Wednesday 9/26/2007
A total of 28 mens teams showed up for the tournament, including Chile, Uruguay, Mexico and 4 teams from Argentina. There were many from Europe, including Iceland, Dublin and several teams from London, and then there were the usual host of teams from across the US, and two from Canada. The team that came the farthest seemed to be the Sydney Rangers, with whom our own Orien and Patrick are playing.
At the opening party Sunday night teams were placed into groups of 5 or 4 teams. Monday and Tuesday were group play days in which teams played four 60-minute games against all of the other teams in their group. In the groups of 4, the teams played a crossover game against a team from the other group of four as their fourth game.
Spikes 1 was placed in a group with London Stonewall, Philadelphia, Chile and Toronto. The first game on Monday was against London, a rather tough opener. After an unsettled first 15 minutes, the Spikes took control and eventually came away with a 4-2 win. Next was Philly, who we beat 5-0. On Tuesday we started with Chile, who we beat 5-1, and later we beat Toronto 3-0, completing our first round with a record of 4 wins and no losses.
Spikes 2 was placed in a group with one of the Argentina teams, the Royal Canadians, Iceland and a team called Europa Mix. We lost of Monday 2-0 to Argentina, but came back in the afternoon to beat the Royal Canadians 3-0. Tuesday started with a tough game against Iceland that ended in a 5-1 loss. Later in the day we played Europa Mix and totally controlled the game, creating many scoring opportunities, but only cashing in on one of them. However, one was enough to complete the 1-0 win. We finished the first round with a record of two wins and two losses.
Wednesday is a day off for sightseeing, and then the knockout rounds start on Thursday. Teams will be split into two divisions after the group play. However, they have changed their minds several times about how the knockout rounds will work, how many teams will be in each division, and what which teams will be matched up. At this point (Wednesday morning) it looks like they will put 16 teams into Division 1, and 12 teams into Division 2. As of last night we have been told that both Spikes teams have qualified for Division 1! Way to go!!! On Thursday, Spikes 2 is scheduled to play one of the Argentina teams that has done very well so far. Spikes 1 is scheduled to play Iceland. Winners would advance to quarterfinals Thursday afternoon. Semifinals are scheduled for Friday and the final is scheduled for Saturday.
Thursday 9/27/2007
After changing their minds a few times, they next round of games was decided upon by the tournament folks. Both Spikes teams made it into the Division 1 knockout rounds, with Spikes 2 playing Dogos RN (one of the Argentina teams) and Spikes 1 playing Iceland.
Spikes 2 started the day off at 10AM. It did not go as well as we had hoped. We were told that this was the second Dogos team, but they were very good and ended up winning the game handily. Unfortunately that is the end of the tournament for Spikes 2. Great job making it into Division 1! That is a very impressive feat that we all should be very proud of.
Spikes 1 played Iceland next, and had a much easier time, winning the game 8-0. This moved us into the quarterfinals against Village Manchester, from England. They were a combative team that played well and had many dangerous weapons. They scored first, early in the game, taking some of the wind out of our sails. However, the Spikes roared back and scored two goals before halftime. The lead was extended in the second half as the Spikes closed out a 5-2 win to move into the semifinals. Our opponent tomorrow will London Stonewall, the same team we beat 4-2 in our first game on Monday. They will be looking for revenge, but we will be ready. The other semifinal will be Florida Storm against one of the Argentina teams - not sure which one. Stay tuned...
Friday 9/28/2007
Bittersweet news from down south today as the tournament ended for the Spikes 1 team. We played London Stonewall in the semi-finals at noon. This was the team that we had beaten 4-2 in our first game of the week on Monday. Things were just a little off for the team today, as passes didn't quite hit their intended target for much of the game, as they had so very frequently for the entire week up to this point. London deserves credit for some of that as their high pressure style seemed to put us on edge from the start. Very early on they hit a nice shot from outside the top of the box to go ahead 1-0. This changed things a lot as they then sat back quite a bit more than we did, letting us take control and do the attacking - and we did attack a LOT. They only had a meager handful of chances after that for the rest of the game, and I only remember one time when Matthew had to actually make a save after that . However, not one of our attacks found the back of the net, and the game ended in a very frustrating 1-0 loss.
That meant that we had to turn around and play the bronze medal match against Florida a couple hours later. Florida had lost to the Argentina team in their semi. We put in two fairly early goals and generally controlled play quite well with an effective passing game. They put in a bizarre goal in the second half on a free kick. They slammed the ball off the far post The ball then flew all the way across the mouth of the goal past the near post where the referee was standing. The ball then ricocheted off the refs leg, flying back across the goal and slipping just inside the far post. We put in a third goal a little while later to make it 3-1, and that's how the game ended. The bronze medals were handed out shortly after that, and the team then took off for the beer tent.
Go Spikes!