Sorry about the delay between postings and not having written anything to close off the game and give our final results.... however the last 4 days have been kind of a blur and I am still recovering from jet lag.
To start off, we won our final game vs. Russia 1-0 and ended up 5th for the tournament. A top 6 result at this type of competition is a solid one especially given the reality of how our team is put together and the support (or lack of) that we get from our national sports organization. Quite a few of the teams we played against are some form of development squad for their country's national program. China had been together getting ready for 4 months, Japan is made up of the bulk of their under 20 team, Brazil had 4 28 year olds with 6 of their team coming in from their World Cup team, and even Russia was largely made up of their u23 national team which will be playing in European qualifying in the next little while. Our only 2 losses came vs. the two finalists and yes while we did lose 6-0 to japan, we did lose only 1-0 to the eventual gold medalists... and we were a few inches away from a goal, a tie which won have won us the group and who knows what if that happened. Since that final game, the time in between has been a blur, we had little time for goodbyes and closure as we left the village early the next morning, spent 24 hours from leaving the village to arriving home. I had some downtime Tuesday but started up with my Concordia team that same evening and back to work Wednesday. School has started at Dawson, and with that, all the crazy that comes with it. and the start of the semester. From one great experience to knee deep in work and evenings of practice and games with the Stingers. I will get back shortly to write a little more about the experience in China beyond the soccer. Thanks to all of you who supported and followed our team...
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Today I have asked Veronique Laverdiere of Université of Montréal to share some of her thoughts and opinions about the games. This is Vero's second FISU games as she was part of the 2009 team and she has just completed a great 5 year CIS career having been named 2010 CIS player of the year. I have told her not to take it personally when I say that I won't miss not having to face her in RSEQ games moving forward. An injury forced her to miss the last 3 games but she will re-enter the lineup today.
take it away Vero L'experience est incroyable ici! Wow! Difficilement comparable au FISU 2009 en Serbie! Tout est simplement bien fait! Les instalations sont fantastiques, les stades ou nous jouons sont beaux, les chineses sont partout et ils sont si gentils et serviables! La ceremonie d'ouverture etait grandiose! Tout est fait en grand! Cote soccer, nous avons joue contre des bonnes equipes. Personnellement, je pense que nous avons bien fait. Le match contre le Japon en quart de final a ete tres difficile, mais le Japon meritait la victoire, car elles ont bonnes, fortes, techniques et rapides! Nous allons nous battre maintenant pour rester le plus haut possible dans la classement. Nous sommes capables puisque nous avons beaucoup de volonte et nous sommes des guerrieres! Match aujourd'hui contre la Coree! Disons qu'on aura fait tous les pays asiatiques!!! Un match difficle s'annonce, mais la confiance est la! Voila quelques nouvelles via la Chine par une French Quebecer!!! thanks Vero. Please excuse the lack of accents but it aws a crazy keyboard Two posts today.
Yesterday I headed downtown for my 3rd visit and second trip for shopping. I returned to the Dong Men Commercial section. This is a mix of standard retail stores, smaller market type areas and an indoor flea market type area. You can literally find anything you want here and as I was looking for some Nike running shoes, I certainly got to add another life experience to my collection. Following a few of the players who had previously been in this area, we were led to a closed garage door which after a knock was opened to expose shelves full of samples. Once you enter, the door closes behind you and you start to look for what you want. The language of course presents a barrier but funny enough you find ways to the messages back and forth using calculators, writing on paper and a collection of hand signals. Best part is trying to tell them which model and color you want in which size. More often than not, they will bring you the required size in another color or the right color in another size, and then proceed to convice you that this one is better than what you wanted and that the size really can fit you, even when it means putting a 9 one my size 10.5 feet. And then finally once you have found what you want, there the bartering starts. Between those of us there, we were purchasing 10 pairs and initially got the price down from 180RMB to 150 RMB which is what most of the players had previously paid. We tried to get it lowered and even hinted we would leave and not take any shoes at all, but they tried to call our bluff. Considering we were asking for 10RMB less or something like $1.50, it wasn't about the money but trying to win the bartering. In the end we took all the shoes at 150 RMB. I added a couple of additional purchases including a 2nd pair of Ray ban sunglasses not because I needed them but because it was fun to have gotten than at 1/4 of the initial price they wanted. I will head back to another market tomorrow to spend some cash , have some fun bartering and get my final glimpse of downtown Sh Well since I was a little slow getting back to writing here, those of you following the team probably know by now that we lost to Japan 6-0 in the quarter finals. While I don't think the score accurately represents the quality between the two teams, on the day, they ouplayed us and we didn't give our best. We were facing what everyone has considered the 2nd best team in this tournament and simply put through a combination of various circumstances (injuries, fatigue, and simply not being at our best), the result is what it is. Soccer is a weird sport and crazy things happen. While our game was going on, Mexico pushed Brazil to the brink of elimination only to lose in PKs.
