2009 Schoolboys Championships Dinan, FranceEngland 2 Switzerland 0
(Half Time 0-0)
England beat Switzerland for the first time to finish 7th and Portugal won the Championship
As in the group stage, both teams played with an organised defence in the first half.
With England starting the game pressuring the half way line which caused some upset to
Switzerland as they expected us to play restricted pressuring only the man with the ball.
In attack we played carousel 3 or 4 men and mainly tried to use counter attacks.
At half time during our team talk I asked the team to keep 2 players in the Swiss area to upset their defence. Again the Swiss team didn't expect our tactical change and we caused them a lot of problems. Playing 2 at the back with 2 in attack instead of the carousel was a good decision as our team created so many goal opportunities with the ball whilst hitting the posts and bar a few times. The 2 goals scored were well deserved by the team for their efforts.
The team played well as a unit all game which was a big improvement from the previous game against Germany.
Goal scorers: Liam Conroy & William Smith
We played most of the competition with the tactic of man to man restricted pressuring the man with the ball, sometimes we pressured the half way line which we will try more often if we can raise the fitness levels of our players. In attack our team showed we can now play in different ways causing problems to other teams. We had a few options in attack, 3 and 4 men carousel, keeping 2 players in the opposition's area and good set up moves from free hits which we scored a couple of goals. One of the biggest overall improvement's, was the team's ability to change systems during the game.
England finished 7th for the 3rd year in the row, however the results have also improved as well as the team performance. We received a lot of positive feedback from other countries on how much we have improved over the last 2 years. Our team was the youngest team in the competition with 7 first year players (born in 1994) whilst other countries had at least 5 players in their last year. These teams will lose influential players for next championship which I am hoping will give us an good advantage next year when we hold the competition.
I am looking forward to next year's championships, considering the fact that the U17's team will now have some experience along with the talented players in the wings ready to replace those who have to move up to Juniors.
England 3 Germany 6
(Half Time 1-4)
A poor team performance in the first half lost us the opportunity to beat Germany
The team started the game and in the 1st minute we had a great opportunity and scored first goal. However in the first half we never played as solid as in previous games, our man to man restricted was not working well with the players losing their man and leaving a lot of space in front of the goal. Therefore the 4 goals came from defensive mistakes although we still created a few goal opportunities.
We spoke at half time as the team needed to improve their level of concentration as well as team play in defence and attack. Although we conceded one more goal in the first seconds of the second half the team reacted very well pressuring the Germans half rink and creating a lot of goal opportunities. With the match poised at 3-5 and England always close to scoring the referee gave an inexplicable direct free hit when our defence never touched the German player. Germany scored and with 2 minutes credit must go to the team who never gave up trying to score.
I am pleased with the team reaction in the second half which proves that the players understood what went wrong in the first half.
Now we play Switzerland our last game for 7th/8th places.
Goal Scorers: Nick Flint, William Smith & Michael Carter
England 0 Portugal 10
(Half Time 0-3)
The boys showed a good attitude against the strongest team in the competition
In the first half we played very solidly. Our man to man restricted pressuring the man with the ball worked very well as the players played close to each one creating a lot of problems for Portugal carousel.
As mentioned in my last report we decided to rotate the team to ensure we will be fit enough for the last 2 games of the competition to play for 5th - 8th places.During the second half the team did not play as a unit and due to tiredness, left big gaps which the Portuguese players used to score their goals.
Portugal showed a lot of more maturity in the game than us.
Overall I am pleased with our performance especially in the first half considering we rotated the players and we have a much younger team than Portugal who had 8 players born in 1993 compared with our 7 players born in 1994,
Today we will play Germany which will be a very hard game as they are a very physical and a win will put us through to play 5th/6th places.
England 0 Spain 9
(Half Time 0-5)
The Experience and Individual ability of the Spanish Players made the difference
Firstly I would like to emphasise that our team has 7 first year Schoolboys in comparison to Spain who had 8 second year players. Just this would be enough to make a difficult game against one the top 2 countries, however to add to this, Spain had to score as many goals as possible to finish top of the group as they had drawn with Italy on Tuesday. With Italy playing after our game, Spain pressured us full rink for the whole game to ensure their position.
Our team were brave with their man to man restricted, pressuring the man with the ball but this didn't always work due to the fast diagonal moves from Spain and their fast ball circulation. Some of the goals conceded were due to our lack of experience compared to the older Spanish players.
Our performance in the group stage was very good considering we lost 3rd place by 1 goal as we finished on the same points as Switzerland but we had -11 and Switzerland had -10 goal difference.
