About Me

In October 2011 I made the decision to retire from a successful Hockey career to peruse a new sporting endeavour . . . . Triathlon!!. Through this blog I am wanting to capture my development, progression, the changes, and challenges I have experienced on the way to trying to be successful in an entirely different sport dynamic. I hope you enjoy the read.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Match 14 - Leiden.

Well Last Sunday saw us take on our biggest threat to the title away at Lieden.  The result of the match would either  put us in an almost uncatchable position 6pts clear at the top or  allow Leiden to level with 8 games left in hand. 

It was a bit of wierd feeling going into the game trying not to get caught up in all the commotion about what happens if win , if we lose, are you nervous, you need to win, Leiden have this, Leiden have that etc, etc and just focus on doing a job.  Well we started as usual applying plenty of pressure to the Leiden defence forcing turnover after turnover in thier own half. Unfortunately this failed to result in any sort of conversion, short corner or otherwise.  It took 25 mins before anyone made any use of the scoreboard  and after what i think was a bit of a harsh decision saw us fall behind 1-0 through a short corner.  This was then shortly followed by a good attack from Leiden making the defecit 2.  Continuing to push our hard work paid off and we clawed one back to 2-1 but thie flurry of goals continued and Leden nailed another corner just before the break makiing it 3-1.  

Half time was a little wierd this being the first time all season that we had been behind after 35mins.  However we stayed positive even though we new we had quite a mountain to climb to get back into the match. Knowing if we scored first we could easily be well in with a shot of winning the match.  Again we couldnt quite manage to capitalise on our pressure and against the run of play Leiden made it 4-1.  It was about now that frustration started to creep into the game resulting in a yellow card and another goal for the home team after the ball passed through the mid field at head height and it was somehow allowed to play on.  Finally we managed to grab a consollation goal 8 mins before the end. 

It was a tough, fast game. Quicker than any other we had played all year.  You could tell each guy on our team ran themselves into the ground but we just couldnt come away with the points.  Although we didnt win there was some valuable experience gained by the younger guys and with still plenty of time left in the season anand us ontop of the table (goal diff) there is still plenty of opportunity to take home the silverware so long as we work hard, play well together and for each other.  With the team we have i think we can do it. 

This week we are up against Groen Geel at home but not before we line up against Dynamo Moscow for an Exhibition match on Fri night at Cartouche. The last meeting with GG ended up 3-1. Away on thier sand base (not the best surface going around) so hopefully back at home on familiar territory things will be much different with lots of goals. 

Till then....

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