Buddah's Blog
Argentina.....
Hey everyone,
This is the seventh instalment of Buddha’s Blog.
This would be one of the harder Blog’s I have had to write after suffering a tough loss last night to Argentina. The game had a lot riding on it, with a definite top 6 spot on offer for us and one foot in the door to the semi-finals. On the other hand Argentina had nothing to lose!
It was a nervous sort of start from both sides and the game really didn’t come to life until about 25 minutes into the game. We started to assert a bit more authority on the game in ball possession and pressure on the Argentine defence.
Our pressure paid off a couple of minutes before half-time with Pee Wee earning a corner off some good build up play. Andy Hayward stepped up and flicked the ball hard hitting the player on the line earning a penalty stroke.
Unfortunately for us the Argentine keeper pulled off a miraculous save off Ryan Archibald’s flick and we went into the shed at 0-0.
Again we probably had the better of the half creating better goal scoring opportunities but we were unable to put them away. With 15 minutes to go, Argentina struck with a well played ball into the circle that was deflected into the goal on the far post.
We stepped up the anti after this and applied more and more pressure but were unable to break Argentina’s staunch defence going down 1-0. We had a couple of good chances and Espinosa the Argentine keeper was aptly named man of the match.
There were a few frustrating trends that came out of the game. With everything to play for we needed to be the more aggressive team at the start of the game and show our intent to win, but not only win but dominate every facet of it.
We also need to overcome setbacks better, after missing the stroke there was a noticeable drop in all of our players and we need to be a World Class team and accept it and move on to create the next chance. If that again misses, then we have to keep going on and on until that one chance is taken even if it is in the last 5 seconds of the game.
Our last habit we need to fix is only starting to really play intense, tempo, controlled (every cliché word) hockey after we concede a goal. We need to be the team that sets the tempo from start to finish and make teams match us.
In saying all this, the tables are now turned and we have nothing to lose against Germany tomorrow. It is going to be a very exciting game, and I would love to upset the Germans who haven’t been beaten for 3 World Cups now having won the titles in 02 an 06 and are unbeaten here as well. But records are made to be broken and I am sure everyone will be up for the match.
If we when tomorrow we have a definite chance of making the semi-finals or top 6. A point will secure top 8 and a loss will mean that we have to rely on Argentina drawing or losing to Canada to stay in the top 8.
Outside of Hockey we had the press-up competition between Matt Kritz and Richie “Pukeko” Petherick. Kritzy took out the challenge amassing a whopping 73 push-ups to Richie’s 65. There was a memorable moment when Nick Haig decided to go upstairs put his Superman underwear on and let his roommate count how many he could do. He supposedly did 75, but who really knows.
Until the next Blog,
Cheer Shea