England Team: Ian Morrison, James Taylor, Brendan Barker (3 goals), Mark Waddingham, Michael Ableson, Karl Smith, John Jones, Grant Zaccarias, Ricky Jupp & Dan Palmer
We performed a very professional job during today's game with all the players, including the bench focused on the task of winning this game. We understood that was no room for mistakes and although Holland scored first we believed in ourselves and were always dominating play.As in the game yesterday against Andorra the players understood my message that it is important to shoot to score and today we had 57 shots versus 44 from Holland.
The score could have been a lot higher as we missed several goal scoring opportunities and Holland scored two goals from deflections.Finally I would like to say that I am very proud of all the players who displayed a phenominal level of passion, commitment and attitude. Well done boys
England 4 Andorra 2 (Half time 2-2)
England Team: Ian Morrison, James Taylor (1 goal), Mark Waddingham (2 goals), John Jones, Brendan Barker (1 goal), Karl Smith, Ricky Jupp, Grant Zaccarias & Dan Palmer
Pressure on us and the boys did the job.
I had a long conversation with the players regarding their attitude during the Chile game and the players understood that we needed to do to change our style of attack.
It was a great first half with both teams playing a very competitive game with lots of shots on goal from both teams. Our man to man marking worked very well with players helping each other and we adopted a very positive attitude towards the game.
In the second half I asked the players to maintain the attitude and to pressure their man with the ball a bit more which worked very well and as consequence we scored the third goal. Immediately I called a time out to make the players aware that I did not want them to play to maintain the 3-2 lead but to look for the 4th goal and the boys showed a great response and followed my instructions very well.
During the last three minutes of the game, after we were 4-2 up, we controlled the game and kept possession of the ball.
It was a great result with a very positive attitude, the boys were brave and showed a lot of passion as well as knowing how to control with the pressure.
England 1 Chile 3 (Half Time 0-1)
England Team: Ian Morrison, James Taylor, Mark Waddingham (1 goal), John Jones, Brendan Barker, Karl Smith, Ricky Jupp, Grant Zaccarias & Dan Palmer
I had mixed emotions about the team performance during this game, on one hand it was a very competitive game and on the other hand our players could have done better.
During the first half England were not aggressive enough in attack and sometimes lost concentration in defence which cost us the first goal.
The second half started much better for us enabling us to score.
After scoring the team lost concentration again and were not doing what they are best at, helping each other and compensating for the missing player during the mark man to man marking.
The main issue with this game was that we did not have enough shots on target, players did not understand that they have to shoot few times before we can score and not that one shot will be enough to score.
Now we will have to play to win the last two games to stay in Group A, as happened in 2005 in S. Jose (USA) and 2007 Montreux (Switzerland)
England 2 Germany 3 (half time 0-0)
England Team: Ian Morrison, James Taylor (Cap), Michael Ableson (1 goal), Mark Waddingham (1 goal), John Jones, Karl Smith, Ricky Jupp, Grant Zaccarias and Dan Palmer
Disgraceful refereeing destroyed a fantastic game played by England.
England had a great tactical performance with all the players on top of their game on man to man restricted, using counter attacks to create problems for Germany.
The 1st half was very closely fought with both teams defending very well explaining the 0-0 score line at half time.
In the 2nd half we started stronger than Germany and we deserved our 2-0 lead.
After our 2 goals something strange happened in the game with the 2 South American referees (Chile and Argentina) refereeing one way and always against England. James was through one on one when he was elbowed by the last man and a direct free hit was called by one of the referees. The time keepers talked to the referee's and they changed their decision.The score could have been 3-0. Then a penalty was not awarded to us for a high stick in the area near Michael's head. The refereeing became more ridiculous as any fault made by an English player was given a card all the time, sometimes direct blues (2). With 2 minutes to go one of the referees showed a yellow to James for no reason and straight way said you're out because it's your second yellow. We knew it wasn't and after lodging a complaint which was accepted James was allowed back on to the rink a minute later.
We are participating in the most important competition but we have people on the top of the pyramid that don't know much regarding roller hockey and they only get there because they are yes men as well as to satisfy personal wishes.Today we have rest day and tomorrow we will start the knock out phase against Chile.
If we win we will be safe from relegation but if not then we will need to win our last 2 games on Friday and Saturday as we did in the last 2 Group A World Championships.
Keep up to date with the news - Vigo 09 website.
England 0 France 3 (Half Time 0-3)
England Team: Ian Morrison, James Taylor (Cap), Michael Ableson, MarkWaddingham, John Jones, Karl Smith, Ricky Jupp, Grant Zaccarias and Dan Palmer
It was never going to be easy to have the first two games of the competitionagainst Italy and France 4th and 5th in the World.
England did not start the game playing as hard as they could have done whichresulted in three goals from three big mistakes. Once more we played withgood organization on man to man defence during the first half but in attackthe players were not moving off the ball therefore the reaction in bothdefence and attack was not working very well.
A team talk at half time was mainly to point out to the players that I wasnot happy with their attitude. I made them understand what they needed tochange to improve our game to be more competitive.
The second half was much better with England playing at the same level bothdefensively and in attack which caused problems for France and then westarted to gain control of the game, creating good goal opportunities andactually had a goal disallowed (wrong decision by the referee).
I am very pleased with the players reaction after my talk at half time and Ithink we are now more aware on how to play the game later today against Germany, which will decide the game on Thursday.
England 1 Italy 6 (Half Time 0-3)
England Team: Ian Morrison, James Taylor (Cap), Michael Ableson, Mark Waddingham, John Jones, Karl Smith (1 goal), Ricky Jupp, Grant Zaccarias and Dan Palmer
England played their first game of the competition against Italy, one of the top 4 teams in the world. We started the game very well creating 3 scoring opportunities in the first 5 minutes before Italy had their first shot on our goal. Between the 8th and 14th minutes we conceded 3 goals due to weak defensive marking.In the Second half we again played consistent hockey and held the play well until the Italians scored their 4th goal with only 7 minutes to go.
Our goal was well deserved as England had been consistently attacking the Italian goal, from which 50% of these manoeuvres we were able to create goal scoring opportunities.
Our result has to be taken in a positive way as for large parts of the game we played very well in defence with man to man restricted and attacked with set moves that almost enabled us to score on 3 different occasions. At this level what let us down was the difference of preparation between the two teams, tiredness and reaction time were the main issues for the goals conceded.
Our Second game of the group is against France. In these group stages we are looking to improve our confidence to ensure we will be at the top of our game on Thursday when the knock out stage starts.
England Seniors Final Squad Announcement
I'd like to announce the team for Seniors World A Championships
which takes place in Vigo, Spain from Sunday 5th July to Saturday 11th July:
- Ian Morrison - Goalkeeper (Areces Club, Spain)
- Dan Palmer - Goalkeeper (Middlesbrough)
- James Taylor Captain (Castiglione, Italy)
- John Jones (Middlesbrough)
- Gant Zaccarias (Middlesbrough)
- Michael Ableson (Middlesbrough)
- Mark Waddingham (Grimsby)
- Ricky Jupp (Bury)
- Karl Smith (HBU)
- Brendon Barker
- Head Coach - Carlos Amaral
- Manager - Ron Barker
The final preparations dates for this squad are:
- 6th June - Soham
- 20th June - Middlesbrough
- 27th June - Soham
- 28th June - Herne Bay
The group stage will take place on Sunday, Monday & Tuesday
Wednesday is a day off, but our team will have a training session.
The knockout phase starts on Thursday, where we hope to stay up as we have done for the last 6 years.
The team will return to England on 12th July.