EC12 Review

[UKLaxfan]

OK these Championships come and go, but once the hangovers clear and the bruises go what did people take away from EC12

England Men's Performance:

Game Date Day Time Home Away Rank Result(Q-Scores)
8 21.6. Thu 18:00 ENG IRL Robin 11:7 (1:1, 6:1, 2:2, 2:3)
10 22.6. Fri 11:00 ENG FIN Robin 18:2 (4:1, 1:1, 5:0, 8:0)
21 23.6. Sat 14:30 ENG SWE Robin 16:6 (2:4, 5:1, 4:1, 5:0)
29 24.6. Sun 14:30 ENG GER Robin 13:6 (2:1, 4:1, 3:2, 4:2)
40 25.6. Mon 18:00 ENG NED Robin 18:4 (7:0, 5:1, 3:3, 3:0)
54 27.6. Wed 18:00 ENG FIN QF 1 14:5 (5:1, 3:2, 3:0, 3:2)
63 29.6. Fri 12:00 ENG NED SF 1 14:5 (4:2, 3:1, 3:1, 4:1)
72 30.6. Sat 19:00 ENG IRL Final 15:5 (4:0, 4:1, 4:1, 3:3)

England put together one of the Best Tournament Performances I've ever seen from a British team, (u19s 1999)

Quarter Breakdowns;
They Lost 2 Quarters in the Whole Championship run
They only drew 5 Quarters
Winning 25/32 Mini Games within a game.
Played 8 Won 8

It was their development as the week went on that most impressed
Performance went up not down
Team Spirit
Playing with a smile on your face
This TEAM looked and played like they were having FUN on and off the Field.

Bravo to Coaches & Management Staff

But apart from patting each other on the back, what else could you take away in the lesson learned column?

Penalties:

Rank Team Technical (count) Personal (count) Minutes
1 Netherlands 27 25 39.5 min
2 Israel 21 28 42.5 min
3 Germany 21 34 46.5 min
4 Ireland 24 36 49 min
5 Czech Republic 10 45 51 min
6 Scotland 22 42 53 min
7 Finland 31 37 53.5 min
8 Sweden 25 40 54.5 min
9 Wales 31 38 54.5 min
10 Italy 27 46 63.5 min
11 France 24 48 65 min
12 Slovakia 29 48 65.5 min
13 Swiss 24 54 69 min
14 Norway 19 55 71.5 min
15 England 29 61 78.5 min
16 Belgium 35 68 90.5 min
17 Spain 22 80 101 min

There may be different reasons for this but whatever the reason it does stand out
In a World Championship giving away twice as many penalties as your opponent or averaging nearly 10mins Man Down per game will cost you goals and wins.

WC2010 England went to OT twice (Australia & Japan) they could have been Wins if players could learn to stay on the Field and play 10 vs 10

Individual Penalties:
Rank Name Team Technical (count) Personal (count) Minutes
21 Myerberg Ryan ENG 1 9 9.5 min
30 Gosney Tom ENG 3 5 7.5 min
34 Wawryziniak Jack ENG 0 6 7 min
38 Patterson Sam ENG 3 5 6.5 min
45 Baxter Andrew ENG 0 6 6 min
46 Clive Colin ENG 2 4 6 min
61 Gallon Tom ENG 3 4 5.5 min
62 Jacobs Lewis ENG 3 4 5.5 min
74 Watson Nick ENG 2 4 5 min
90 Bennet Aidy ENG 2 3 4 min
91 Davidson Alix ENG 2 3 4 min
101 Russell Sam ENG 1 3 3.5 min
135 Williamson Tom ENG 1 2 2.5 min

Obviously if you are on the field all the time the chances are you are going to give away more penalties than someone who sees less PT

Points (Goals):
Rank Name Team Goals Assists Points
7 Bennet Aidy ENG 22 0 22
16 Clive Colin ENG 17 0 17
22 Gosney Tom ENG 15 0 15
23 Russell Sam ENG 15 0 15
34 Watson Nick ENG 12 0 12
54 Humphreys Glenn ENG 9 0 9
72 White Oliver ENG 7 0 7
104 Brook Jack ENG 4 0 4
105 Lyon Ben ENG 4 0 4
119 Gallon Tom ENG 3 0 3
134 Armstrong Mike ENG 2 0 2
135 Baxter Andrew ENG 2 0 2
136 Myerberg Ryan ENG 2 0 2
137 Patterson Sam ENG 2 0 2
138 Wawryziniak Jack ENG 2 0 2
164 Singleton Joe ENG 1 0 1

Unfortunately the accuracy of stats varied due to differing levels of experience of volunteers so assists stopped being published after irst couple of days. I'd love to go thru all games and do stats retrospectively but
1) don't have access to all games atm
2) don't have time atm In Finland at U19s Worlds in Turku

