Jaguars in Güstrow

Only few days after we had come back from our training camp,
on Friday 17th of July, Jaguars went to the tournament in Güstrow – our first international tournament abroad this year. Our team participated in this traditional tournament, which was organised by Nording Bulls for the ninth time, for the fourth time already. We got the fourth place in the year 2013. Our goal was to end at least one place better.

The way to Güstrow was long. Güstrow is almost by the sea in the north after all. However traditional jams weren’t that bad this time so we reached our destination quite early – about fourth o’clock in the afternoon. We were welcomed by already known comfortable accommodation. Jaguars came in six players – Iva, Jana, Denis, Pavel, Stanislav and Jan.

_DSC1990On Saturday we went to the Sports hall which we know even better. A day full of matches was waiting for us – seven teams, one group and game “each-with-each” for 2×15 minutes. Unfortunately, we got the tougher opponents at the beginning of the day. The first of them was the team Black Knights Dreieich. We know each other very well. We beat them only once – last year at Prague Powerchair open in play-off so we stole the finale. And Black Knights remembered well – they were ready and with all great players. Back then in Prague one of them was missing. We got two a bit unfortunate goals right at the beginning – bounces of our players. Then Stanislav shot two goals so it was 2:1, but the opponent added more goals. Stanislav scored once again and Jan added one more goal. The final result – 8:3 for Black Knights.

The second match was against home team Nording Bulls. We managed to beat them once – right here in 2013. So we had a hope. The game was equal this time. Stanislav opened the score and we kept the equal score for quite a long time. The first half ended promisingly – 1:3 for the home team. But we added only one goal from the Denis´s stick while the opponent scored twice. The final result – 2:5 for Nording Bulls.

The match against Rebellz Berlin was the third morning match. We won 5:1 in 2013. The team was in quite weaker composition this year – only one H-stick player and she resigned soon, even if she scored at least once. We won 16:1. Goals went to Stanislav, Denis and Iva.

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And there were other three matches in the afternoon. The first opponent was the team Nording Bulls II. We won 14:1. Rocky Rolling Wheels Berlin was our next opponent. We beat them 4:0 in 2013. This time we beat them 12:0. Two successful penalty shots helped – Staníslav and Jan were the shooters.

The last opponent of the day was from the group of the tough again – Iron Cats Zürich. They beat us 4:0 in 2013. Although they played without their probably most significant player Aylin Ylmaz this year, we weren’t able to go trough their T-stick defence game still. We lost 3:1.

So we ended on the fourth place in one group the first day. We shot 48 goals and received 18. Needed to say that Stanislav was the scorer of the day with 35 goals. The play-off and the fight for the finale was ahead of us. Our opponent was the winner of the day – Black Knights. The memory of beating them last year and stealing the final last year was still in our heads and we wanted to do it again. The match duration changed to 2×20 minutes.

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So we came to play our crucial match with our black-and-white opponent on Sunday. And we started better when Stanislav scored the first goal. However then came the response – four opponent´s goals. But we responded with other three goals. The first half ended 7:5 for the opponent but the hope was still alive. However the score of the second half was opened by the opponent. But Stanislav reduced the score. But opponent added a goal again. Stanislav scored. The Opponent scored. We scored again. But we weren able to react to two other goals so we lose 12:8. It was really interesting match though. Unfortunately there were moments when the only difference was the speed of our wheelchairs. If our players got into fast break the faster opponent´s players caught them easily. We can compete with our game, but our technical equipment is uncompetitive.

Finally we played the match for the third place with Iron cats, who lost their semi-final match with Nording Bulls. It is very hard to get through their defensive and blocking game. It is almost impossible to get rid of the fast and quick-witted T-stick players. We tried to do our best still. However our situation hadn´t been loking good since the beggining. The opponent led with tho goals when Denis managed to score for the first time. When the opponent added other three goals Denis scored again. But the opponent added goal again and won the first half 6:2. We managed to keep the game in the second half better. The opponent added only two other goals. Stanislav scored once and also Denis scored. We lost 9:4 and got the fourth place.

The final won the home team Nording Bulls after the interesting match in added time 9:8.

So on the seventh place of the ninth year of the tournament Euro-Cup ended the team Nording Bulls Lalendorf II., the sixth were RSC Rebellz Berlín, the fifth Rocky Rolling Wheels Berlin. We were the fourth. The third were Iron Cats Zurich, the second Black Knights Dreieich and the winners were Nording Bulls Lalendorf.

One more goal kept Stanislav from receiving the title for the best scorer – he got 43 goals and Silvio Grubert from Nording Bulls 44. Denis was with 14 goals the ninth scorer. Jan scored twice and Iva once. Needed to mention the great game of T-stick player Pavel who was in the basic line-up for this tournament.

We thank to our coach Andrea who trains us and change tactics as needed. It is not possible without a coach. Thank to our assistants and drivers Marie, Jenda and Matěj. And thank to our little mascots and technicians Matěj and Jonáš.

We are looking forward to the next year.