After a great breakfast of fresh fruit, pastries, cheeses, deli meats etc., we taxi'd the team to the pool for our first practice.
We warmed up with 500 yds in the lap pool and at 11:00 am sharp, slid into pool 2 and scrimmaged @ 80 percent among ourselves. Assessed the performance of the new players while the team adjusted to the fast tiled bottom with a Simms puck.
After lunch, we scrimmaged with the Colombian U19 women, a well coached, disciplined team that played exactly as we had predicted after watching their men's team last year at PCCs. They were aggressive, fast and fit. We played under game conditions with a Colombian referee. That he called five fouls on us, two with two minute penalties on Quantum and Samuel didn't bother me. It was good experience for the boys to sit and for us to play with five. After hip hoorays and handshakes, I felt good about our first real workout and our four to one scrimmage win.
After lunch and a rest, we took on the U19 Aussie men. The Aussies played an open, end around game that was completely opposite of the Colombian wall game. Our weak side backs consistently played out of position and they scored easy uncontested breakaways by swinging and passing off the wall and banana running to score with us watching helplessly. But our boys fought hard. We repeatedly pushed forward and attacked their goal and one time they were forced to cycle out to the corner for two minutes as we pinned them in and kept attacking their goal. Alas, our weak side forward failed to seal the end and they finally took it out the other side and ran the length of the field to score. Again, I was not disappointed. Yes, they scored but we had them fighting for their life for those minutes. I was thrilled with our tenacity and aggressiveness against this big, fast and experienced team. We'll correct that tactic and seal the ends next time. Final score: five to nothing. I couldn't be happier with the score. You had to see our players to understand.
A great day of practice. The team is now fully adjusted to the fast bottom and synching up as expected. We reviewed our mistakes and the team now knows that it can compete. The Aussie U19 men are a medal contender in our age group and we didn't back down. The Aussie coach. complimented our younger players stick skills and encouraged us to continue our youth development. Tristan Reynald (tournament director), Steve Kars, and several other officials came by and expressed their appreciation for Team USA at the tournament.
We lost John Meisenheimer for at least a few days with a shoulder sprain. It's a re-injury and while we don't think it's serious, we'll sit him for a while until he's pain free.
We took the public bus back to the hotel, and yes, another team meeting before dinner. Tomorrow, we take on the Aussie U19 women and the Colombian U19 men. Uh oh.......
Holland
We warmed up with 500 yds in the lap pool and at 11:00 am sharp, slid into pool 2 and scrimmaged @ 80 percent among ourselves. Assessed the performance of the new players while the team adjusted to the fast tiled bottom with a Simms puck.
After lunch, we scrimmaged with the Colombian U19 women, a well coached, disciplined team that played exactly as we had predicted after watching their men's team last year at PCCs. They were aggressive, fast and fit. We played under game conditions with a Colombian referee. That he called five fouls on us, two with two minute penalties on Quantum and Samuel didn't bother me. It was good experience for the boys to sit and for us to play with five. After hip hoorays and handshakes, I felt good about our first real workout and our four to one scrimmage win.
After lunch and a rest, we took on the U19 Aussie men. The Aussies played an open, end around game that was completely opposite of the Colombian wall game. Our weak side backs consistently played out of position and they scored easy uncontested breakaways by swinging and passing off the wall and banana running to score with us watching helplessly. But our boys fought hard. We repeatedly pushed forward and attacked their goal and one time they were forced to cycle out to the corner for two minutes as we pinned them in and kept attacking their goal. Alas, our weak side forward failed to seal the end and they finally took it out the other side and ran the length of the field to score. Again, I was not disappointed. Yes, they scored but we had them fighting for their life for those minutes. I was thrilled with our tenacity and aggressiveness against this big, fast and experienced team. We'll correct that tactic and seal the ends next time. Final score: five to nothing. I couldn't be happier with the score. You had to see our players to understand.
A great day of practice. The team is now fully adjusted to the fast bottom and synching up as expected. We reviewed our mistakes and the team now knows that it can compete. The Aussie U19 men are a medal contender in our age group and we didn't back down. The Aussie coach. complimented our younger players stick skills and encouraged us to continue our youth development. Tristan Reynald (tournament director), Steve Kars, and several other officials came by and expressed their appreciation for Team USA at the tournament.
We lost John Meisenheimer for at least a few days with a shoulder sprain. It's a re-injury and while we don't think it's serious, we'll sit him for a while until he's pain free.
We took the public bus back to the hotel, and yes, another team meeting before dinner. Tomorrow, we take on the Aussie U19 women and the Colombian U19 men. Uh oh.......
Holland