Great Britain fall short in crunch German match
The Great Britain korfball team have missed out on qualification
for the semi-finals of the European Korfball Championship
on goal difference, after losing their crunch match 14-7 to
Germany on Day 3 of the tournament. Great Britain had previously
confidently secured their first victory of the campaign on
Day 2, against the highly regarded Russian team.
Day 1 had seen Great Britain in their opening match lining
up against a strong Dutch team. A training hall injury earlier
in the day saw starting eight Carly Holness benched to rest
a "dead leg". This meant a slightly altered line-up
of Dave Synott, Dave Brooks, Ella Wright & Karen Sparrow
and Rob Williams, Steve Green, Nsemeke Ukpong & Aimee
Evans
Despite a final score of 19-6 to the Dutch, the whole team
played well and controlled the tournament favourites. Considering
the last time the Belgians faced the Dutch it finished 18-6,
this was a good performance all round including that of substitutes
Rob Mann, Sam Wells, Ross Bower and Dean Woods
Day 2 saw Team GB face a Russian side buoyed by their own
Day 1 victory over the German team. With focussed preparation
on exploiting Team GB's experience and creativity over a Russian
side with static tactics it proved to be a comfortable victory
with GB never looking as though they would lose control of
the game. The starting line-up remained the same but with
Carly back in for Ella. Final score 15-12, with a good spread
of goals across all of the starting eight.
This meant that a victory, or even a narrow defeat, against
the Germans, would take Britain into the semi-finals. However,
the team went down 14-7 against a fired-up German team. Creating
chances and space for themselves, they just failed to capitalise
on this and finish off their shots.
After a day of rest which can only help to sort out the injuries
and niggles to the side that included seeing Carly again benched
after her additional Day 2 injury, Team GB will look to come
back stronger than ever to assert themselves in the cross-finals
on Thursday and Saturday, to secure qualification for the
2007 World Championships.
|
