Team France 439 - 22 Team Nederland
Quedalles 231 - 100 HDG
PARIS, 22 JUNE 2014
Quedalles 231 - 100 HDG
PARIS, 22 JUNE 2014
The scores are eloquent enough... Team France dominated the whole game, leaving only 6 lead situations to the Nederland, and managing 4 jams of 2' containing the Dutch jammer on their initial pass (random facts).
However, to both teams' credit, despite the score gap separating them, they remained fair-play in the purest derby tradition, in a game that remained pleasant to cheer for, despite the lack of suspense!
The Quedalles and the HDG opened the event with the rematch of last season's bout in Montpellier.
The Quedalles had seen their selection modified not long before and had spent the last two games finding each other, with the middle-term goal of reducing the score gap from one game to another on their last 3 games, the third one being now. As for the HDG, they had a blended roster with elements of various levels from girls doing their maiden bout to Team France players... not the easiest mix!
The game promised to be somewhat challenging for both teams, given the situation they were in, and the tight score of their last bout (the difference had been made on the last jam!) Yet, the Quedalles imposed their game right away and for the whole bout, steadily scoring and keeping a cool head, leaving no chance to the southerners.
It was a goodbye game for a good number of people on both sides, they will be missed
FRANCE Vs. NEDERLAND (439-22)
Suspense is broken soon enough. The Dutch score their first 4 points on the 6th jam... But at that point, the French have already taken a 71-point lead, with more or less the same pattern: the French jammers unrelentingly take the inside left open on curve one and get the lead, while their blockers wear out the Dutch jammers on their initial pass.
On the second half of the first period, the Dutch make the most of French mistakes, finding themselves either outnumbered or jammer-less, to glean a handful points more.
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| click to enlarge |
At the break, France is leading 206 to 16. Goals are redefined: doubling their points and preventing the Nederland to double theirs. Challenge accepted.
And the Dutch have to struggle even more to collect points, now and then, on the second period. They have to fight for 8 jams before adding 2 more points to their pool, while the French are already flirting with the bar of the 300... (5th jam was one of those neverending 2' jams with a 35-point harvest for France...) And they won't pass a single pair of scoring hips for the last 10 jams!
Team France's defense proved to be deadly efficient on the Dutch, even managing to hold the jammers the whole 30'' during counter-powerjams, as it happened a couple of times.
QUICK ANALYSIS
According to what I saw of the game, several facts participated in such a score and level gap between the two teams, amongst which: (WARNING -- This is totally simplified, subjective and based on 1 hour of play only!)
Team France's defense proved to be deadly efficient on the Dutch, even managing to hold the jammers the whole 30'' during counter-powerjams, as it happened a couple of times.
QUICK ANALYSIS
According to what I saw of the game, several facts participated in such a score and level gap between the two teams, amongst which: (WARNING -- This is totally simplified, subjective and based on 1 hour of play only!)
- Very pragmatically speaking, Team France has been working together for months and played a couple of games against hefty opponents, whereas Team Nederland is still pretty new and had their first national training weekend one week after the game. The least to say is that the French had a good head start as for team work.
- That being said, the French also had an overall advantage on reactivity and footwork precision, the jammers being able to juke the opposing blockers, while the blockers would overcome the opposing jammers with dexterity, forcing the latters to opt for more driving, the most energy-greedy option. Add to it the fact that the Dutch blockers were busy defending, i.e. couldn't afford helping their jammers as much as they needed. That body of exhausting facts got the better of the Dutch jammers' energy stock. It resulted in a very disturbed and heterogeneous jammer rotation on the visitors' side after a dozen jams only... and it's hard to score with dead scorers...
CONCLUSION
I was obviously a bit sad not to be on the track to share such a
victorious team work moment! but at least I had the opportunity of admiring my team putting on a great show.
I am aware that Team France is a big team in numbers (40 players - a little less now, though) and that decisions have to be made for each roster. Not being rostered (for whatever reason) is never easy and yet, the performances of our team mates on the track depend on each one of us, on how we challenge and help each other, on how we build up this team unit together, at each training, at each meeting.
There's necessarily a bit of everyone of us on that track, WE'RE THE BRICKS OF A M*F* WALL.
Some details are perfectible and we've still got a long, long way to go. But we are now advanced enough to look back and contemplate the progress we've made. And it's huge.
No matter what happens next, we've proved that we're a real functionning team, a team to be proud of.
USEFUL LINKS
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| "Dank Je" / Credit: The Blastart |
I am aware that Team France is a big team in numbers (40 players - a little less now, though) and that decisions have to be made for each roster. Not being rostered (for whatever reason) is never easy and yet, the performances of our team mates on the track depend on each one of us, on how we challenge and help each other, on how we build up this team unit together, at each training, at each meeting.
There's necessarily a bit of everyone of us on that track, WE'RE THE BRICKS OF A M*F* WALL.
Some details are perfectible and we've still got a long, long way to go. But we are now advanced enough to look back and contemplate the progress we've made. And it's huge.
No matter what happens next, we've proved that we're a real functionning team, a team to be proud of.
Next Team France public event will be held in OSLO where we'll meet the Norwegian Team on August, 9th. FACEBOOK EVENT
USEFUL LINKS
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