|
SUNDAY, MAY 4
7:11 P.M. EST
Carlstad Crusaders 20
Tyreso Royal Crowns 0
We played against Tyreso
Saturday in
Stockholm, which is a little over three hours from
Carlstad. The
team met at our practice facilities that morning
and the bus left at 8:00 AM for a 3:00 PM kickoff. The trip was no
different than if we were playing a game in the States, other than the fact that
a couple of our players had elected to meet us at the field in
Stockholm. We drove about 3 hours with guys sleeping and watching
movies until we stopped for our pre-game meal at a restaurant just outside of
Stockholm. After a pasta lunch, we left and arrived at the field
just before 1:00. There was a Junior game being played on the field when we got
there, and we were watching that and checking out the facilities, which were
pretty nice. There were a couple of other fields around the complex, and all of
them were field turf including the game field. We did a light warm up on the
side fields before getting out on the game field for pre-game...
The game started just as we
expected. We took the ball first and drove down the
field, and on the 8th play of the drive, I took the
ball around the end to put us up 6-0. The extra point
promptly got put back into our face. During that drive,
we lost our right tackle for the game with an ankle
injury... not good when you were counting on your
starters to play the whole game. In a sense things would
go downhill for us as an offense after that. I will say
that our defense played lights out - these dudes fly
around and hit people! There were bodies flying
everywhere and it felt like every time I turned around,
they were punting the ball back to us. We finished the
game running 82 plays, and I would be shocked if Tyreso
ran 50. Offensively, we moved the ball really well at
times, but penalties and mental mistakes cost us. The third drive of the game we lost our other
tackle, who is regarded as the best in
Sweden,
to a knee injury (not expected to be serious). That left
us with two tackles playing their first Super Series
game... one is 17 years old and the other is only 18.
False starts, OL down field on passing plays, holding
penalties, and a couple of blocks in the backs stalled
several of our drives and forced them into punts. We
went into halftime leading 13-0 after a late TD pass.
The third drive of the 2nd half was a 17 play, 5 penalty
(4 on us) TD scoring drive and would end up being our
last score of the game. The game was a learning
experience for me after being here for only 4 days and 3 practices.
Football is Football and,
though it is a different world over here, it is still
the same game. Our team is a great bunch of guys who
played hard and want to win more than anything. Our Head
Coach did something that could only happen in Euro-ball
when he got an interception in the 2nd quarter. I
thought it was the greatest thing ever when that
happened... Head Coach and All
League Free Safety! Could you imagine Jack Ginn playing
D-Line at Wesleyan? haha
We know that we need to
improve, and I feel that we have the ability to do so.
Tyreso was a middle to bottom of the league team, and we
play the defending league champions next week at home (a
team who beat Carlstad in the Championship last year).
We have a tough week ahead of us, but the guys are
focused on getting better.
Game #1 is in the books...
Return to
Football Main
|
