Watching the Finals

We beat the Swiss again, the score was 17-8 again. It was a nice good spirit game. Very European ultimate, which we are very good at.

The final day of the Worlds began rainy. We had a nice party yesterday and everyone has gotten over the bitterness of falling out of the top eight. Slowly it is time to start thinking what are the lessons we have learned here. One of the most obvious things we take from here is the fact that defense is much tougher than we are used to in Europe. Also the determination to get the disc by any means necessary (jump / lay out / fight / run) caught us by surprise. In the top teams every one has their eye on the disc at all times, so even when we though we had gotten a turn over there was still someone reaching for the disc. When it comes to playing as long as the disc is in the air, I think even Mexico beat us.

Womens’ ultimate is developing towards mens’ game, at least everywhere else than Europe. Tougher, more physical, quicker handling, more straight forward and typically bending the rules rather than playing with good spirit. We are really nice markers, in ten games we got only two or three calls of marker fouls. In the women’s final Japan called that more marker fouls to US in one half time.

Next up is the open final game, we’ll see how dirty it gets between US and Canada.

Afternoon and Evening Activities

First we decorated our players tent.

Finland tent

Then after dinner it was time to do some laundry and go to the Ship Wreck beach for some stretching. The beach was unbelievably beautiful, but the stairs leading to and from the beach were a bit heavy on our tired legs. Ship Wreck beach is also known for being a naturist beach, so we saw some Canadian ass as well. There was a good party going on on the beach so we left pretty soon. Otherwise we would have felt too sorry for ourselves not being able to participate (with clothes on), our morning game tomorrow is at 8:30 already…

The beach

Stretching

Cold treatment in the ocean

Let the Games Begin!

The Finns waiting for the ceremonies to begin

Every one has landed safely to Vancouver and found the accommodation, cafeteria and the fields. Today we held the final practice before the first game against Switzerland on Sunday morning. Jet lag is getting better all the time and finally today the weather changed for the better. The forecasts say it’ll be sunny for the whole week! After four days of more or less solid rain a bit of sun is much appreciated.

The opening ceremony was truly a display of different cultures… Indonesian and Indian folk dance, capoeira and speech by an indian warrior. Team Finland also got a lesson on how to make noise in the crowd, as we sat in between the teams from Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Dominican Republic. Latino, latino, si senor…

So this is it. One more night and then it’s on! Let the games begin!

At Last it’s Warm in Finland

Team pow wow

Today we had our last training session in Finland. Next, and last one before Worlds will be in Vancouver. At last we got some sunshine and heat to Helsinki, and boy did we enjoy it. The practice went well and we all confessed that we have learned something during the spring and summer. We’re traveling to Vancouver with great confidence and really looking forward to some tough games.

Third Place in Stuttgart

The European mini-tournament for the top national women’s teams was held in Stuttgart last weekend. We beat the Swiss and the Italian national teams, but lost for GB and Germany. It was really educational to play against the different teams with such different tactics. Our defense got little bit better game after game, but our offense was a bit moody. It rained pretty hard on Sunday but it really didn’t affect our game, or our spirit. Even though we lost a couple of games the tournament was a really positive experience, even the players sleeping in the tents were happy. This was a perfect way to begin the last three weeks of preparation for the main event. Thanks for the German team for the arrangements!

The pools for the WUCG2008 were released last weekend as well. We have USA, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Ireland, New Zealand and Mexico in pool B. Should be intresting, it’s nice to have so many non-European teams in our pool!

Our saviour during the rainy Sunday, a three bedroom tent we called “Barbapapa”. The lounge provided a nice shelter to keep our gear relatively dry.