As you have read (or will read once Kaz puts up her report) we had a late game against Columbia on Tuesday. The game started at 6:30pm and didn't finish till 8:50pm. We were lucky our amazing support crew got the dining room to stay open late so we could have dinner. We did our warm down post dinner on the spikey grass outside of the dorm rooms next to the main stadium (where the Japanese teams are staying). This was quite exciting as there were a number of crabs wandering about ready to scare the team. The organisers made sure we got home on a non-scheduled 10pm bus. While there have been a few logistical challenges at other times in this tournament we were very grateful to them for ensuring we were fed and transported. It was 10:30pm by the time we got back to the hotel.
There was no relief for us as we had a 9am game against Finland the next morning. This means being in the bus queue at 7:15am at the very latest or risking getting stuck waiting for a bus since there are often 8+ teams waiting for the buses at that time and a bus only hold 2 teams. Finland hadn't been performing well up to that point and we were expecting an easier game. However Finland had other ideas. They told us after the game that it was their best game of the tournament. They played very well and made us work hard for our points. The game went to time cap and fortunately we came away with the win 17-12.
Later that afternoon we took on Great Britain. We were expecting a tough game and they brought it. We got up a few and then GB came back to make it close, this happened a couple of times. After beating them by 1 point in 2008 I didn't think my nerves could handle another close finish - fortunately we really stepped it up in the last few points and pulled away to win 17-12.
It was nice to get back to the hotel and have a little bit of downtime after the two full days. Our captain, Crossie, was injured in the Columbia game and needed to get an x-ray on her foot. She went to the local hospital and I was a bit surprised to receive a call from her later that evening. Like many places in Japan the hospital only took cash and she didn't have enough on her to pay the bill. After a bit of confusion of how to get to the hospital I eventually got there to bail her out! Fortunately Rhi, our physio, has managed to locate both crutches and a wheelchair for her so she is being wheeled around in style.
Today we had our final 2 pool games. As we had lost 3 games already (Japan, Canada, Columbia) we needed to win both games today to make the semi-finals. Beating Team USA (Fury) the defending champions was always going to be a steep ask. The wind decided to come along and make it even harder. It has been reasonably windy during much of the tournament, particularly in the afternoons. The wind this morning was much stronger, a different direction and our field had a gusty up-down wind. We started on O from the upwind end and scored cleanly to be up 1-0. We came close to scoring an upwinder on the next point but couldn't complete and the US capitalised and scored their own upwinder. From there we were always playing catch-up. We weren't playing badly but the US showed their skills in the wind and we were down 9-4 at half. Our offence worked well in the second half but it wasn't enough to make up the deficit, final score 17-9.
On the field next to us Great Britain were playing Columbia. If they won then we would have been on the right end of a three-way tie and taken the 4th semi-final spot. Unfortunately for us (and GB) they went down by a couple so that was the end of our semi-final aspirations.
We regrouped by watching the Barramundis (mixed team) take on the Phillipines in their quarter-final. They got a good win and go through to the semi-finals tomorrow.
Our final round-robin game was against New Zealand. We had played them several times in the build up and so were relatively confident going on. Our offence looked the best it has all tournament in the first half and we held a comfortable 9-1 lead. The Kiwis picked it up in the second half but we still finished with a 17-5 win.
Tomorrow we have the 5v8 game to determine which positions we'll play off for in the afternoon. We will play the Kiwis again in that game, and coincidentally Germany and GB who also played last game this afternoon will play in the 6v7 game.
No comments:
Post a Comment