Saddest thing about the game is the injury suffered by Andreanne Gagné. She has torn two ligaments and she will be out of soccer for a fairly extended period. While she is an opponent in the Quebec conference, I would not wish that on anyone. She has taken the news with a certain calm and reasoning but it has obviously dampered her spirits and those of the team (especially the girls who have gotten close to her). The nature of this tournament is that games are played out to determine all spots 1 to 12 so we still have two remaining. We have chose to look at it as our semi finals and finals for the 5th place spot which would still equal Canada's best ever result at this event. Tonight we play Korea and it won't be easy as we had set high goals and expectations for ourselves and there is always that natural down that comes from arriving a little short of where you hoped. As the games wind down, you can see life around the village slowly changing. More and more athletes have completed their events and with time to kill and not sport to get ready for, the social side of the games is coming to the forefront. Surely tomorrow or Sunday, we will see the traditional clothes exchange start to take place as athletes will be running around the village trying to get their hands of some cherished pieces of clothing that they might have spotted over the last t Today;s guest writer is Andreanne Gagné from Sherbrooke, I have asked her to share some of her thoughts and experiences from these her second games.
Hi everyone ! Today its a big day for us because we are playing in quarter final in a few hours, and we will play against a very good team, Japan. This experience in China is very good so far. The organization, the field... Chinese people are always there to help you. The only thing its hard to deal with is the weather. The weather is very very hot and humid. We are lucky to play at 7:30 pm cause we will not be able to play during the afternoon beacause its too hot. I think we also have a very good team who can beat japan tonight and go trought the tournament and finish with a medal. It will be tough but I know we can make it. So hopefully, I will write on this blog again soon, now its time forme to have a litte bit of rest. :) Andreanne In a few hours we will hit the field for our 1/4 final game vs Japan. Win or lose, we will still have to play 2 games until the end of the tournament as all places from 1 to 2 are competed for. However, obviously, the mood will be different depending on the outcome. For most people, we are probably going into the game as the underdog, but I strongly feel that we can compete with them and if both teams play to their potential, this is a game that could be very entertaining for anyone who attends. Two different styles, two different mindsets but most importantly, two highly competitive teams. Japan is further motivated by the success of their World Cup team's exploits and their confidence as a soccer nation is obvious.
Not much to write for the moment as we have just finished our game prep. and the players have scattered to get their rest and mentally prepare for what happens next Well, part one of our objective is now complete. We have moved forward into the quarter final phase of the tournament by finishing 2nd in our group. The cross over has us playing Japan tomorrow and it will be a big test. The team is fairly confident but we also know that to advance, we will need to play smart, follow the game plan and execute.
We are 90 minutes away from doing what no canadian team has done at FISU games and only one other female canadian soccer team has done (2003 World Cup) advance to the semi-finals of an international tournament. We went into yesterday's game knowing that a tie or win was sufficient to go through and if our first goal at the 8th minute didn't seal it, the second one at the 13th minute certainly did. We added a 3rd goal around the 70 minute and from then on it was just about managing the game and avoiding injuries or red cards. Life in the village continues to be exciting and today I got to experience the unique shopping venture in the market mall. Basically a flea market indoors where you have some legitimate stores and some lets just say , less so. There was a constant masez of stall where you can buy anything from clothes, shoes, electonics, $100 ipas (or something similar), golf dear, bikes, food, watches, sunglasses, and oh so much more. It was a nice break from the games and I picked up a few bargains. The fun part was watching the vendors avoid the police making sure that there was no contraband being sold ( a number of stores were sealed up with signs saying closed for 6 months due to incorrect product being sold and of course bargaining for the best price. If I had a $ for each time I heard " I give you my best price" I'd be rich.. even funnier that the best price quickly changed to the special price to the best special price for you from Canada and so on. I might return and go somewhere else but it was certainly something amazing to be in the market in a chinese city. Players are off to bed and tomorrow is about doing everything to be at our best for the game. Today is our final group game vs Taiwan and of the three possible scenarios (win, lose or tie), two are favorable to us, Simply put, a win or tie and we go through, a loss and it gets tricky as we will require help from other team. Our mindset is simply to go out and win the game outright and go into the elimination games with a positive result under our belts. What the the situation also means is that Taiwan has to chase the game needing a win as their only means of progressing in this tournament, so hopefully this might expose them at the back and open up space for us to attack. More importantly, an early goal and it might just discourage the opponent or make them have to open up even more. Our scenario is similar to two years ago where we went into the last game vs Poland needing and wanting a game and after a fairly early goal, Poland pretty much quit and we went on to win 4-0.
