The Medal Round-Super Final
With Friday’s win against Australia we guaranteed ourselves two good games and two chances to win a medal. This is where we want to finish all tournaments - in the hunt for a medal. We find ourselves in the final four with three teams all from former Yugoslavia. It is pretty amazing that there are so many great players coming out of this area. Wow. We need to make sure that we break this final four up some.
Saturday we matched up with Montenegro in the semi-finals. The game did not start out well and we quickly found ourselves behind 3 – 0. We fought back hard and midway through the second period we were down 3 – 2. Unfortunately, we gave up two unanswered goals again and we went down 5 – 2. This was a lead that we never really overcame. We once again seemed out of sync and not really firing on all pistons. Our 6 on 5 looked rusty as we scored only 2 out of 8. I would have to say that Montenegro looked like they were in peak form. They were well conditioned and played well together as a team. What was amazing to me is that as well as Montenegro played and as poorly as we played with two minutes to go in the game we scored a goal to cut the lead 9 – 7. We were very much right in the game. We were unable to score again and Montenegro finished with a goal from center to make the final 10 – 7. It was a fun environment. 4,000 rowdy fans all screaming for their home team. Actually, it was a great opportunity to play in front of this kind of crowd. When we go to Rome next month, our first game will be against Italy in front of 5,000 Italian fans.
In the other semi-final Croatia beat Serbia 7 – 5 in a hard fought battle. This set up the gold medal match with Montenegro playing Croatia and the bronze medal game with us getting a rematch against Serbia.
In our pre-game meeting for Serbia, I reminded the team about some of our principles that we lived by last year. One was a commitment to each other. This meant sacrificing part of ourselves for the good of the team. We certainly want to utilize each of our player’s personal strength. However, we have to match this with the role we are asking them to play on this team. We also spoke about playing defense with more energy and awareness – especially since we have only been back together for a few weeks. Our goal was to make every series on defense count. We can’t afford to give up cheap or easy goals against a team like this. A low scoring game would favor us. We needed to control the tempo of the game for four quarters.
At the pool for warm up, I liked what I saw in our player’s eyes. They looked confident and hungry. As the game progressed we seemed to be in control. We either led or were tied for the majority of the game. Our defense was playing very well and we were not giving the Serbs anything in their front court offense. We did have some miscues on our offensive end that cost us as we gave up four counter attack goals. We set the tempo and kept the Serbs off balance. However, when it came down to it we could not score the critical 6 on 5 or penalty shot in the fourth quarter and Serbia pulled ahead at the end with two late goals to win 9 – 7.
Even though the score did not come out in our favor, I liked what I saw with our team in this game. We played under control and there was definitely a resemblance to the way we played in Beijing. Merrill played great in the cage, recording 15 saves and the defense did a pretty good job of funneling the ball to him. The game was a good step in the right direction. The past two weeks have been good. We have played five games with Serbia, played Montenegro, Italy and Australia. We have also had some good training. Now it is time to head back home and prepare for the World Championships. We have about 17 days of training at home. Not much time but I believe that it will be enough. It will be nice to be on our own and focus on our tactics, fundamentals and conditioning. We need to keep everyone healthy while challenging each one of the guys to work hard and push themselves to their limit.
We will once again be training at Cal Lutheran University in the mornings from 9 – 12:30 and at Oaks Christian HS in the evenings from 7 – 9:30 pm. Practices are open, so feel free to come by and say hello. The team is really looking forward to getting back to the Thousand Oaks community. Many of the guys are returning to their host families. They all appreciate the support they received last year from our community and look forward to seeing many of the familiar faces again.
Here we go again – the final push towards our goal. We are aiming for that gold medal at World Championships. It will be intense, exciting and somewhat exhausting all at the same time. Thanks for sharing it with us. Going for the gold.
See you at the pool.
Coach
Saturday we matched up with Montenegro in the semi-finals. The game did not start out well and we quickly found ourselves behind 3 – 0. We fought back hard and midway through the second period we were down 3 – 2. Unfortunately, we gave up two unanswered goals again and we went down 5 – 2. This was a lead that we never really overcame. We once again seemed out of sync and not really firing on all pistons. Our 6 on 5 looked rusty as we scored only 2 out of 8. I would have to say that Montenegro looked like they were in peak form. They were well conditioned and played well together as a team. What was amazing to me is that as well as Montenegro played and as poorly as we played with two minutes to go in the game we scored a goal to cut the lead 9 – 7. We were very much right in the game. We were unable to score again and Montenegro finished with a goal from center to make the final 10 – 7. It was a fun environment. 4,000 rowdy fans all screaming for their home team. Actually, it was a great opportunity to play in front of this kind of crowd. When we go to Rome next month, our first game will be against Italy in front of 5,000 Italian fans.
In the other semi-final Croatia beat Serbia 7 – 5 in a hard fought battle. This set up the gold medal match with Montenegro playing Croatia and the bronze medal game with us getting a rematch against Serbia.
In our pre-game meeting for Serbia, I reminded the team about some of our principles that we lived by last year. One was a commitment to each other. This meant sacrificing part of ourselves for the good of the team. We certainly want to utilize each of our player’s personal strength. However, we have to match this with the role we are asking them to play on this team. We also spoke about playing defense with more energy and awareness – especially since we have only been back together for a few weeks. Our goal was to make every series on defense count. We can’t afford to give up cheap or easy goals against a team like this. A low scoring game would favor us. We needed to control the tempo of the game for four quarters.
At the pool for warm up, I liked what I saw in our player’s eyes. They looked confident and hungry. As the game progressed we seemed to be in control. We either led or were tied for the majority of the game. Our defense was playing very well and we were not giving the Serbs anything in their front court offense. We did have some miscues on our offensive end that cost us as we gave up four counter attack goals. We set the tempo and kept the Serbs off balance. However, when it came down to it we could not score the critical 6 on 5 or penalty shot in the fourth quarter and Serbia pulled ahead at the end with two late goals to win 9 – 7.
Even though the score did not come out in our favor, I liked what I saw with our team in this game. We played under control and there was definitely a resemblance to the way we played in Beijing. Merrill played great in the cage, recording 15 saves and the defense did a pretty good job of funneling the ball to him. The game was a good step in the right direction. The past two weeks have been good. We have played five games with Serbia, played Montenegro, Italy and Australia. We have also had some good training. Now it is time to head back home and prepare for the World Championships. We have about 17 days of training at home. Not much time but I believe that it will be enough. It will be nice to be on our own and focus on our tactics, fundamentals and conditioning. We need to keep everyone healthy while challenging each one of the guys to work hard and push themselves to their limit.
We will once again be training at Cal Lutheran University in the mornings from 9 – 12:30 and at Oaks Christian HS in the evenings from 7 – 9:30 pm. Practices are open, so feel free to come by and say hello. The team is really looking forward to getting back to the Thousand Oaks community. Many of the guys are returning to their host families. They all appreciate the support they received last year from our community and look forward to seeing many of the familiar faces again.
Here we go again – the final push towards our goal. We are aiming for that gold medal at World Championships. It will be intense, exciting and somewhat exhausting all at the same time. Thanks for sharing it with us. Going for the gold.
See you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
8:29 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home