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.

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.

It’s getting closer…

Pretty much one month left until the WUGC2008. We have five more training sessions with the team before the first game in Vancouver. In addition we are going to Stuttgart in two weeks to a mini tournament with the national teams of Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland. It will be exiting to see the other teams and play some tough games before Vancouver.

This week we were finally able to reach a decision on what we want to wear in the games. Delaying the decision made it that much simpler as there were only two options left we could get before travelling to Vancouver. Delivering gear for 20 people in the middle of the vacation season is not as quick as we would have wished.

Sore toes

The second training camp was a success. Sun shined and every one was motivated. It is challenging to fit the different styles of different teams together, but as the weekend got further the playing got better.

The weird part of the weekend was the reservation system of the field. Apparently football players are used to having access to the field at all times. It was very hard for them to comprehend that we really did have the whole field reserved for us. And that we actually needed the whole field for ourselves. And that we didn’t want to let them use the grass and go to the sand or to the park. Luckily we got the field manager on our side and were able to keep the valuable field time to ourselves.

The weekend was hard, at least on our toes. Half of the people had found their old worn out cleats for Sunday because it was too painful to put the new fitting cleats on. Black toe nails is the new trend among us…