Tuesday I got a very nice game as an assistant referee during a match of the Dutch u15 National Team against Sparta Rotterdam. A friend of mine was referee during this friendly and he asked me to be one of his assistants. It’s was also nice to have my first game in a football stadium. It’s just the idea, in the end it was a game like any other. One to be focused on and try be as sharp as possible when making your calls.

The most important lesson I learned was to stay focused to the second-last opponent all the time. I’m used to do that, but still made an error in a strange situation. When there was a defender injured 20 metres from his own goal and play moved on towards the other goal, I apparently followed the third-last defender. Apparently I forgot that the injured player was still active in play as he was still on the pitch. Luckily the ball got out before I had to make an offside call while following that third-last defender.

Thanks to the ref’s dad I have some photo’s to show you from that match on my blog. Two photo’s of the Sparta stadium called “Het Kasteel” (literally: The Castle) and two from the refereeing team.