Ive been making it a habit to write my
blogposts on the plane. Mighty smart idea if I may say so myself. Normally when
Im bored outta my brain anyway.
The Norwegian team is finally back in division
2 after 3 years of balubasquash. Last year we performed well and clawed our way
from the toughest group in division 3 into the final, only to lose to Israel.
But second place also get to move up one division and swapped places with
Poland and another nation.
So here we go. One year after being favourites
in a division lower, to being under the underdogs in division 2. Division 2
house teams like, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czech republic and
Ukraine.
We start our Italian adventoro with the Irish
gnomes and the Swedish horseballs in our pool. We are seeded to lose, but in it
to win it. The words from national team coach is that Norway has never seen a
stronger national mens team. I feel good, Sindre is now playing full time, Edvard sent his girlfriend across Europe to retain focus, Ronny is 25 kgs lighter and Kristian is floating on the confidence of being
king of Instagram and National champion. I think this year will be a good year
for the Vikings in the European championships.
First up: Ireland tomorrow at 10.00. I will
probably be facing Arthur “Whole lotta love” Gaskin in my first match, unless
they show up with a more “cocky” team order. That would be unwise gnomies…..
Day 1:
Playing order was set to 1 and 3 playing first, followed by 2 and 4. Todays team was Me, Kristian, Ronny and Eddy, resting Sindre.
Ronny was not feeling it today, and lost in 3. In my match I served out(!) twice(!!!!) in the first game. I lost it 11-9 and thats a cheap give away. In the second game the difference in level became more clear as he pulled away to a 11-4 win. I tried in the third game to just focus on one shot at the time. just hit the ball well and the targets will come. It did feel a lot better to hit it, but I noticed the difference when the ball travelled a bit too fast for my usual pace, and then the errors and inaccuracies flew of my racket. Arthur is too good in the front and very hard to read. I should keep him even more in the back, and wait out my chances even more. My own shots did not go in either, and then...game, set, match. I lost 12-10 in the third, but I gave it my all. I truly feel I am back on the right path again and I am just looking forward to playing more.
Edvard and Kristian could take it easy as we needed to conserve energy for the important matches to come. They lost respectively 3-0 and 3-1
Next up: Sweden tomorrow at 10.00
After a nice lunch, we basically had to hurry
and get ready again for our next match. The playing order was the same, but
Kristian was now rested and ready to play again on no2. Unfortunatelly he was
so stiff from his match yesterday that he could not move and he ended up losing
3-0 in a very disappointing performance. I did my job on the adjacent court,
continuing my string of strong play, winning 3-0 convincingly. We were tied
with Slovakia at this point, so it all came down to Ronny and Sindre. They both
played tight matches, but unfortunally lost 3-0 and 3-2 in matches that easily
could swing the other way. Riccione is a place where the Norwegians are very
unlucky it seems. This means that we set us up in a very difficult situation,
as we face 2 stronger teams in the remaining pool matches. It is still a battle
of survival, and we need to win both remaining matches to stay in division 2.
If not we are back down where we started.
DAY 3:
After a relaxed morning with some shopping and a nice breakfast we headed towards the 7 court venue once again to take on Ukraine. We did not set ourselves up in a good situation yesterday, so we were all forced to play out of our skin to achieve our goal this year.
The order of the day was: 4-1-3-2, so myself and Sindre started. Edvard rested, but as always, make a great support team alongside Mark, Thomas and Reidun. They are all true team players and it is great to have them here. I went on court with a do or die attitude as I did in the last match as well, not willing to give a single inch of weakness. I must have looked extremely angry on court. But it did the trick. With an average of 1,5 personal errors over the last 2 matches, I did what I needed and won 3-0, completely demolishing my opponent mentally and in the end also physically. According to Mark, Sindre had a tough match on the other side of the wall losing 3-0.
