Is there just no stopping this man? posted 19/8/2004
This is the biggest Tournament of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and was held at the National Sports Centre, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA between 16th & 24th July 2004.
Two tournaments are held there, the first being for for boys and girls from ages 12 - 19 years plus an adult tournament held over the weekend.
The 12 - 19 years tournament is played in World Cup style sections throughout the week culminating in the individual Group Finals on the last day. A total of six hundred teams from 19 different countries attended, this being the 20th Anniversary of the Tournament.
One hundred and eighty referees took part in the games with Donald flying the flag for Lanarkshire. Six other Scottish referees from our sister associations also took part.
He had the pleasure of sharing a hotel room for the duration of the tournament with top Polish FIFA referee Krzysztof Slupik - who is he I hear you ask? Well, none other than the man who recently took charge of the Inter Toto Cup match 2nd Leg involving Hibernian in Lithuania.
The tournament's opening ceremony was conducted in the NSC Arena in front of 22,000 spectators. All participating teams were introduced to the crowd Olympic style. The complex itself is listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the largest of its kind in the world having 58 full size soccer pitches, 4 Ice rinks and an 18 hole golf course.
Over the ten days of the tournament, Donnie officiated in 19 games both as referee and assistant referee. He was appointed to two finals, under-17 & under-U14 boys. Donnie's assistants for the under 17 final (photograph above) were both from USA and the 4th Official was English.
A major highlight (as if officiating at this tournament was not enough in itself), Donnie also refereed the boys under-19 semi-final in the National Arena between New York and Costa Rica. The match kicked off at 0930 and the temperature at that time was 95 degrees/f with humidity factor of 90%. The game itself was split into 15 minute sections to allow water breaks for the players. The organising committee insisted the match officials took on board a minimum of 2 pints of water before commencing the game. Donnie compared it to refereeing inside a shower room. He lost an incredible 4 lbs in body weight during the game due to dehydration. Later that evening the USA Women's Olympic team played Australia in a final warm up game for the Olympics in Athens on the very same pitch.
"A fabulous experience"
The 2005 USA Cup web site can be found at www.usacup.org. If anyone is interested in finding out more about this wonderful tournament, full details are on the site.