After turning around Ireland’s 0-3 start with a win over Sweden and a thrilling overtime victory against Finland, it was time for the playoff rounds. Â In the play-in game, we would have to get by Slovakia to advance to the quarter-finals.
Slovakia is one of the newer national teams on the international scene, and the difference in experience played a big part in the game. Â Ireland’s offense was able to work & move to create openings that the Slovaks couldn’t cover to set up one scoring opportunity after another. Â Major praise goes out to Slovakia’s goalie, Nathaniel Gaspar. Â Young Nathaniel, only about 15 years old, came with the team primarily for the development experience but stepped into the starting role after an injury to Slovakia’s other goalie. Â Faced with a onslaught of shots by Ireland, Nathaniel had lots of great saves, but faced too many to overcome. Â Ireland won 15-3, putting us into a quarterfinal rematch against Germany, but the lesson of the game was to watch out for this young goalie in the future.
As lopsided games often go, the defense & attack on the other end get a little bored & often start talking. Â I started chatting with Bradley Vrecko, the Slovak attackman I was marking, and discovered that I had played against him in last year’s World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. Â In the course of things, he asked me to give a shoutout (quote “Yo, Bro”) to his former Slovak indoor teammate, my current Kentucky Stickhorses goaltender, and InLax blogger Patrick Crosby. Â That’s one of the great things about international lacrosse, and in Europe in particular- it’s still just small enough to be really friendly & personal, if you have the good fortune to do multiple events over the years.
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The European Championships is more than just the men’s tournament. Â The women are also competing at the same time. Â For the most part, it’s playing out as expected. Â Wales & England are undefeated in their pools. Â Scotland and Germany are close behind. Â Teams playing in the European Championships for the first time, Switzerland and Latvia, are understandably struggling to get their first wins. Â Latvia, it must be said, certainly has the most dedicated fans- enthusiastically and loudly present at every game- and one of the most spirited goalies I’ve seen in a long time. Â As I write this, I see that Switzerland just defeated Latvia 9-3 this morning.
Least predictable has been the middle of the pack. Â The most unpredictable game was undoubtedly the Ireland versus Netherlands game. Â Netherlands controlled the game early, but couldn’t pry the ball away from Ireland as they closed the gap in the second half. Â Added to the tension of a tight game was a controversial illegal stick call against Ireland in the second half that may have spelled the difference. Â At the final whistle the the Irish ladies… tied Dutch ladies. Â Based on goals scored & goals against in the tournament, Netherlands took 3rd seed in the pool over Ireland in 4th.
Over in the men’s festival, Eire, the Irish Developmental Team, is doing quite well without me. Â They finished pool play 6-2, including a hard-fought 3-2 loss to the Tel Aviv (essentially an Israel developmental team) yesterday afternoon. Â Both teams earned their way into the semi-finals today. Â Overall, the teams run a large gamut from fun and frivolous to seriously competitive. Â Global Players, as is usually the case are well organized & winning. Â The USA Starz are doing well, but exhibiting quite a bit more bro-ness, shall we say, than many mature and European laxers are happy to see at such an event. Â And some teams, such as the Crazy Cows, are embracing the notion that we play a game that is meant to be fun. Â Search around for some pictures of their goalie in a full-body cow costume.
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Quarter-finals day rolled around with Ireland set to face Germany. Â Given the tight game last time, we knew it would be a battle. Â Ireland won the first quarter 4-3 before the offense went on a tear in the second quarter. Â Time of possession was nearly all Ireland and we added 7 goals to go up 11-3. Â But Germany is a mature, experienced team, and they came out fighting. Â They made the best of their possessions in the third quarter, winning the quarter 5-2 and cutting our lead to 5. Â The pressure continued in the fourth quarter before we managed to escape with a 3 goal victory, 15-12.
Except for the second quarter, there was plenty of back-and-forth all game long. Â The prolonged effort, at the end of a long week of games, took its toll on us and on my old legs in particular. Â Tensions ran high all around. Â Plenty of mistakes were made, especially by me, by it was great to have everyone on defense working in support of one another, goalie Connor Sweeney making plenty of key saves, especially early in the game, and the entire offense clicking well to secure the win. Â Fortunately, while we were sometimes playing with frustration, Germany had to play three-fourths of the game with desperation. Â We managed to maintain composure well enough, especially on the clears (my area of personal pride) to earn our way into the semi-finals. Â This will ensure Ireland’s highest finish ever and gives us a chance to medal for the first time in a European or World Championships. Â The next step: another rematch game, against Sweden.