We had our pre-game briefing this morning and the players seem ready and committed. One very positive note is that in both of our 2 first games, we had been able to stick to our game plan and apply it very well. I am confident that if we do so today, we will win the game and potentially win it with more than 1 goal. We have a few injuries although nothing serious but most likely one of our strikers will be out for today. We have the depth to compensate so I am sure we won't see a drop off in play. The players are resting right now and soon it will be the final briefing followed by pre-game meal. I will hopefully be here talking about our big win tomorrow and have a few players share some of their thoughts. Some pictures are uploaded and I will have some more later today or tomorrow, not to mention adding some video A little more than 12 hours after walking off the field having lost to the hosts China, I have to consider that yesterday's game is really the tale of two distinct situations. On the competitive side, the loss makes have to do a little more work in order to achieve our first goal which was getting out of the group stage into the quarter finals. A win and we would have won our group, a tie, and we could have been almost assured of getting in, even if only by the back door 3rd place spots. On the other hand, from a life experience I can only say that it just adds to the wow factor that I am living at these games. I have had the privilege of coaching many players and team at varying levels and venues but yesterday is something I had never experienced previously and will most likely never experience again. While I doubt that the stadium was filled to the 40,000 capacity that everyone was talking about in the days leading up to the game, I do think that there were 30,000 plus and of course the crowd was slightly favoring the hosts. From the moment we walked onto the field for warm up, there seemed to be a constant buzz from those in attendance that made it hard to communicate on the field. Once the game started, at every Canadian error positive Chinese action, the volume rose and there was roar that engulged the stadium. I think that our players did the team, the CIS and their country very proud, a great team effort in front of a competitive reality that probably none ( or maybe only a few ) had ever had to face. As hosts, China made sure to field a strong team. Their captain is a 28 year old having participated in two World Cups and two Olympic games and their line up was scattered with players having international experience. Having not even qualified for this summer's World Cup, I am sure that China wants to be regain some standing among the world powers of women's soccer. This is a team that according to reports have lived together for 6 months training and preparing.. whereas our group has as of today, 16 days as a team..... so maybe just a little disparity.
While we might have been out possessed, I don't think we were out played, and we generated sufficient chances that with some timely finish, might have changed the final result. China's goal was in my opinion, there only really dangerous chance and when they did menace our net, Rachel our goalie or our back line found ways to neutralize before it was really an issue. Today is an off day for the team as we have cancelled practice. The players went through their recovery work this morning and are now scattered out shopping in town or exploring the village. We will attend our men's volleyball team vs. China tonight and then tomorrow refocus on the task at hand as we play Taiwan to move forward in the tournament. Hard to say how our opponents will approach the game but only a win helps them, so we have to make sure to be ready and manage the game in order to ensure we leave the field with a positive result. A tie or win and we will move forward to meet the winner of the France-Japan game, although at this point there are plenty of combinations still possible. More to follow Whether you are a sports fan or not, I think everyone at some point has watched an opening ceremonies to the Olympics or some other major games. It is one of those things that seems to fascinate people. I was always in awe of the spectacle, watching the athletes march in, the pomp and circumstance around the entire stadium.
Last night, the team and I had the chance to live what will probably be one of those events that will remain with us for the rest of our lives. The evening was long as the logistics of moving 11,000+ individuals from the village to the stadium hosting the ceremonies was quite an undertaken. Once off the bus, we had to walk through a maze of parking lots, tunnels and ramps to bring us right to the main entrance of the stadium. We could hear the noise inside as it gradually built up. Suddenly , there was a light show with loud music but again we couldn't quite see what was going on although the cheering in the stadium was overwhleming.... suddenly the wall in front of us seemed to part (it was like 12 stories high) and suddenly we got our first glimpse into the stadium, all light up, 40,000+ people cheering , music blaring and one by one the team entered the stadium as we have seem time after time at Olypmics. When Canada's turn came, we were led down the ramp between a row of dancing volunteers (poor kids I think there had to do the same dance moves for 90 minutes as all the team filtered in). Suddenly you are engulfed in the middle of the stadium ! I don't think anything I write could fully capture the atmosphere at that moment. I was trying to videotape and hopefully I will be able to load it on this site (having trouble getting picture on here also) For 3 + hours, we were had music, dancers, cheering all around us non stop. I can honestly say that the feeling at those first moments are hard to rival and to explain. The term goosebumps might not be enough to truly describe the tingling. One great experience was getting to see our athletes , my players experience it and see it through their eyes. I can understand how Olympic athletes share a a bond once they have gotten the chance to go through an event like this. For a few moments, you are TEAM CANADA, representing the country in the eyes of the world. The team is enjoying some quiet time now as we wait for our game briefing and pregame meal.. tonight will be a huge test as we face China, at home, in a 40,000 seat |
AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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