Development Isn't Just for the Kids

While the thousands of kids in Greensboro this weekend are here to develop their skills, get better and move up the ladder...they're not the only ones. Around 100 referees are on hand here at the Showcase and, besides officiating games, a big part of the weekend for them is learning how to develop their skills, get better and move up the ladder...ah, the synergy, isn't it great.

Every referee here will be "scouted" by a referee assessor, who will provide him or her with feedback on how they did during the game. It will not help them with their eyes...joking! Seriously, these guys and gals are working their tails off every day here on the field in the scorching heat, while also meeting with U.S. Soccer referee officials to go over what they did good and bad.

Two of U.S. Soccer's full-time referees - Ricardo Salazar and Terry Vaughn - are here to do both as they will officiate a handful of games (gotta keep sharp!), but also try and hand down some of their wisdom for the younger referees.

Considering that Salazar and Vaughn are here, we decided to switch up this week's "Referee Week in Review."

What's that?

You...

...haven't heard about the "Referee Week in Review??"

C'mon people, get with it. We've been doing it for 12 weeks...well, now 13.

Usually, we're talking to the top U.S. Soccer officials - Paul Tamberino, Brian Hall or Alfred Kleinaitis (they actually happen to be here, too, but we figured we'd get some youth into the weekly podcast...those guys are old...we're sure they'll really enjoy we wrote that).

Anyway, the "Week in Review" breaks down how the officials did during their Major League Soccer games, providing the good, the bad and the ugly (not much ugly to tell the truth).

For this week's podcast we flipped it on 'em. That's right, instead of Paul, Brian and Alfred talking about how the referees officiated, we corralled Ricardo and Terry to give us insight into how they think the "Week in Review" helps them.

http://podcast.ussoccer.com/06-28-08Week13.mp3

Enjoy...