11th League Day

Hi all,

On Sunday our both teams had another set of games lined up. Now as we are coming closer to the end of the pool rounds, all teams are trying to positioning themselves for the upcoming playoffs.

The Vikings women team was scheduled to play the Vic Uni women team at 3:30pm. Unfortunately we were informed around mid-day that Vic Uni didn’t had enough player available and therefore they defaulted the game. The girls were really looking forward to the game and were sad to see it cancelled.

At 6:30pm, the Vikings men team were scheduled to play the Spartanz men team. So far the Spartanz had a rough season but you can see they are improving constantly and especially their young players showing good potential. In addition the Spartanz welcomed back to founders of the club, Rob and Pat who were excited to join the team and both showed they didn’t miss a beat. (Welcome back).
The game started relatively slow, both teams seemed to hold back and a low score in the first half showed that there was more to come in the second half. The Vikings started to build an early lead (2:0, 4:1) but from there they couldn’t pull away and the Spartanz stayed close (6:4, 9:6, 10:8). The main issue for the Vikings at this phase was that we just could convert our chances, we either hit the post, we missed the goal or the Spartanz goalkeeper was showing his improved skills and denied our scoring opportunities. The halftime score (12:9) was not what we expected and certainly unsatisfying if we take in consideration the amount of clear chances we had.
At halftime the Vikings team was asked by the coach to increase the intensity on both ends of the floor and to focus more when finishing.
And there it was, the second half started with a roaring Vikings team playing now with an high intensity, especially in attack. We quickly extended the lead (17:12, 26:18) but our defensive efforts slacked a bit and allowed Spartanz way too many chances in this period. After a timeout the team intended to stay more compact in defense and to keep doing what we were doing in attack. Over 33:23 we build further our lead to the final score of 40:26.
Vikings men: Petr; Pierre 7, Daniel 6, Rafael 6, Jack 5, Luke 4, Ben 4, Nino 3, Harry 3, Fred 2

Next Sunday, the last day of pool games:
Vikings men – 5:00pm – vs Vic Uni HC
Vikings women – 6:30pm – vs Spatanz HC