This Sunday 18th of November, the HK GIANTS were
playing their 5th game in the first division against Sun Nic Gan.
After receiving our new awesome kits on the last Friday, it was a good occasion
to honor our new colors and make sure we start a new series of win!
With 12 players on the game sheet, it’s with confidence that
we started warming up, welcoming 2 new players. Another French, Matthieu, and a
Hong Kong guy, Angus, new goalkeeper.
With 10min to go before the game, we had the bad surprise
that our designated coach couldn’t come due to personal issue. Nevertheless,
Jack ran to rescue us and make sure we have a valid coach for the game. Then, after
a nice coin flipping and a few shots on the keeper, it was time to shout our
war scream and scare as much as possible our opponents.
The game started on a normal basis, both team trying to find
accuracy and set up a strong defense. First 10 minutes were a bit messy, with
only 4 goals for each team. Our old Swedish scored first, followed by Stefan
and Trond. Then, it was time for the GIANTS to wake up and show some nice combinations.
Listening to the playmaker and pushing right or left brought us some easy
shots, which permitted us to score a 10-2 in 15 minutes, to finally lead by 7
points with 5 minutes to go in the first half.
The team kept up the strong defense, helped by a few
substitutions and reached the half time on the large score of 16-9.
The half time speech was easy as the defense was strong, and
the attack shown some very nice moves. Not much to say, just need to keep it up
and don’t lose our focus. With everybody agreeing that we should start the
second half on a 0-0 basis, the 7 players went back on the pitch ready to show
off.
Unfortunately, the GIANTS felt their usual lost of focus
directly from the first seconds and let the opponents score a 3-0 in 1min30. The
next 6 minutes were chaotic; the defense was passive, letting the players do
what they want. Hopefully, on some individual actions, we scored a few goals as
well to keep our 5 goals lead. But then, we went through our worst period since
the beginning of the season, losing focus, envy and solidarity. No more play,
no more defense, a lot of turnovers. Of course, our opponents enjoyed this and
in 8minutes, scored 6 goals to get back to a draw, 20-20. It was time to take a
time out and try to brace ourselves. Unfortunately, it was not efficient and a
second time out 5 minutes later was necessary, seeing our opponents leading us
22-21.
Hopefully this time, and with a few substitutions, the team
stood up and found back his spirit, getting back ahead by scoring a 6-2 in the
last 6 minutes. The final whistle arrived like a benediction and the score
27-24 for us doesn’t show enough the difficulties we had in 2nd
half.
We saw a double face game, with a first half really good,
strong defense and nice attack combinations. Some players found the frame and
scored easily. Also, the playing relationship between players starts to improve
and we are definitely getting better. But the second half was terrible, lost of
focus and bad decisions that brought us to a difficult end of game while we
were leading by 7 points at the half time. We need to improve this point and
keep focusing during 60 minutes. Against some better teams, we won’t have that
much chance!
A few highlights though, Trond, who finally happened to
shoot at 9 meters, and score 5 wonderful goals as well as block a few shots;
Matthieu, who scored his first goal with the team and 48h after arriving HK;
Angus, who did some really nice stops and survived a shot in the face, Rolf and
Ulf, great supporters!
With a few more games in December, we should as much as
possible try to come over for trainings, and keep the good stuff done. We have
now some proper sessions and drills, nice kits, a few new and motivated
players, so definitely no reasons to continue to win!
Hope to see you all very soon!
