Today was the day our goal of making the top four and heading to Barcelona was on the line.
After yesterday’s antics many people had put their hands up for the distinguished honour of Koru’s caregiver for the day. The lucky recipient was Alisha Muir partly for the entertainment of pushing Nev in the pool while wearing only a towel and also for freaking out Sarah Bateup with her best impression of the Shakespeare Stabber or Stabby Mc Stab Stab. Not to mention the burning bottom incident……I’ll let her tell that story.
Koru ended up having a great day with Alisha, having more outfit changes than Nev Brooker at a Justin Beiber concert!
China had not had a successful tournament thus far, being winless till this point, but still challenging some of the stronger sides with their size and accurate shooting from close to the korf, only losing to Hong Kong in golden goal.
The game was again about putting a plan in place to combat their strengths while still focusing on playing within our structure. Starting in attack Simon Cooper, Spencer Te Pou, Alisha, Muir, Natasha Van Vuuren, and on defence Mikey Graham, Carl Chung, Rosa Cooper and Sarah Bateup.
The plan was to giving up contesting the rebound against their big boys in favour of reducing their shooting opportunities around the korf. Initially this paid huge dividends as we quickly built a 3-1 lead on the back of many defended calls against the Chinese from close to the korf. Unfortunately, defensive errors crept into the game of the kiwi’s allowing China to go on a six goal run before NZ coach Garrett called a time out. While the break halted China’s charge, the rest of the first half was frustrating for us as any time we gained some momentum a defensive mistake again gave China the ascendancy leaving us trailing 10-18 at half time.
New Zealand captain was building what was looking like a promising game with four goals in the first half and showing a high degree of control in shredding the Chinese defence.
China started the second half the stronger of the two teams scoring five early goals, only punctuated by a single goal to the NZ captain. With the game effectively over, both sides made a number of changes and during the final stanza the young Kiwi’s outscored China by 9-8, with Simon Cooper adding three further goals for a total of eight for the game, the highest by a NZer in a single international game.
The disappointment of losing this game and consequently being resigned to playing in the 5th/6th playoff on the final day was evident in the team after the game. However, Coach Garrett lifted the team by focusing on the positives of the game, our progression in on-court team play and our ability to put 20 goals on the board.
For both Coach Garrett and this physio who has played his entire Korf career with Simon, this game was a special moment. It represented the coming of age in his career as for the first time he controlled a game and scored freely against a tough defence. Today, a Korfball star from NZ was born on the international stage. There is no limit to what you can achieve mate, very very proud of you!
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