Mixed is moving forward!
July 3, 2019 by Peter Jesse in Recap with 0 comments
Tuesday saw the final games of the initial group stages and the first time Great Britain met elite competition. Russia’s mixed team could not challenge GB who looked unstoppable at times in a decisive 14-9 win for the Brits. The strong breeze made the job for the D-lines easier the whole day. The wind is swirly and inconsistent. It seems to be the same way every day it starts with a light breeze in the morning, gets stronger, and dies down in the evening. Field 2 which is shown on the EUF Facebook page seems to be the windiest field of them all.
In the morning the final round of the initial group stage was played. After Denmark’s Win on Monday against Russia Group X had the potential to be decided by points difference In the windy condition Germany suffocated any hopes of a win for the Danes very early and after a 8-1 first half the chances were slim that Denmark would score enough points to secure a spot in power pools.
Germany handled the wind a lot better. German players like Sebastian Spiegel could still execute difficult throws. The second half was better for Denmark Laura Lazar had some very good grabs but in the end a 15-6 loss was not enough and Russia qualified with a win against Ireland for power pools. After the game Danish coach Jeppe Arne Ankjær Nielsen told me that they knew beforehand that they will have a hard time recovering from last evenings game against Russia which went way late and ended after 7:30. Germany was aware of the same fact too. Coach Philipp Hartmann told me they wanted to come out with a good start to take advantage of Danes who had a very emotionally and physically taxing prior evening.
Power pool XE: France, Finland, Germany, Sweden
The first two ranked teams in power pools secure a spot in the quarter finals. France beat Finland 15:6. France played better than in their game against Italy on Monday, the main difference was France’s was less of a two man show and they were able to take advantage of their strong female talent. Jeanne Della Valle and Elise Becker were a nightmare to deal with for Finland. The Scandinavian team could not score in to the wind on the windiest of all fields. Germany won their game against Sweden 15-10. On Tuesday, France and Germany will meet at 13:15 for a rematch of this year’s Windmill semifinal where France came out on top 11-9.
Power pool XF: Great Britain, Switzerland, Russia, Italy
Italy met Switzerland in a game dominated by the windy conditions. Good team structure and the steady handling of Simone Vogel lead to a better start for Switzerland and they took half 8-7. Italy kept it close with their run and gun style and were never down more than two points. Italy broke after the half to make it 9-8. They managed one more break but Switzerland got it back so Italy had the disc on double game point with the wind in their backs. After a missed scoober into the endzone by Luca Contini Switzerland had the chance to take the game with the wind dying down momentarily in the right moment for them. Switzerland turned the disc over and on the second chance Enea de Christofaro bombed it to Andrea Braghin for the win.
Italian coach Francesco Dongo said that he was very proud that his team kept in the game and got the breaks back after some mistakes at the start of the game. Further he said this project started months ago with players from all over northern Italy and he is hoping that they will all be returning for worlds next year.
In a meeting of tournament favorites Great Britain met Russia. GB’s depth and athleticism was too much for the Russian team that relied on their stars but could not find a way to stop the likes of Alice Beeching and Rachel Turton. Russia did not have a good start into the game and were visibly disappointed after they went down 5-2. They managed to fight back and after a lengthy point Russia was within one at 7-6. GB shifted into the next gear at that point and stifled Russia’s offense with Amelia Kenneth taking the Dina Dumanskaia matchup often times. With their girls not being able to dominate the opposition the difference in athleticism on the men’s side could not be compensated by a Russian team which in the end lost to the most dominant team in the tournament up until now 14-11.
The game between Russia and Italy will likely decide which team goes directly to the quarter finals.
