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Today we played against Belarus
(this is the international sign for "Belarus")
It was our first group game
The manager,
I just want to clarify the roles
-on the court our manager is
Junior, from Brazil.
He is an experienced coach
-Off the court, Paul O'Callaghan is the manager.
So Paul is the general manager, Junior is the team manager.
Anyway the first five was;
Myself in goals, Joe Watson, Mark Sinclair, Richard Beattie,
and...Kevin Dudley
At the start of the game
it was obvious it was going to be a tough one
Belarus defence was solid
We found it hard to break through
At the same time
it was 50-50
Unfortunately Belarus got the first goal
after Joe Watson tried to clear the ball
but ended up scoring an own goal
It was a disappointing start
but we kept positive
and eventually equalised
much to our relief
because the Belarus defence was tight
2 minutes later we scored again!
Ireland were playing well
We were passing the ball well
and were playing with discipline
We knew we had a job to do
to beat the Belarus-ians(sp?)
We didn't give up after they grabbed their first goal
We tried to hang on to our lead
but they equalised
after a shot from their player
took a deflection and flew past me
So it was level at 2-2
But Ireland once again took the lead
to make it 3-2
Half time arrived
Junior discussed what changes we needed to make,
he discussed tatitics,
the coach knows his stuff because he is greatly experienced
(excuse me)
We went into 2nd half
it was still 3-2
Belarus had a great opportunity
when I saved a shot
but broke my finger and injured my shoulder
in the process
but my shoulder is fine now
So I was replaced by Larry White in goals
Belarus later drew level to make it 3-3
it was a blow for us
And Belarus went on to make it 4-3!
We could not believe it!
No way were we going to let them win
after all that hard work!
So we became determined to put up a fight
And once again we were on level terms
after scoring to make it 4-4
And then we scored another to make it 5-4
We piled on the pressure
Belarus can consider themselves lucky
We hit the goalframe so many times
we lost count!
It was angonising to see the ball hit the post so many times!
but eventually we scored to make it 6-4
and then 7-4
When we had a 3 goal cushion
we felt more relaxed because there was 2 or 3 mins left
So we felt more comfortable
to pass the ball around to kill time
Belarus grabbed a goal to make it 7-5
But we replied immidately after tip off
when Jason Maguire recieved a long ball
and made the score 8-5
With 20 seconds left on the clock
Belarus looked disheartened
so we passed the ball around
till the final whistle came.
We celebrated our win
we enjoyed the game
the team spirit was high because we worked hard
We played well
We were clever with our tatitics
and players were fresh because subs were constantly being used
I hope it will give us a lot of confidence
for our next game vs Cyprus
So keep watching out for reports
on IDSA website
I forgot to mention
in my report
The manager, Junior, picked his man of the match
Kevin Dudley
Well done on the award!