If ever a nation could will a team to success then a medal would be in the bag for the GB women's handball team. So much has been written, televised, tweeted and blogged about the way the team has come together, sacrificed careers, relationships and friendships just to live out the Olympic dream.
And after the win over African champions, Angola, in the opening rounds of the test event that has been taking place all this week at the Copper Box – as the Olympic handball arena is known – anything seemed possible.
For a moment the dream of a quarter final place at next year's Games seemed a possibility, and the team, and its fervent band of supporters, walked with a new sense of purpose around the sparkling new venue that will host those aspirations in seven months time.
The teams line up before the match
But a loss to Austria on Friday meant the team was playing for a fifth/sixth place rather than a semi-final spot at this six-team test event, and it was a much more subdued group of players that took to the field against Slovakia on Saturday.
Slovakia, on the other hand, approached the match with a discipline and assertiveness that seemed to rock the GB team from the opening minute. Within the first 45 seconds Slovakia had exposed the home nation's short comings in defence and were 1-0 up and for most of the first half the GB team were nursing at least a three goal deficit. The score at half-time was 16-9.
Excellent goal-keeping by the Slovakian goal-keeper Trochotour played a big part in the visitors dominance, but so too did some sloppy catching by the GB players and some often very negligent loss of possession when in attacking positions.
There were good things about the GB performance. They won the second half 8-6 following a better defensive performance. Lynne McCafferty, the captain, played a typically gutsy game, throwing herself bravely into the path of the Slovakians when both attacking and defending, but she showed a lack of guile when falling for the Slovakian trickery, resulting in two sendings-off.
GB on the attack
Holly Lam-Moores was the shining star in the GB team. She scored five goals, was always positioned well and made good, incisive runs to set up attacks. The tallest player on the home team, Kathryn Fudge was disappointing and the keeper Jayne Mays, despite some good shot-stopping in the second half, needs to work much harder to deserve her place.
The second half saw an improvement by the GB side but the final score of 22-17 to Slovakia and confirmation that the GB side were sixth out of six, demonstrated that there is much work to be done. A more disciplined defence, stronger ball-handling skills and more intrinsic patterns of play are desperately needed if this team is to achieve it's dreams next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment