The girls are tired and it seemed like the Czech team today was setting their weekend sights on playing well vs Canada. They tried hard to keep moving and that bothered us on defence with our energy level. We won the game easily 18-7 but the only real energy in the first quarter was Gurpreet who scored 3 goals early.
We continued with 2 lines and that seemed to have the girls in a comfort zone that we didn’t like. This afternoon coaches will change things again with lines and not rotate groups of 6. That should make them fight a little harder to hold playing time against the energetic Hungary 2 team.
Morning Pre-Game warm up
There is only a very short break between games today, we played at 9:00 and then again at 1:00 so a light meal is happening and then some quiet time before a slow walk back to the pool. We are not too worried about the short turn around and fatigue as we have production from most players now. Emma scored a 5m today, Danielle had a nice power play goal on a quick reaction to a kick-out drawn by Rachel. Vicky and Cara are stealing the ball quite easily in each game now and Sami has found the net a few times with rockets from the right side of the pool. Fiona and Alexa are both doing well at 2m but have not found the groove where they are doing the same thing every time.
In goal this morning Sonia had a solid effort but did allow a soft outside shot that she would love to have back. Her passing was solid and most of the Czech goals were power play or 5m (5 of their 8). That is the sort of thing we expect now as we get into the medal games at this event, a few more quick kick-outs when our hands are down or we let someone drive inside without reacting. The next 2 games we will also have 5 v 6 situations that we need to improve the defence on.
Saturday Market
On the way back from the pool this morning we found a Saturday Market and experienced the vendors that the girls had heard about. Juice and I saw a stall offering the famous heritage hogs that used to be in every backyard in rural Hungary, the Mangalia. This pork was the kind of thing that has been on sale in weekend markets for hundreds of years here and it’s a long way from the factory farm food we see in our cities.
Heritage Pork in the Market
