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Ladies
Schoolboys
Juniors
Seniors

21st to 23rd June
Seniors International Tournament in St Omer in France

21st to 27th July 2008
Seniors European Championships
8 countries are participating in this competition
Group A - Spain, Italy, France and Holland
Group B - Switzerland, Portugal, England and Germany
England will play their first against Portugal on Monday at 19:15 hours (18:15 hours in England).
Tuesday they play Switzerland at 15:45 hours & Wednesday their last group game against Germany at 17:30 hours.

The England Team:

• 1- Ian Smith (Middlesbrough)
• 2- John Jones (Middlesbrough)
• 3- Karl Smith (HBU)
• 4- Marc Waddingham (Grimsby)
• 5- Marc Rutland (Middlesbrough)
• 6- Grant Zaccarias (Middlesbrough)
• 7- James Taylor - Captain (Italy)
• 8- Michael Ableson (Middlesbrough)
• 9- Russell Lloyd (Plymouth)
• 10- Ian Morrison (Areces-Spain)

James Taylor captain of the team, mentioned his feelings regarding participation in this competition:
It is a new young team and because of limited preparation it is been hard to gel on the rink but from the time we have been together we are coming on well and I think it is positive for English Roller Hockey. Another positive is that off the rink there is a good "team atmosphere" and everyone gets on very well. Although we have had a short time together I feel very comfortable with my team mates. Everyone has a good understanding of the tactics and the way Carlos wants us to play. The objective is to be competitive in every game and improve for the "world's" next year. Hopefully we can get some positive results.
I have played under Carlos for many years now and I know that any team he coaches will be very organised, so I am always happy with that aspect.

Great Results for the Seniors Team.
England 0 - 7 Portugal
England 2 - 2 Switzerland
England 0 - 0 Germany
England 0 - 5 Italy
England 7 - 1 Holland

England lose 1-0 to Switzerland in the 5th/6th place play off

Although we started the game very consistently on man to man restricted in the first 10 minutes the team was static in attack. The players were not moving without the ball. A time out was called so I could speak to the players and then team started to move off the ball and we scored 2 goals in 5 minutes.

It was an exciting game with England showing superiority where we had the control of the game and everyone played. Now we will play Switzerland for 5th/6th place which is a great achievement for this team.

Russell Lloyd comments after the game:
This is my first opportunity to play at the senior level and I really enjoyed my first experience. The team played very well and today we showed confidence throughout the game. Carlos put me in the position where I was able to have a chance to score and with the help of the team I managed to score a goal with 5 seconds to go. I am extremely happy with this. I am now looking forward to the game against Switzerland.

The team showed a lot of tiredness and this caused a lack of concentration in defence. Our man to man restricted did not happen in the first 10 minutes and Italy scored 3 goals due to a lot of space given to them in the front of the goal. On a time out we corrected this issue and the team started to defend better and then we had a few counter attacks.

In the 2nd half, the team was more consistent and everyone played enabling us to rest players for next game.

Michael Ableson comments after the game:
The team was very tired after 2 hard games against Switzerland and Germany. A lack of concentration showed in the 1st half. After the team talk in the changing room the second half was more positive against a very physical team. We are now looking forward to play Holland; although it will be a hard game we are confident that we can beat them.

A great tactical game played by England with superb man to man restricted and well supported by the goalkeeper.

We have created the best goal opportunities in the game from counter attack moves.
In the 1st half we decided to give the initiative to the German team and explore the counter attack as they had always found it hard to beat our defensive system.

In the 2nd half we tried to play a more attacking game with 2 players close to the goal and 2 players coming from the back. With this system, we created a lot of problems for the Germans.

Although the game finished as a goalless draw, it was an exciting game where England showed a big improvement from previous competitions regarding consistency and confidence playing against higher ranking teams.

Marc Waddingham comments after the game: It is a good base to start on not conceding goals. We had great confidence in our defence and this allows us to explore more opportunities in attack.
A great effort by all and the game’s clearest opportunities were ours. We are looking forward to playing Italy in the quarter-finals and defending the same way.

Another excellent performance on the man to man restricted defence with good counter attacks.
The players concentrated well and had control of the game for the entire 1st Half.
We deserved be ahead on this 1st Half performance.

We started the second half like we finished the 1st Half, very concentrated and had the Swiss team under control; so when we scored the first goal there was no surprise.
Then Switzerland started to pressure us full rink creating some difficulties and they dominated the game in the 2nd Half due to tiredness. It was during this period they scored 2 goals.
However we never gave up and after a time out we made a tactical change keeping 2 players in their end with one always in the area, this way we scored our second goal with just 1 minute to go.

This was a great result considering we played the runners up from the World and European Championships.

John Jones comments after the game: Everyone was very pleased with the result against the 2nd best team in the world.
The morale in the team gets stronger everyday and we are hoping to finish the championships very strongly and looking forward to our game tonight against Germany.

An excellent first 15 minutes of the game saw England play at the same level as Portugal.
We were very focused and consistent on our man to man restricted making Portugal run out of ideas. During this period we created 4 good opportunities as well as missing a direct free hit before Portugal scored their first goal with 4 minutes to go. In the last minute of the 1st half we conceded 2 more goals from defensive mistakes.

Portugal dominated the 2nd Half due to tiredness of our players which is normal considering most of our players train once a week whilst the Portuguese are professionals training 4 times a week.

Overall England had one of their best performances against one the top teams in the world, well done.

Ian Morrison comments after the game:
It was a really professional effort from everyone with good attitude. At no time during the game did the team put their heads down. The defence is a lot stronger and if it was not for fitness we could probably have held up longer.
We are now trying to play against teams like Portugal rather then sit back. Now we look forward to playing Switzerland and with the same attitude we can cause an upset.

8th to 14th Sept
Schoolboys European Championships Viareggio in Italy

29th Sep to 4th Oct
Juniors European Championships in Herrington, Germany

5th to 12th Oct
Ladies World Championships in Akita, Japan

30th Oct to 1st Nov
Ladies Under 19's European Championships France