U20's World Championships - Bassano, ItalyEngland 5 USA 2
A consistent performance in our last game saw us finish 11th out of 17 Teams.
England 1 Colombia 8
Half Time 1 - 4
Photo Courtesy Of Gordon Williamson
Tiredness was the main reason for this result after four great performances previously.
England started the game showing a distinct lack of energy against a very fit Colombian Team. Our defence did not apply the pressure on the man with the ball as it was more diving than pressuring which created a lot of space in the centre of our area allowing the Colombian players to attack our goal and score.
During both halves the English players did not move off the ball, and displayed no reaction in both defence and attack which became even worse when Colombia pressured us in the half rink. Some of the goals conceded were due to lack of reaction from our players.
The players understood we had a bad day but they are now mentally prepared for tomorrow's game against USA for 11th / 12th place, which as mentioned in yesterday's report is already an improvement from the last World's.
Goal scorer: Owen Stewart
England 10 Australia 2
Half Time 5 - 2
A great performance puts us through to play Columbia so we are still in the hunt for 9th - 12th place, so still a lot of work to be done.
We started the game very well, pressuring the Australian team in their own area and mid way through the first half we were 4-0 ahead.
To give the players some rest. I decided to rotate all the team but we then lost some consistency in our game both in attack and defence.
At half time I told the players to go back and forget the result as we need to get back our consistency.
In the Second half, the team gave a very good performance both in defence and attack, creating lots of goal scoring opportunities. At times our team play was brilliant and one of our goals was one of the best I have seen from an English Team. The ball was played by all 4 players using the carousel and finished off in style at the far post.
England have now already surpassed their performance 2 years ago in Chile were we finished in 13th place. Our objective now is to beat Colombia tomorrow to so we can play for 9th or 10th place.
Goal Scorers: Owen Stewart (4 goals), Sergio Hutson (2 goals), Jon Taylor (2 goals) & Grant Bradfield (2 goals)
England 0 Italy 3
Half Time 0 - 1
England received a standing ovation at the end of the game from the spectators as well as the other teams, especially South Africa.
This could have been a magical night if the referees hadn't influenced the result.
I will start my report from the end of the match, as the referees (Argentinean and French) had a bad night with an obviously different criteria for each team, penalising England all the time. We finished the game with five Blue cards but it must be noted that none of which were straight Blue cards, but always due to a second Yellow. All outfield players received Yellow cards, however when the same situations presented themselves from the Italian team, the referees didn't make the same decisions. I remember a couple of times that the Italian players hooked the skates of the English players, which in the rules is a straight blue card, along with pushing our players against barriers without seeing any Yellow cards. The referees were definitely showing bias towards the home team.
Let's forget the referee's and concentrate on our team performance.
We started the game defending man to man restricted, pressuring the man with the ball. This meant that Italy had to pass the ball to the sides and we could stop them taking long shots from a central area. Our defensive system worked so well that the Italians only had their first real shot on goal after five minutes. England were brave and had good ball possession in attack. At one point we had the ball possession for over two minutes with the Italians pressuring full rink as they needed to score nineteen goals to finish first in the group. Italy finally managed to score their first goal with one minute left on the clock. In that remaining minute we managed to hit the Italian goal post.
The second half was a refereeing nightmare as any tackle made by us was always awarded a yellow card. At one point we had four players on blue cards at the same time all after receiving second yellow cards. The attitude of the team considering the circumstances was brilliant and they managed to keep a high level of concentration playing well in defence and exploring more counter attacks. We played two different ways in defence changing from man to man restricted pressuring the man with the ball, over to pressuring the man with the ball and the man who created the pass line. Italy had a lot of problems playing their carousel because of these tactics and their two goals come from a couple of good moves whilst we had a lot of players on Blue cards.
I am very pleased with overall team performance, as in this game we proved that we now have a system implemented in our teams so it doesn't matter who is on the rink, the team will still perform the same.
Our next game will be tomorrow against Australia who finished 4th in Group C. We are now concentrating on winning this game as this way we will be playing for 9th - 12th place, which is already a better position than last year's World Championships.
The most important thing is that England is gaining so much respect in the world. One member of the CIRH who was on the time keepers table congratulated me for the excellent team performance as well as my patience with the referee's decisions. At the end of the match I shook hands with the referees, just saying I was disappointed with their obvious agenda.
