Thursday, 1 May 2008

competition - day 5

last day of RR play, argentina in the morning, netherlands in the afternoon.

argentina game [because it was only 3rd match of the day] almost started on time. astounding stuff. we rolled over argentina 14-0.

by the time we got to the netherlands game [game 10 of 16 in pool 2] the games were running 40-45 mins behind schedule - so arriving 45 mins before scheduled kick-off for a carefully timed build-up is a bit pointless.
i don't know who thought that an international uwh match could be run and concluded in a 45 min slot, but they are badly mistaken.
let's just do the numbers: 30mins playing time, 3 mins 1/2 time, allow up to 4 mins for time-outs, loads of time for referees stoppages [cos there are plenty of those this week], maybe up to a minute for clock-stopping in the last 2mins of game time and you have probably eaten 40mins already. THEN there is the time wasted by the 24/7 tv folks. internet tv is a great thing for our sport, but it shouldn't be running our scoring systems and game clocks.
anyway, back to the game...

netherlands game started out with both teams fairly willing in the exchanges but we took control after about 5 minutes and got 3 goals ahead by half-time. after half-time we started to run away with the game and ended up winning 9-0. the dutch had a couple of well-seasoned campaigners sitting out of the game, so i can only assume they weren't too bothered by the score or result.

we are playing the dutch in the quarter finals on thursday, so the return match should be a much tougher affair as i expect the old stagers will be in the water.

all we need to know [for certain] is what time our game will be played. the playing schedule was altered last night to allow 60mins/game for the play-offs. fingers crossed.

2 comments:

Keeping up with the Jones' said...

Hey Andy and Co,

The campaign looks like it's going well - what about that draw with Colombia though?....

I'll be watching the game tonight and expect a good result. It all starts today...

Give 'em heaps

AJ

Unknown said...

congrats on 0.25 win good luck with semi's tomorrow