered any questions that we had for him and gave us an inspirational speech, we then headed downstairs for the FIFA reception where we mingled and networked with other referees at the tournament from all over the world.

We then enjoyed a lovely meal and socialised before heading home for our first games of the tournament, an early start.

Day 12
A whole day off today to relax with families and do a spot of shopping, I headed to get my fiancée, Lianna,  a present and all in all a nice day to just and enjoy the time with my colleagues.

Day 14
Saturday morning I had the privilege of a lie-in until 9.30am.

I was picked up at 11am to be taken to FC Dallas ground - The Toyota Stadium to watch Jack Nield and colleagues referee the U14s cup final. Upon arrival at the ground, I was nothing short of impressed at the 22,000 seater facility.

We then returned to our houses, where we got showered and changed ready for our big family meal. The family meal was a gathering of all the homestay families, referees and coaches. The meal is paid for by the referees as a thank-you for the kindness and generosity our homestays have showed us over the last 2 weeks.

Our meal took place at the Texas Life and Cattle restaurant, where each of us had a gorgeous smoked sirloin steak.

After the food, each of us gave a speech in front of the group about our homestays and how great they have been. I can’t thank Laura, Trey, Laney, Grant and Sadie (the dog) enough for allowing me to stay with them for 2 weeks. They are absolutely amazing people who I will forever look up to; they simply can’t do enough for you. I will be keeping in touch with them all, and they are always welcome back at mine in the UK!

We all then passed over our presents to our homestays, and I gave Laura and family a Yeovil v Manchester United FA Cup football shirt, a Somerset FA Polo Shirt, a FA Dallas Cup Referee polo shirt, a Yellow Nike referee’s shirt that we had out there, a Somerset Tea Towel and a home ornament.

After the presentations, a few of us referees and coaches went out for a drink to celebrate an amazing 2 weeks.

Day 15

Peters Final - the final day of Dallas Cup 2015.

A fairly early pick up tine of 9.15am to go watch Peter Bankes referee the U17s final at the Toyota Stadium. Congratulations to Peter on a great appointment.

Now Peters game was very different to Jacks the day before, as he sent off 2 players and cautioned a handful! To be fair to him, he was left with no option but to do so, and again did the FA proud...

From this game, we returned to our homestay, where the rest of the group were invited round to have Easter Dinner. You could clearly see today how much the group has jelled over these 2 weeks, and how we have all learnt so much and become great friends in the process.

After the meal, we all went back to the Toyota stadium to watch the final game of Dallas Cup 2015 - the Gordon Jago Supergroup 19s game between Monterrey (Mexico) and Cortiba (Brazil). We all met Gordon Jago last week, and he was a true inspiration to us all. Unfortunately Gordon lost his wife recently, and has set up a charity in her name to help support the Dallas Police Department as this was her area of work. Throughout the 2 weeks, we have used a "fine system “when people have made silly comments / wore bad clothes etc. ... a bit of light hearted fun. The money raised from fines for the group was $400, and we have given $250 of that to Gordon’s charity. Gordon was very appreciative of this.

After the game I headed to play a round of golf with Laura’s Dad, Roger and Andy Ellis, so relaxing and nice to get to know Roger a little more.

That marked the official end of the Dallas Cup 2015.

We returned to our homestays, and packed ready for our flight at 8pm the following day.

Day 16
Well packing proved a nightmare, having to sit on my case to actually get it near to closing, but somehow it still went under the limit.

We all went out for a final lunch together before departing Dallas; I left the house this morning to Laney the daughter of our homestay family crying as we were leaving, we were all very upset; after all we had gelled over the past two weeks.

Laney had football practice and had been at school all day, we all decided to go to her football practice to surprise her in front of her team mates, we all turned up chanting “Go Wildcats”, safe to safe Laney was blushing.

We then had to go to the airport to catch our flight, thank you Dallas you’ve been great.

Summary

What a great tournament, one that I am proud to of been a part of.
The two weeks as a whole have proved so beneficial to not only my refereeing career but my life; I have gained friends for life from all over the world.
I can also say that I am proud to have been invited on the tournament and I will take every little thing that I have learnt into my own refereeing games back in England to one day push on and get that promotion to Level 3.
For anybody who gets invited to apply to attend and referee at the Dallas Cup, don’t miss out!! You will love the experience and you will come back a much improved referee.

Acknowledgements

Martin Cassidy and Richard Melinn:-

Thank you for all the help and support you have shown me so far in my career, from when I started refereeing as a 14 year old to now 10 years down the line getting invited to referee for The FA at an international tournament.

I owe you both a lot.

Laura, Trey, Laney, Grant and Sadie Norris:-

You are all amazing people, we said so many times “I can’t believe how accommodating you are” and I mean that you really are, you are now friends for life and I loved every minute of being in your company. A few words don’t do the thank you justice. I can’t wait to see you all again and your welcome in England to stay whenever you like.

Other homestay families:-

It was great to meet you all, you really did make us feel welcome from the word go, your all amazing people and I can’t thank you all enough. I hope I get to meet you all again one day, maybe we could have an English reunion.

The FA and PGMOL:-

Thank you for selecting me for the tournament, I have learnt so much and it has really improved me as a referee and as a man. It has grown me, I’m much more confident on the field of play now and I know over time this trip will benefit me to push on and get promotion. Thank you once again.

FA Referees:-

Thank you for letting me share such an experience with you all, you all deserved to be out there. We started as colleagues, just referees we met at a tournament, but now I seriously class you as a friend, one that I will always talk to, support and look out for. I again can’t thank you enough for the laughs, jokes and typical banter every day!! You are all amazing and I can’t wait to all meet up again soon. Thank you.

PGMOL Referees:-

I learnt so much from you, about the skills of refereeing higher up, about how to carry myself off the field, you improved my confidence completely, and I again class you all as friends!!
I wish you the best in the future and I look forward to seeing you in the future both in a refereeing aspect and as a friend. Thank you.

Coaches:-

Same as above, you taught me so much, built my confidence, gave me new things in my game to improve. You taught me how to carry myself better off the field; you made my experience the best it possibly could have been. Thank you.

John Farries:-

Thanks for the laughs John, where’s your hair gone?

George McCaffery:-

George, I’ve got to say a massive thank you for firstly organising the Dallas Cup all those years ago as it’s now given me the opportunity to visit the tournament myself and to learn and experience everything that I’ve heard the Dallas Cup is.

I sat in the Young Referees Conference 3 years ago as a Level 5 referee listening to Will Finnie talk about his Dallas Cup experience, I sat there and wanted to go to the tournament so bad and now I can say I’ve been.

You have given the Dallas Cup everything and you deserve everything you receive from the time you have put in.

Thank you for organising the trip George it’s been great.