Tough First Day

Game 1:

Lost 14 - 10 v Poland

As I highlighted before the game, the Poles were underseeded for the tournament. With the seedings seemingly based off just 2 tournaments this year, which only half the teams attended, there is a lot of potential for upsets. With Slovakia also performing above their seeding today it looks like we may have ended up the the group of death.

The Poles played a similar game to us, based around hard cutting and tough man defence and no fancy breaks, or throws, or tactics. The athleticism and height of their D line shut down our offences deep game ann although we moved the disc well we would suddenly make a simple mistake to turnover in nearly every point. Our D line played better than they have all seasons and managed a good few breaks to keep us in the game. As the game neared the end the O line went on a shockingly bad run and the Poles punished us to run out victors.

Game 2:

Lost 17 - 10 v Germany

The Germans were top seeds in our group and we knew this game was going to be very tough. The Germans played unusal structures on offence, often having four and sometimes even five handlers and two or three cutters. Their range and accuracy of throwing made it very tough for our defence to turn them. We went on a few runs but never looked like closing the gap that they had established early on. Our heads never dropped though, and we kept fighting them until the end. A much more encouraging performance than the first game. The O line looked more comfortable as the game went on, though still kept throwing away chances.

We have another tough day tomorrow against the 2nd and 3rd seeds in our group. Belgium come with a very good reputation and we lost badly to the Dutch at Windmill. We'll be hoping to cause an upset of our own. The mood of the team is still upbeat: we all know we can play much better than we have and are eager to prove that.