Wintercup @ Heilbronn
05/03/07 17:55
Outcome: 2nd place in league.
Summary: Congratulations, Ultimate deLux! Wintercup Day 4 was a bruiser, but that didn't stop us. At the end of the qualification rounds, we're number 2 in the league, and are only two matches away from winning the entire Wintercup. Not bad for a new team, eh?
As for the Day 4 matches at Heilbronn, the final tally isn't telling. The team visibly improved as the day went on, especially considering that this was Hannah's first ever tournament, and only Bojan's second. We lost the first three games, but won the last, most cricital one.
Due to the rash of injuries taking out Fred, Steve, and Michael, we only had six people make the trek from Luxembourg to Heilbronn. We left at about 9AM, but wound up having to take a 10 minute detour through Trier on our way to give a ride to a Trier player because the exit we wanted to take was closed. We still got there with 30 minutes to spare, which was plenty, and set about warming up. It turns out that most of the other teams were in similar straits, having lost many of their players to the German national qualifications being held the same weekend.
Our first game was against the Dusseldorf Juniors. The Juniors are all, well, young, with the exception of their coach. We had a dramatic size advantage over them, but that wasn't enough. The Juniors knew how to run, catch, and throw, and they used it to their advantage. Many a pass was thrown to an open receiver making a great cut. It's awe-inspiring to see a 12 year-old kid catch a screaming knife throw for the point. We kept the game close, but at the end lost 10-11.
The second game was against Simple Mainz, which yesterday was basically a pick-up team. Since Mainz is home to one of the best teams in the nation, most of their players were gone and the team we played against only had one person from Mainz. (Not that we can complain, the Luxembourg team hasn't had anyone from Luxembourg yet in a tournament!) For the first 20 minutes we played a close game, but the fatigue of only having 6 players beat us down and we started making too many bad passes and bad cuts toward the end, giving up three points in a row for a final score of 7-10.
The third game was against 1st ranked Muggeseggele (say that 10 times fast!), a team of young players from Heilbronn who are just now growing into their prime. It was a very difficult game, as they had the experience of time (5 years playing together), the speed of youth, and the size of, well, adults. This team is definitely one to watch in the future. They played a zone against us all game, which had its effect since our beginners had never seen this before. With the help of some pickup players from Kaiserslautern and Trier, we managed to keep the game a lot closer, and felt much more energetic, but we still succombed to their superior style, losing 7-10.
The last game was against Heidees from Heidelberg. We had help again from some pickup players, and managed to take this one home. It was still a tough battle, with the lead swinging from team to team. At one heart-stopping moment, right after we tied up the game, the Heidees dropped the huckoff, giving us the disc right on their zone! Unfortunately, we lost the disc several seconds later, and the Heidees managed to get back the lead. However, we didn't let that get us down, and this time we wanted the win and went for it. We tied the game back up and in the end we managed to take a decent lead and hold onto it. We won 10-7, securing our place in the top bracket at the Frankfurt playoffs in two weeks.
Ultimate deLux was:
Bojan
Hannah
Ines
Kenn
Laura
Martin
Summary: Congratulations, Ultimate deLux! Wintercup Day 4 was a bruiser, but that didn't stop us. At the end of the qualification rounds, we're number 2 in the league, and are only two matches away from winning the entire Wintercup. Not bad for a new team, eh?
As for the Day 4 matches at Heilbronn, the final tally isn't telling. The team visibly improved as the day went on, especially considering that this was Hannah's first ever tournament, and only Bojan's second. We lost the first three games, but won the last, most cricital one.
Due to the rash of injuries taking out Fred, Steve, and Michael, we only had six people make the trek from Luxembourg to Heilbronn. We left at about 9AM, but wound up having to take a 10 minute detour through Trier on our way to give a ride to a Trier player because the exit we wanted to take was closed. We still got there with 30 minutes to spare, which was plenty, and set about warming up. It turns out that most of the other teams were in similar straits, having lost many of their players to the German national qualifications being held the same weekend.
Our first game was against the Dusseldorf Juniors. The Juniors are all, well, young, with the exception of their coach. We had a dramatic size advantage over them, but that wasn't enough. The Juniors knew how to run, catch, and throw, and they used it to their advantage. Many a pass was thrown to an open receiver making a great cut. It's awe-inspiring to see a 12 year-old kid catch a screaming knife throw for the point. We kept the game close, but at the end lost 10-11.
The second game was against Simple Mainz, which yesterday was basically a pick-up team. Since Mainz is home to one of the best teams in the nation, most of their players were gone and the team we played against only had one person from Mainz. (Not that we can complain, the Luxembourg team hasn't had anyone from Luxembourg yet in a tournament!) For the first 20 minutes we played a close game, but the fatigue of only having 6 players beat us down and we started making too many bad passes and bad cuts toward the end, giving up three points in a row for a final score of 7-10.
The third game was against 1st ranked Muggeseggele (say that 10 times fast!), a team of young players from Heilbronn who are just now growing into their prime. It was a very difficult game, as they had the experience of time (5 years playing together), the speed of youth, and the size of, well, adults. This team is definitely one to watch in the future. They played a zone against us all game, which had its effect since our beginners had never seen this before. With the help of some pickup players from Kaiserslautern and Trier, we managed to keep the game a lot closer, and felt much more energetic, but we still succombed to their superior style, losing 7-10.
The last game was against Heidees from Heidelberg. We had help again from some pickup players, and managed to take this one home. It was still a tough battle, with the lead swinging from team to team. At one heart-stopping moment, right after we tied up the game, the Heidees dropped the huckoff, giving us the disc right on their zone! Unfortunately, we lost the disc several seconds later, and the Heidees managed to get back the lead. However, we didn't let that get us down, and this time we wanted the win and went for it. We tied the game back up and in the end we managed to take a decent lead and hold onto it. We won 10-7, securing our place in the top bracket at the Frankfurt playoffs in two weeks.
Ultimate deLux was:
Bojan
Hannah
Ines
Kenn
Laura
Martin