A Battle Lost
7/27/11
Hungary vs. USA turned out to be a great battle that was fought hard down to the very end. After taking a commanding 5 - 2 lead, Hungary fought back to tie the game at 5 and then take the lead. From there the momentum of the game seemed to swing back and forth. We would catch them and tie the game and have a chance to take the lead but never again regained the lead. The tempo was in our favor. We actually beat them 6 on 6. Our defense was paying very strong. We came to play and played one of our best games since the Olympic Games in Beijing.
The underlying story of the game was the 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. They scored 5 out of 11 and also had a penalty shot and we scored only 3 out of 11. Often times in these big games that is where the games are won and lost. And yesterday this proved to be our downfall. In fact, in the fourth quarter we had four 6 on 5 opportunities. We scored on only one. The Hungarian goalie made a few very nice saves to shut us down. It was tough and to make matters worse on two of our power play opportunities, Hungary came down and scored on the very next possession to make these in effect two goals turn arounds.
The final score was 9 - 8 with Hungary moving on to the semifinals with Croatia, Serbia and Italy. We go into the 5th - 8th bracket and once again play against Germany on Thursday here.
As I reflect on the game there are many positives - we definitely played well enough to win in many areas. Our 6 on 6 defense was very strong. We had good intensity and Merrill played a great game in the goal for us. However, we made some individual one on one mistakes where we took bad exclusions (kick outs) and gave them a few easy goals. They even had a one-on-nobody break away when we took a quick shot immediately off an ejection foul and their team captain Biros broke away by himself. Our little mistakes hurt us big as they usually do against a good experienced team. Our 5 man defense was actually pretty good too. Hungary scored 5 out of 11 times and we had them somewhat frustrated on their man up opportunities. The real weak spot that sticks out is our 6 on 5. As I have said in the past the 6 on 5 is the true mark of how well your team is working together. We scored only 3 out of 11 of our power plays. This is not a good percentage and granted some of our failure is due to Hungary’s great 5 man defense. They move in and out on defense better than anyone in the world. Much of our failure in my opinion is just lack of time together. In the last few non Olympic years, we have only had 3-4 weeks training time together because of the European schedules that most all of our players play.
This year will be different. All the players have agreed to stay home and spend the next year training together. Actually, the opening ceremonies in London are one year from today! In order to make this happen we are going to have to raise some funds to help the players out. We will be having a major fundraiser in late September where all the funds raised will go directly to the athletes for training expenses. This will be critical to our success next summer. As you can all see we are close to the top but to climb to the summit is going to take a lot of hard work and time together. When we return to Thousand Oaks and resume our training at CLU (our training base is California Lutheran University) we will be working hard towards the Pan American Games which is now our next opportunity to qualify for the London Olympics. The Pan Ams will be in October of this year and we need to win the gold to qualify. Obviously, we have lots of work to do before then.
For now, we need to focus on finishing strong here. Germany tomorrow and then if we win we have the winner of Monte Negro and Spain for 5th place on Saturday.
Time to get back to work and start preparing for Germany. Lots of video to watch and figure out how we are going to win tomorrow.
See you at the pool.
Coach
Hungary vs. USA turned out to be a great battle that was fought hard down to the very end. After taking a commanding 5 - 2 lead, Hungary fought back to tie the game at 5 and then take the lead. From there the momentum of the game seemed to swing back and forth. We would catch them and tie the game and have a chance to take the lead but never again regained the lead. The tempo was in our favor. We actually beat them 6 on 6. Our defense was paying very strong. We came to play and played one of our best games since the Olympic Games in Beijing.
The underlying story of the game was the 6 on 5 and 5 on 6. They scored 5 out of 11 and also had a penalty shot and we scored only 3 out of 11. Often times in these big games that is where the games are won and lost. And yesterday this proved to be our downfall. In fact, in the fourth quarter we had four 6 on 5 opportunities. We scored on only one. The Hungarian goalie made a few very nice saves to shut us down. It was tough and to make matters worse on two of our power play opportunities, Hungary came down and scored on the very next possession to make these in effect two goals turn arounds.
The final score was 9 - 8 with Hungary moving on to the semifinals with Croatia, Serbia and Italy. We go into the 5th - 8th bracket and once again play against Germany on Thursday here.
As I reflect on the game there are many positives - we definitely played well enough to win in many areas. Our 6 on 6 defense was very strong. We had good intensity and Merrill played a great game in the goal for us. However, we made some individual one on one mistakes where we took bad exclusions (kick outs) and gave them a few easy goals. They even had a one-on-nobody break away when we took a quick shot immediately off an ejection foul and their team captain Biros broke away by himself. Our little mistakes hurt us big as they usually do against a good experienced team. Our 5 man defense was actually pretty good too. Hungary scored 5 out of 11 times and we had them somewhat frustrated on their man up opportunities. The real weak spot that sticks out is our 6 on 5. As I have said in the past the 6 on 5 is the true mark of how well your team is working together. We scored only 3 out of 11 of our power plays. This is not a good percentage and granted some of our failure is due to Hungary’s great 5 man defense. They move in and out on defense better than anyone in the world. Much of our failure in my opinion is just lack of time together. In the last few non Olympic years, we have only had 3-4 weeks training time together because of the European schedules that most all of our players play.
This year will be different. All the players have agreed to stay home and spend the next year training together. Actually, the opening ceremonies in London are one year from today! In order to make this happen we are going to have to raise some funds to help the players out. We will be having a major fundraiser in late September where all the funds raised will go directly to the athletes for training expenses. This will be critical to our success next summer. As you can all see we are close to the top but to climb to the summit is going to take a lot of hard work and time together. When we return to Thousand Oaks and resume our training at CLU (our training base is California Lutheran University) we will be working hard towards the Pan American Games which is now our next opportunity to qualify for the London Olympics. The Pan Ams will be in October of this year and we need to win the gold to qualify. Obviously, we have lots of work to do before then.
For now, we need to focus on finishing strong here. Germany tomorrow and then if we win we have the winner of Monte Negro and Spain for 5th place on Saturday.
Time to get back to work and start preparing for Germany. Lots of video to watch and figure out how we are going to win tomorrow.
See you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
8:22 PM
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