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.

FIN - ITA at Jericho Beach

The games didn’t go quite as planned. Today we played Italy on Pool C, which means positions below 9. We won the game 17-6 on the beautiful Jericho Beach field. The scenery was amazing, and although we had heard the fields can be quite windy there was practically no wind today. We wallowed in the disappointment of losing to Colombia for a little while and then decided to play tough until every game of the tournament was played. This time we began strong and we stayed strong throughout the game. The goal is now to take the same attitude to the game against Switzerland tomorrow morning and finish in the ninth position. And then off to the beer garden…

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

We lost the game against USA 17-8. The first half was very even, each team scored one point when it was their offense. Then in the other half, our defense was still good, but our offense suffered from our own unforced turn overs. Anyhow, we saw some big jumps and huge lay outs, which tells how intense the game was until the very end. The game style of the Americans is so much more physical than the European style, it’ll take us a while to get used to it.

FIN - USA

We didn’t know what to expect from the Irish ladies. Getting to the University Hill fields was an adventure itself, we had to navigate the route to our bus driver and the other bus took some of our girls to a wrong place. But the itself was in great shape, the day was not yet too warm and we were feeling good. This time our game began better but the Irish were defending strong and offending well against our zone defence. The game was good fun, and it was really nice to see that the Irish have a good team in the Worlds. The final score was 17-9.

Now some lunch and some rest.

We began our morning by cheering our open team to a victory against New Zealand. From there it was time to start our own tournament.

The first game against Switzerland was quite difficult for us in the beginning, and we were already three points behind them when we got ourselves together. We won the game 17-8 by continuously improving on the defense and making solid, patient work in the offense. It was a really tough and fair game, a perfect way to begin the tournament. The weather was ptimal for playing and having fun on the field. It was sunny, warm, with a little breeze cooling us down.

The second game was against Italy. The lunch on the fields was pretty lousy between our two games. We heard that there had been some food, but we didn’t see any. So most of us were pretty hungry by the time the game began. We started really badly again. Hunger of course is no excuse, we just sucked. We gave the Italians a good lead before we began playing, and throughout the game they made us work really hard for the points. The final score was 17-6.

We also had The Finnish Night today, we got to know the other Finns from open and junior girls team. It nicer to know who you’re cheering to.

And now, after a good dinner and some painful stretching it’s time to go to bed early. Tomorrow morning at nine we face Ireland and later in the afternoon will be our first game against a non-European team – the US. Should be very exiting, since for many of us it’s the first time against the US. We’ll see how it goes.

Although we try to update the blog quite quickly after the games, we can’t provide live results. Sorry.

Luckily the WUGC 2008 website does. To see how we’re doing, real time, click to the results page.

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!

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.

Yippee! Someone is reading! Where are you people from?