The Olympic Hopes Tournament is over and the girls all learned a great deal. Could we have won? Yes. Did we do enough to ensure that? No. Is the learning curve all “technical” or “tactical”? No again. It was the emotional side of the game we could not do a crash course in over a weekend or two.
The game today ended 9-7 for Hungary and all of their goals were earned. We allowed them to grab us and drive inside without enough fight to prevent it. Then we did not crash and help from the perimeter as instructed by the coaches. Results were predictable when they scored. Sure, there were a few kick-outs where our players had 2 hands in the air and were backing away from a player who was obviously kicking them but that was not the bulk of the Hungarian goal scoring. Our bigger problem was not reading what the referees were allowing when on offence.
Many times when we drove to the net with the ball we stopped when pulled back, knowing that there was not going to be an exclusion or even a minor foul. The ability to finish is something the team has but they are having to learn to play through contact that would not be allowed in Canada and at domestic events. Telling them to ignore the pull, or the person climbing on their back, is not an easy thing for them to process and change between game 2 on Saturday and game 4 on Sunday.
There were plenty of positives today and we should not lose sight of that when being disappointed in not having a gold medal around our necks. After being winless in Emmen and just starting to figure each other out this team has come a long, long way. Every player responded to coach challenges this weekend and earned the right to be considered for playing time in the last game. Some of the players who did well all weekend got special attention from Hungary, Gurpreet spent much of the game held under water, literally. Our centre forwards who were dominating all weekend were being sunk from behind with 2 hands on their shoulders. That was a tough adjustment after having progressed so much over the past week.
Other than that result we have had a good event here and the girls learned that games are determined not just by what you do tactically when playing 5 v 6, what you do 6 v 5, how you control 2m etc. They also have learned that reacting emotionally to a game or how it is called will not give the tactical result they can predict or control. That is a huge lesson that can best be learned in a foreign country. Playing Hungary, in Hungary, with Hungarian (or European referees) is a really valuable experience we can never duplicate for them in Canada.
Final Lunch in Hungary
After the games this morning there was a brief ceremony where the girls were presented medals and there were lots of pictures taken. Gurpreet also got an award as the top player from Canada. The team then was treated to lunch, by the host club from Dunaujvaros, on a patio at a quiet local restaurant. They had some traditional cold fruit soup and then chicken and a chocolate cake. Not many complaints from that meal.
Medal Winners; Hungary 1, Canada, Hungary 2
The girls have a rest this afternoon and then watch some movies and have pizza and salad ordered in to the hotel. Hopefully they sleep before our bus to Budapest which is at 3:50am so we catch our 7:00am flight to Munich.
Just wanted to thank you so much for all your work on this blog page. It was really wonderful to be able to read so much information about what the girls were learning and how the trip was going for them, and for the coaches. Its also very nice to hear that they formed such a tight knit group; never a sure thing with a group of teenage girls!
Thanks again,
Andrea
Congrats to the team and Gurpreet. It was interesting watching Annika trying to cover her during some of the scrimmages at the Pacific Storm Camp July 23-25.