Today we play Portugal, in my opinion the best team in the competition, at least they have the best individual players and we are expecting a very hard game. Our objective now is to look forward to our game on Friday because if we win we will play for 5th/6th place. Therefore we will rotate all the team today against Portugal.
Other results:
Italy 3 Switzerland 0
Germany 2 Andorra 0
Portugal 5 France 0
England 1 Switzerland 1
(Half Time 0-0)
Another very competitive game from our Under 17 National Team, in a game we deserved to win.
The first half saw both teams very solid in defence whilst trying to use the counter attack move, which was mostly stopped by good defensive position moving into a triangle until the 4th player arrived in defence. In attack the ball possession was about 50% each, which shows how close was the game.
The second half saw Switzerland playing same system in attack which we managed to control very well with England attacking using 3 different systems - Carousel 4 men and 3 men, as well as 2 players pressing their player with the ball while another player screened and with the other 2 up front. This caused their goalkeeper to be unsighted as well as we became more aggressive in their area. We conceded the first goal unluckily as it came from a deflection in our defence from a stick but our reaction was brilliant scoring our goal a minute later.
In the last five minutes England dominated the game and created a lot of goal scoring opportunities, unfortunately we did not manage to score any chances but we showed as on previous day we are now much more competitive than in the past.
After the game I received a lot of good comments from all other teams regarding the improvement of English roller hockey shown here, as well as last week with the display the Ladies Under 19 gave in Portugal.
Goal scorer: Nick Flint
Tonight we will play Spain which drew yesterday to Italy 2-2. Now we are depending on our result and on Italy-Switzerland result to find out if we will finish 3rd place which will give to us an easier game for quarters-final avoiding Portugal probably the best team in the competition.
Other results:
Spain 7 Switzerland 0
Portugal 5 Germany 1
France 5 Andorra 0
Portugal 20 Andorra 1
Spain 2 Italy 2
England 1 Italy 3
(Half Time 1-3)
England played a very competitive in their opening game of the Under 17 European Championships against Italy
England created the initial goal opportunities before Italy had their first shots on target, however Italy were the ones that found the back of the net first and scored two goals in the first seven minutes of the game. Our team had started the game nervously, which is normal considering we have the youngest team in the competition, with seven players in their first year at this level (born in 1994).
We called a time out to calm the team down a little and when we subsequently scored our goal it gave us the confidence we needed, although one defensive mistake cost us another goal, the team were still well organised on man to man restricted, pressuring the player with the ball and creating good counter attacks.
Our second half was the best I have witnessed from an England Under 17 team playing against one of the top three countries in the Europe, we controlled the game and gained more ball possession and created the best goal scoring opportunities.
No goals in the second half, however England did have a great chance to get a historic result as during the last 2 minutes we missed a direct free hit as we hit the post.
Our ball possession had improved in the second half and as a result Italy had to finish the game defending the result.
We were very competitive during this game and look forward to the next game against Switzerland tomorrow.
- 1. Peter Hunt
- 2. Sam Norton
- 3. William Smith
- 4. Kieran Brady
- 5. Nick Flint
- 6. Richard Claxton
- 7. Liam Conroy
- 8. Han Wei Lim (Cap)
- 9. Michael Carter
- 10.Reuben Alam
England U17's Squad News
Unfortunately due to an injury to Danny Butcher, he has had to withdraw from the squad.
Kieran Brady has been called up into the squad as his replacement for the European Championships in Dinan, France.
U17's Final Preparation in Feira - Portugal
Final Squad:<
- Peter Hunt (Gk) - Peterborough
- Reuben Alam (Gk) - Farnham
- Han Wei Lim (Capt) - Peterborough
- Richard Claxton - Peterborough
- Nick Flint - Peterborough
- Michael Carter - Peterborough
- Liam Conroy - Bury
- William Smith - Middlesbrough
- Sam Norton - Ely
- Daniel Butcher - Herne Bay
Assistant Coach - Arthur Corr
Manager - Joe Wheatley
The team will travel to Portugal this Friday morning to continue with their final preparations in Feira.
The objective for this trip is to ensure we can work on a rink 40x20 metres and play competitive friendly games, to improve our tactical work such as defence man to man restricted and carousel attack, as well as to build up the team spirit off the rink.
This Friday the team will have one training session in the evening and then two training sessions and one game per day from Saturday until Tuesday. The team will return to England on Wednesday 2nd September and then we will have one last session over the National Training Weekend prior to departure for the Europeans Under 17 Championship which will take place in Dinan-France from 14th to 19th September 2009.