England 5 South Africa 0
(Half Time 1-0)
England secure 3rd place in Group D
England controlled the first half with a good man to man defence and we scored the only goal of the half from a very good attacking move although the team were not playing well in attack. The players always seemed to be trying to score from every attack move, which I was not happy about. A time out was called so we could talk to the players and remind them that ball possession was very important. We finished the first half in control of the game but still not playing the way I had asked them to do, which allowed South Africa a couple of scoring opportunities.
At half time I told the players that we were not playing consistently enough in attack and that we would need to be more patient when in possession of the ball. I also asked the players to pressure the South African team, half rink.
The players responded very well having a great second half pressuring the South African as I had asked which in turn meant that they couldn't organise their attack and forced them to make mistakes. This then created openings for us for very good counter attacks from which we scored our second half goals.
Our ball possession increased a lot during this half and it was nice to watch the quality of the game shown our players.
This result was a good improvement from 2 years ago in Chile when we only just beat them 4-3 in very tight and hard game.
Goal scorers: Owen Stewart (2), Jon Taylor, Sergio Hutson & Tom White
Today we play Italy, one the best teams in this competition.
It will be a very hard game us, with both Italy and Chile playing for 1st place and which will probably be decided on goal difference.
Other results in our Group:
Italy 14 South Africa 0
Chile 3 Italy 3
England 1 Chile 10
(Half Time 1-7)
The first 15 minutes against one the best teams in this Championship was very good, with man to man restricted pressuring the man with the ball working very well. Chile scored one goal but we reacted very well and we scored from a very good counter attack. The score line of 1-1 with only 5 minutes remaining in the first half was well deserved by our team, but then in the last 5 minutes we conceded 6 goals !!!!!!
During this period the team lost complete control of the game, which at this level must not be allowed to happen.
The team talk at half time was to try and understand what happened and to ensure that the players started the second half again with the attitude shown in first 15 minutes of the match.
In the second half the team played consistent hockey in defence and create good counter attacks. Chile only scored managed to score with 3 minutes remaining with dubiously awarded penalty. Then with only 20 seconds left we conceded 2 more goals.
This game was a lesson for our players. They have to understand that they must concentrate for the whole game, the team has to be prepared to suffer and to solve the problems without panicking.
Finally I would like to say that although for 80% of the game we were very competitive I was disappointed that we were so naive for the other 20%.
Goal Scorer: Sam Kay
Today we play South Africa which is an important game to define positions in the group stage.
- 1. Sam Cayley - Peterborough
- 2. Tom White - Herne Bay
- 3. Peter Marshall - Farnham
- 4. Sam Kay (Capt.) - Middlesbrough
- 5. Rupert Charles - Halifax
- 6. Jon Taylor - Kings Lynn
- 7. Sergio Hutson - Peterborough
- 8. Owen Stewart (Vice-Capt.) - Middlesbrough
- 9. Grant Bradfield - Norwich
- 10. Jamie Williamson - HBU
Manager - Val Conroy
Assistant Manager - Martin Conroy
The competition starts today 27th September and will finish on Saturday 3rd October.
There are 17 countries taking part in these Championships with a late entrance from Uruguay.
The teams are split in the following 4 groups:
Group A:
Spain, Colombia, Germany, India & Uruguay
Group B:
Portugal, Switzerland, Angola & Holland
Group C:
Argentina, France, USA & Australia
Group D:
Chile, Italy, ENGLAND & South Africa
We arrived in Bassano on Friday 25th and we checked in the hotel around 21:30 hours local time.
Saturday morning we received a new schedule issued with a few changes and giving us only few hours notice about playing our first game on Saturday.
We were now scheduled to play Italy at 20:00 hours Saturday evening instead of playing Chile at 16:30 hours on Sunday as originally stated in the official calendar sent to all countries a week ago. The organisers also made a mistake by putting Uruguay in group D instead Group A as per CIRH rules.
Therefore we decided to write a protest to present at the delegates meeting on Saturday 17:00 hours, this protest was read out in English and Spanish and has been accepted by all the delegates as well as CIRH committee. So we are now back where we started and our first game will be today Sunday at 16:30 hours against Chile ranked 4th in the world.
The spirit of the team looks good off the rink and we are now looking forward to the competition although we have a hard group stage playing Chile and Italy( ranked 5th in the world), as well as a South African team composed mainly of Portuguese players.
The Preparation Plan Details For This Championships Are Here