The heat is on....
6/23/11
Yesterday we faced off with China in the preliminary round of the WL Super Final. China is definitely not one of the stronger teams in the world. We handled them pretty easy with a 13 - 6 win. The toughest part of the game was standing/sitting on the pool deck for a 4 pm game. The temperature was in the 90’s and I am sure the pool deck was hotter than that. I wish I could say that I have been working on my tan but I am afraid that I am just becoming more and more of a lobster. Cooking in the sun.
Today we faced Serbia in a 5:30 pm game. I think the temps were a little cooler but the angle of the sun made it difficult to withstand. It was like staring into a heat lamp for an hour. I was cooking... The team played with more energy than we played with against Italy and in many areas of the game we were vastly improved. Unfortunately, in one area we were terrible - that was our 6 on 5. We actually played well enough to earn 15 exclusions - which is really a high number. The sad part was that we only scored 3 out of 15 opportunities. That is a 20% conversion rate. Which on any level is very poor. If I had to give us a grade I would say that we played overall at a B+ level but our 6 on 5 was a D -. Not good at all. Almost embarrassing. Perhaps that is why I was sweating so badly. The sun was brutal no doubt but what was happening in the pool was not good. We ended up loosing the game 11 - 5. Serbia is the best team in the world right now and they looked very strong.
Just to give you an idea. At the Olympic Games in Beijing we scored about 55% of our 6 on 5 opportunities. If we scored this same percentage in this game, we would have had five more goals and the score would have been 11 - 10 and then who know what would have happened.
In my opinion, which is based on years of playing and coaching the 6 on 5 is one area where it takes time to play together and be successful. It is truly a measure of how your team is doing as a team. It takes good chemistry to make it all work and right now we have a bunch of individuals trying to find their place on the team. Am I worried? Maybe a little because of the some of the guys overall fitness level. However, this is a team that believes that we can beat anyone. They are realistic and know that we have a lot of work to do to get where we want to be and in my opinion, they are willing to do that work over the next 13 months.
The nice part about the way this tournament is set up is that the preliminary round (the first three games) are only for seeding into the quarter finals. So tomorrow we begin a brand new tournament. We will play Monte Negro at 4 pm with the winner going to the semi finals to face Croatia. Hopefully, we can get our guys to be ready tomorrow.
I am excited. This trip has gone fast. Just a three day tournament left to play. Anyone, can still win the tournament. Most would consider us a long shot but you never know. We will see what our guys have in the tank.
More heat tomorrow...
See you at the pool.
Coach
Yesterday we faced off with China in the preliminary round of the WL Super Final. China is definitely not one of the stronger teams in the world. We handled them pretty easy with a 13 - 6 win. The toughest part of the game was standing/sitting on the pool deck for a 4 pm game. The temperature was in the 90’s and I am sure the pool deck was hotter than that. I wish I could say that I have been working on my tan but I am afraid that I am just becoming more and more of a lobster. Cooking in the sun.
Today we faced Serbia in a 5:30 pm game. I think the temps were a little cooler but the angle of the sun made it difficult to withstand. It was like staring into a heat lamp for an hour. I was cooking... The team played with more energy than we played with against Italy and in many areas of the game we were vastly improved. Unfortunately, in one area we were terrible - that was our 6 on 5. We actually played well enough to earn 15 exclusions - which is really a high number. The sad part was that we only scored 3 out of 15 opportunities. That is a 20% conversion rate. Which on any level is very poor. If I had to give us a grade I would say that we played overall at a B+ level but our 6 on 5 was a D -. Not good at all. Almost embarrassing. Perhaps that is why I was sweating so badly. The sun was brutal no doubt but what was happening in the pool was not good. We ended up loosing the game 11 - 5. Serbia is the best team in the world right now and they looked very strong.
Just to give you an idea. At the Olympic Games in Beijing we scored about 55% of our 6 on 5 opportunities. If we scored this same percentage in this game, we would have had five more goals and the score would have been 11 - 10 and then who know what would have happened.
In my opinion, which is based on years of playing and coaching the 6 on 5 is one area where it takes time to play together and be successful. It is truly a measure of how your team is doing as a team. It takes good chemistry to make it all work and right now we have a bunch of individuals trying to find their place on the team. Am I worried? Maybe a little because of the some of the guys overall fitness level. However, this is a team that believes that we can beat anyone. They are realistic and know that we have a lot of work to do to get where we want to be and in my opinion, they are willing to do that work over the next 13 months.
The nice part about the way this tournament is set up is that the preliminary round (the first three games) are only for seeding into the quarter finals. So tomorrow we begin a brand new tournament. We will play Monte Negro at 4 pm with the winner going to the semi finals to face Croatia. Hopefully, we can get our guys to be ready tomorrow.
I am excited. This trip has gone fast. Just a three day tournament left to play. Anyone, can still win the tournament. Most would consider us a long shot but you never know. We will see what our guys have in the tank.
More heat tomorrow...
See you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
2:28 PM
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