Two tournaments in Vienna and in Prague was over the first part of preparation for WCH in Israel.
Austrian Lacrosse open 2017
Austrian lacrosse open tournament was held in Vienna on the 16th and 18th of June, where our boys could not miss. At the twelfth year of the tournament, Tricksters presented a broader selection of players interested in representing Slovakia at the World Cup in Israel.
On Friday, Tricksters beat Bulgaria 17: 0 and Italy 7: 3. Just the win over the national team from the Apennine peninsula guaranteed us to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament.
On Saturday, however, a match against a much stronger opponent, including the American Colorado Lofers team, was struck by a 3: 8 victory. These were players from the Colorado area and mostly from the American Colorado State University. In the second match of the day, the boys started to fight against Monarchs B, who beat 11:1. After this match, it was clear that the tournament semi-finals would come against the Vienna Monarchs.
Sunday’s semi-finals have evolved from the beginning to the detriment of our boys. They constantly only struggled and finally lost in a ratio of 9:6. It’s a great shame because that’s definitely going to the final.
In the third place, Tricksters met the Polish National Team. The match was again balanced and broke just in the second half. This was once more a lucky winner who won 5:3 and won the final 3rd place in the tournament.
Lacrosse Prague Cup 2017
The Prague lacrosse tournament, under the name Prague Cup, is one of the oldest lacrosse competitions in Europe. This year, when the tournament was held for 20 years, the Slovaks participated in this tournament for the second time in history.
Initially, the tournament for the last time was a show with an American coach, but for the last moment several players justified the game for a few reasons and only the core of the tournament traveled to the tournament.
To the first match, our boys came with a little soul, against the Lotvia team Riga Griffins, reinforced by a few Czech players and an American striker, playing perhaps all the teams against which we started. The match was really thrilling and in the last few minutes our team managed to turn around and they did not want to let go of the tactical game in the end. That is why the boys in the tournament could celebrate the first victory 6:5.
In the second match we came against an unknown opponent from England. It was the University team, which even built two teams under the name Cobras and Vipers. The Slovaks entered the match against Cobras, as we later found out were the first and second year at the college. We won 11:1 and we were looking forward to the match against GB, that was the choice of Great Britain.
The third game of the day was already felt in our feet, yet our boys fought against the opponent and tried to play the lacrosse. However, the opponent was physically and technically high and did not allow our boys much. Nevertheless, score was 2:1 in the half for Britains.
After a pause, however, our players got 3 quick goals and basically it was decided. It was a turning point that made our boys scalp this opponent. The final score of the match was 3:7.
Saturday was equally charged. The first Saturday match was played by our boys against UCLC Vipers. By win 5:1 they secured the semi-finals of the tournament and could only have fun because the goal was met.
Another opponent of our boys were exotic Japanese, with whom our teams have almost no experience. The opponent was quick and technically excellent. Nevertheless, in a high tactical match, we managed to draw game 2:2 which in the case of victory over the last opponent of the Southern City guaranteed 3 place in table. This was not happend, Jizni Mesto won 4:6 and Slovaks moved to the semifinal from the fourth place. Our opponents in the fight to advance to the final were Great Britain players who won the base group.
On the semifinal match, the Slovaks got a little worried, and in a 3:0 position they managed to score a goal. It seemed as though this was a good day, if they were able to put the ball in the net. This time the British won 6:1 and moved to the final of the tournament.
The Slovaks played only for the 3rd place against the Jizni Mesto, which was eliminated by the Japanese team.
The match for the bronze medal, our players started better when they managed to lead 2:0, but the opponent draw. Then we again managed to rebound one goal, but the opponent again compensated and the game turned by two goals. In the mood, Tricksters again reached one goal, but at the end of the game, Jizni Mesto scored the sixth goal.
The Slovaks took the fourth place in the tournament, which would be taken by everyone around the at the begining of tournament. But after this struggle, our boys were definitely scarce.