Goalkeeping:
Rank Name Team GP Saves Goals Saves percentage
1 McAllister Ben ENG 7 50 17 75%
2 Zimmerman Grant NED 6 80 49 62%
3 Bolland Ian SCO 4 37 23 62%
4 Ciallela Gian Marco ITA 9 108 68 61%
5 Hofvind Hein NOR 5 25 16 61%
6 Quinn Kevin IRL 4 15 10 60%
7 Chaundy Cameron WAL 3 12 8 60%
8 Mareš Jakub CZE 6 20 14 59%
9 van Niekerk Rick NED 6 62 47 57%
10 Harris Ethan SCO 4 45 36 56%
11 Andreassen Jonathan SWE 7 57 44 56%
12 Sweeny Connor IRL 8 89 73 55%
13 Elfström Tom SWE 7 66 54 55%
14 Uusitalo Lauri FIN 7 71 60 54%
15 Hoel Erlend NOR 7 45 38 54%
16 Anderton Nicholas ENG 7 26 23 53%
17 Maas Phillip GER 8 73 67 52%
18 Altschuler Henry ISR 6 44 41 52%
19 Hauser Michael SUI 9 80 77 51%
20 Richardson James WAL 7 49 49 50%
21 Kralovenec Thomas CZE 6 38 39 49%
22 Mc Ilwee Pierre FRA 5 42 43 49%
23 Turowski Florentin GER 4 16 17 48%
24 De Smet Kristof BEL 9 116 134 46%
25 Farjas Álvaro Antonio Couceiro ESP 9 92 106 46%
26 Gaspar Nathaniel SVK 7 57 75 43%
27 Mraz Stanislav SVK 3 21 28 43%
28 Judson Lucas FRA 6 37 56 40%
29 Kinnunen Samu FIN 4 16 25 39%
30 Hackelman Phil FRA 1 6 10 38%
31 Levine Benjamin ISR 5 20 37 35%
32 Waddell Adam ISR 1 1 3 25%

England have TWO excellent Goalies and again I was really impressed by how the Coaches & Management rotated the starts and the level of communication and leadership both Goalies showed on the field.

Congratulations to Ben McAllister who came out on top of the Ranking at #1 (#00) and the Club link between him, Tom Williamson #20 and Andrew Baxter & Sam Patterson was a joy to behold

All in All there are some huge positives to take from the England Men's Gold Medal run as well as some areas of improvement which will give the Coaches some food for thought moving onto 2014 in Denver.

IMHO it is important that if the information (& game videos) are available then these should be used to improve performance and to market the sport domestically and Internationally.

England are European Champions 2012 in Lacrosse

There are not many sports where England are the Top Dogs in Europe

If England want to keep that #1 Spot they need to continue to progress as the rest of Europe is improving in leaps & bounds.

Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden & Israel are all stepping up their game.

England need to do the same while remembering to celebrate success along the Way.

Well Done to all those people who gave up their time and energies to support this Group on their Journey

let's hope the England U19s can show a similar development & camaraderie on & off the Field.

One last point...
It was great to see the England boys on their day off (well earned rest day) hiring bikes and cycling around the Venue in Amstelvein supporting the women's team and enjoying the social side of these events.
Once the whistle has blown to end the game we are all lacrosse players at the end of the day, it was fantastic to see England Men's Team behaving as ambassadors of the sport & English Lacrosse

[Moaning Git]

Regarding the penalties issue, this was a big point of discussion when I arrived in Amsterdam. A number of national team coaches were complaining about the number of flags being thrown for innocuous moves.

The blame was being laid at the door of the assessment process for Refs. They needed to achieve an 80% marking to pass, and apparently los marks for each missed call. The claim was that refs were throwing flags for everything they saw, or thought they saw, so they did not lose points. There also seemed to be an absolute zero tolerance for dissent.

I did not see many games as I was busy refing Festval matches, but I did watch as many England and Ireland games as I could, and parts of other games. In a number of those it did seem to me that the officials were rather keen, and at times overeager. That said some of the England players in particular seemed slow to learn that running off at the mouth was likely to earn another flag. Sharing a coffee moment with a group of American coaches they were highly critical of the standard of officials, in my opinion far too critical, but unusually for me I was listening and not arguing.

The reality seems to be that as the standard of play steps up at an International level, so the standard of refing also does, and that means that the speed at which decisions are made are so much quicker. What I also noticed was that at Festival and in the tournament teams tended to accept officials decisions without dissent on the whole, except for players from North of England. Arguments about calls tended to be limited to the bench areas with coaches venting their frustrations, and the incidents I saw were well managed. Baggers certainly fiercely questioned some onfield decisions but his comments did not attract flags, while questions from players such as "what about the slash?" did!

The quickness to throw flags may well account for the high number of fouls against the England defence, who I thought played superbly, and did not deserve the high number of flags thrown in the games I saw. It does not explain those gained by the short sticks, some of which I think were cheap hits and should have attracted higher penalties. Overall, I think I would have prefered to see less penalties given overall, but more two minutes for the more serious infringements that were called. But that is based on the small number of games I saw.

Overall I agree with Dave that to stay on top England need to continue to improve as Europe is catching up. I also think that the Team management squad deserve a hearty pat on the back for the building and morale maintenance levels they achieved.

We need to celebrate the achievements in Amsterdam, but also realise, that Denver will be a whole different scenario. The standard will be higher, the conditions with heat, altitude and the support for home teams far more challenging. We went into Amsterdam as favourites, in Denver we will be looked at in a very different way.

[Phil]

There also seemed to be an absolute zero tolerance for dissent.

Good.

Phil