Photo Courtesy Of Chris Kay
We lost our last game 4-3 to the German Under 17 National Team, however it was a great game played by both teams with the Juniors taking the lead but then finding themselves 3-1 down. We had to change from our man to man restricted to half way and then full rink pressure. It was very good for us to try different ways of defence and we were again very close to winning this game considering that we dominated the game but we missed our opportunities by not scoring from 2 penalties and 2 direct free hits that were awarded to us.
The main objectives that I had set were achieved, building the team spirit off the rink and to create automatism in our play with goals being scored from set moves, as well as very efficient defence man to man restricted pressuring man with the ball.
Overall I am very pleased with all players attitude on and off the rink and I look forward to the world's in a month.
Goal scorers: Sam Kay, Grant Bradfield and Sergio Hutson
England Juniors preparation for the World's
England lost both games today
Our first game was against ERG Iserlohn, the German Senior Champions and we had another fantastic performance. Although we lost 1-0 we faced a team containing 3 German National Senior players and an Argentinean. This club participates every year in the European Club Competition.
The players gave the best performance I have seen from an England Juniors team . The organization of our defence was almost perfect which gave us a lot of good counter attacking opportunities. Unfortunately for us we came up against the German No 1 Goalkeeper who continually kept us out. Losing 1-0 at half time our team took control the game in the second half and we always believed we could score. We certainly deserved at least a draw considering that we missed 1 penalty and 2 direct free hits.
All players were used by again rotating them to keep fresh legs in the game.
Our second game was played only 2 hours later and we lost 5-1 to the Austrian National Senior Team, who proved to be very physical. Our players showed a lot tiredness which in turn caused a lack of concentration in the game. Our man to man restricted did not work as well as in the previous matches and as such we did not have enough power to initiate counter attacks. The 2-0 half time score reflected the poor performance of the team. In the second half we tried concentrating more, although the players wanted to push hard, their legs did not have the power to do so. Saying all this, I would like to emphasize the fact that we had 2 bad referees allowing the 2nd and 4th goals after our players had been pushed in to the barriers.
I am still happy with the progress of the team and we still achieved our objectives, improving the team play and the building of the team spirit off the rink.
Again in this game I have rotated all the players with Rupert scoring our only goal.
Our final game of the tournament will be against the German Under 17 National Team, which is the only non-senior team that are playing in this tournament.We will then be returning to England by car arriving in the early hours Monday morning.
Great win for England Juniors in TUS Nord Tournament (Germany)
England 2 TUS Dusseldorf Senior team 1 - Half Time 1-0
What a great performance from our Juniors team against one of the top 5 German Premier League teams!
We had a training session in the morning to correct some details from yesterday, such as our counter attack moves.
Man to man restricted pressuring the man with the ball worked to perfection in the first half. Dusseldorf failed to create many scoring opportunities and we had lot of good counter attacks stopped by their goalkeeper. Our goal came from a set up move (known as number 3) which improved our level of confidence.
In the Second Half, we played very well defensively and our second goal came from a very good counter attack move. In the last 10 minutes of the game we became very tired but the boys were very brave, keeping their position on the rink and always believing that we could win the game despite playing a senior team.
So far we have won 2 games out of 2, which is impressive considering the level of hockey at this tournament. Tomorrow we will play one of the best senior team's in Germany ERG Iserlohn at 13:00 hours and then a second game against Austria Seniors National Team at 16:00 hours. We are looking forward to these 2 games and more important than the win, is to carry on our job of improving the confidence of the team on the rink regarding tactics and building the team spirit off the rink.
Finally I would like to say that we have been implementing a system in England for all National Teams to play the same way. Although this Juniors Team have not had many sessions, most of the players have been training with us for the last 3 years and today we could see the results of the work done during the National Training Weekends.Goal scorers: Owen & Sergio
England Juniors Win Their First Tournament Game
England Juniors are participating in the TUS Dusseldorf-Nord Tournament in Dusseldorf, Germany and we beat the home Juniors team TUS Dusseldorf-Nord 4-3, playing the match under the new rules.
We defended very well with our man to man restricted, pressuring the man with the ball which let us have a lot of counter attacks when our team was not doing very well. However I called a time out whilst we were 1-0 down and our first goal came from a counter attack move with players moving off the ball much better as requested from my team talk at the time out.
Although I spent most of my team talk referring to the new rules, I was impressed with our response and the wining goal was scored from a direct free hit awarded from the 15th fault of German team. The good thing was that we only conceeded 9 faults.
We are having a training session this morning to work on counter attack moves and setting up moves from the carousel.
The Team:
- 1. Sam Cayley (Peterborough)
- 2. Tom White (Herne Bay)
- 3. Peter Marshall (Farnham)
- 4. Sam Kay - Captain (Middlesbrough)
- 5. Rupert Charles (Halifax)
- 6. Jon Taylor (Kings Lynn)
- 7. Sergio Hutson (Peterborough)
- 8. Owen Stewart (Middlesbrough)
- 9. Grant Bradfield (Norwich)
- 10. Jamie Williamson (HBU)
Sam Kay (2 goals), Owen Stewart & Sergio Hutson
All players participated in the match as I rotated the team to keep them fresh and this helped as 2 of our goals were set up by players brought on from the bench
I was pleased with the performance of all 10 players
We will play our second game tonight against the German Senior team TUS Herren. This will be a difficult game but in line with my objectives as we are here to improve our game defence and attack as well as build the team spirit off the rink.
Head Coach - Carlos Amaral
Manager - Val Conroy
Assistant Manager - Martin Conroy