It all came down to our veterans. Ronny did not feel well yesterday, and Kristian still had a sore butt. At this moment we had no choice. We had to win. Both matches were extremely close, and I myself saw a Ronny play more consistent and smart than ever before. He lost the match in 4, but is showing great mental and physical strength. He is back. In Kristians match, the coaches analysis was that Kissa tried to make his fitter opponent run with high tempo and lots of volleying. Towards the end it backfired a bit as Kristian felt the match in his legs and could not keep up in the end himself. A really close battle that ended up with a sour loss.
Our chances are now minimal to stay in the division, but we still have to give it our all against Israel tomorrow. A team win would still mean a lot, as we lost 4-0 against them last year in the final. KOM AN GUTTAA!!!
DAY 2:
The message was clear. The level and debth of
the Swedish team is higher than ours and the wise thing would be to conserve
energy for the most important matches to come. Our main priority this year is
to stay in the division, and it is tougher than ever. All the teams we have to
beat are really strong and one of them is the team we lost to in the final last
year in Amsterdam.
Against Sweden we rested our number 2 player. I
started at the same time as Ronny. Ronny took it easy and lost 3-0. I tried to
stay sharp throughout the match and hit my targets. I did not use too much
energy and still got to practice my shots. I feel good and ready for our next match only in 2
hours (!) After tournament organization fault. The rest of the team lost 3-0 as
well, but they look confident and strong for the next match, which will be
crucial.
Bring
on SlovakiaDAY 3:
After a relaxed morning with some shopping and a nice breakfast we headed towards the 7 court venue once again to take on Ukraine. We did not set ourselves up in a good situation yesterday, so we were all forced to play out of our skin to achieve our goal this year.
The order of the day was: 4-1-3-2, so myself and Sindre started. Edvard rested, but as always, make a great support team alongside Mark, Thomas and Reidun. They are all true team players and it is great to have them here. I went on court with a do or die attitude as I did in the last match as well, not willing to give a single inch of weakness. I must have looked extremely angry on court. But it did the trick. With an average of 1,5 personal errors over the last 2 matches, I did what I needed and won 3-0, completely demolishing my opponent mentally and in the end also physically. According to Mark, Sindre had a tough match on the other side of the wall losing 3-0.
It all came down to our veterans. Ronny did not feel well yesterday, and Kristian still had a sore butt. At this moment we had no choice. We had to win. Both matches were extremely close, and I myself saw a Ronny play more consistent and smart than ever before. He lost the match in 4, but is showing great mental and physical strength. He is back. In Kristians match, the coaches analysis was that Kissa tried to make his fitter opponent run with high tempo and lots of volleying. Towards the end it backfired a bit as Kristian felt the match in his legs and could not keep up in the end himself. A really close battle that ended up with a sour loss.
Our chances are now minimal to stay in the division, but we still have to give it our all against Israel tomorrow. A team win would still mean a lot, as we lost 4-0 against them last year in the final. KOM AN GUTTAA!!!
DAY 4
We were already ready for 3d division next year
before our match against Israel, but the Israeli had to give it their all since
they already had a chance of staying in the division. We knew they would give
it their all, and it was a great opportunity for us to see where we were at
compared to last year. The players repping the red white and blue were 1
Killingberg, 2:Solhaug, 3:Aasbø 4: Hegbom AKA Egbom. Against a group of unfair
blocking and complaining Israeli we had to stay calm, collected and get the job
done.
Myself and Kristian were on first, but during
the warm up, Kristian was worried about his Achilles. He did not feel good at
all and tried to warm it up as well as possible. It did not work fully and he
lost 3-0 with not being able to move well.
The player I played, I played twice last year,
first time I won 3-1, and in the final I lost 3-2. This year I continued my run
of good form and played the big points well (proud Mark?), working hard, making
little errors and frustrating my opponent. The two first games were important
and I was able to sneak them 11-9, 11-9. In the last game, I did not give an
inch and took it clearly 11-4.
Ronny also continued his good play from
yesterday and won 3-0. A very strong performance from the captain. Edvard was
on after me, and was ready to leave his guts on court. That is exactly what he
did. Although his gameplan did not come through fully, and he was able to win
it in the end, he gave us the game needed for the win. 1-3 loss, 2-2 draw, win
on games, and return to 3d division. Back to the drawing board boys!!!
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