So only 4 months have passed since i last blogged, the combination of various things have meant i couldn't do things sooner. I also apologise in advance if this turns into something the same length as The Lord of The Rings trilogy. So here goes my attempt at casting my mind back to my last few months in Sweden.
February- February brought the last month of the regular season and on paper our hardest month of the season, with 3 away games and only 1 home game. We had an undefeated home record in 2011, whereas we had only won once on the road since the turn of the year, so the trips to Falkoping, Linkoping and Sollentuna where always going to be difficult, especially with everyone in the race for a high seeding for the playoffs. To cut the month short, we went to Falkoping, played well in the 1st set and won easily, we were up in the 2nd set, and thought we would sit back and relax as the game was in the bag. However it wasnt, we lost the 2nd shortly followed by the 3rd and 4th set and with that another loss on the road in 2011. The following week brought a comfortable 3-0 home win against Habo. Then came a big away game for the race for 3rd seed, against our old rivals Linkoping, we lost at there place all 4 times last season (3 times in the play offs), we were determined to finally get a win in the massive gym. After losing the 1st set, we served them off the court in the 2nd including possibly my best service run of my entire life, which included 3 aces. However, as seemed our routine away from home in 2011 we lost the 3rd and then got walked over in the 4th, so yet another loss away from the jungle and another bloody loss to Linkoping, this also meant are hopes of getting the 3rd seed where hugely damaged, and that was confirmed when we lost away to the number 1 team sollentuna 3-0 the following saturday. This meant we would have the 'hardest' play off quarter final against Falkoping. This was there 2nd year in the big league and the best set of Swedish Junior for a long time, also they had never won or even taken a set in our gym and we had never won in theres, so it had all the prospects of long series. As it was a long time ago i dont really remember anything that happend off the court in the month of February
March- so March madness began with the Mother coming across to see the frozen sea of Helsingborg and to watch game 1 of Quarter finals of the play offs. The game went to form and we won 3-0 (a pattern will start emerging soon), we then traveled up to falkoping a few days later, in front of a decent crowd for them we went down 3-2 and 17-15 in a tight 5th set, we even had match point, but one of our guys made a service error. After the game we got a bollocking from our coach and some stern words from our sports director, there was also two more bollockings before the 3rd game, so the sense of dejavu was all around, 1-1 in games just like last season, and the win streaks at home for each team hadnt been broken. The pattern continued with us winning 3-0 again at home, this gave us the chance to travel to falkoping and win the series on there home court, however no streaks where ended as we suffered yet another loss this time 3-1, the only upside as we talked in the locker room after was that the final game was at our place and there record at our place wasnt exactly prolific. So on a sunny Thursday evening the cliches were rolled out again that are always linked with final game deciders. Despite a bit of an early wobble we won the first 2 sets easy, then found ourselves in a bit of hole/thought we would make it interesting in the 3rd set, which we managed to block our way out of, and yet again win 3-0. There was more relief than celebration and to top it all the sun had turned to snow storms. And snow means slush, and i hate slush. So due to the nature of us having to play all 5 games of our series and our next oppents the Number 1 seed sollentuna had dusted there series off in 3 games, it meant we were on the bus the next day to travel to stockholm. After the travel day came game day, The first 2 sets were pretty much a write off as i think we were all still bollockesed from the previous 5 games in 11 days, we came to life a bit in the 3rd but went down 33-31, so after a pretty quick trip home and a few whiskeys to reflect on things, we got a few days rest and time to recharge for the 2nd game at home, we had a great crowd in and dispite losing the 1st we battled back to take the next 3 straight to win 3-1 and tie the series at 1-1. The game was quality purely for the fact that our back up opposite played the full game and played the game of his life and rightly so got a standing ovation at the end of the game and MVP honours, throw in the fact he is a local boy, it was real roy of the rovers stuff. So back on the road we went to stockholm and in search of the eternal win on the road, however the pattern continued as we went down 3-2. It was a strange game, the vibe from the bench wasnt its normal self and we all seemed to be scratching our heads as to what was going on. After the game we got a bollocking, a few small points that made where true, however the overall bollocking we didnt feel was warranted, we had just lost in a tie break to a team that had lost one league game all season, and to that point in the season had not lost at home. As a result when we were talking amongst ourselves the mood was quite buoyant, it didnt feel like another mediocre away performance that seemed to be our 2011 repertoire. All this meant that the game at home was a must win, otherwise that was our season over and the dreams of winning the gold would be over. With a packed home crowd, we were all up for it, however the first 2 sets we always seemed to be playing catch up and only seemed to fight when the set was 'beyond' us, so 2-0 down in a must win game, we at least wanted to go out with a fight, a few tweaks and we came out flying, and into the fact there best player/most annoying/up his own arse/captain got a yellow card only fueled our third set dominance, the only down side was that after getting a yellow, he should of got a red for refusing to talk to the first ref when he was summoned, we were grateful of the yellow card though as the 3 times we played up in stockholm the refs bottled it . Winning the 3rd set was our only highlight though as we sort of lost the 4th set by a wimper and with that our first defeat at home in 2011 meant our season was over and just like last season we had fallen to the number 1 seed in the semi finals yet again. However for sollentuna despite dominating the league they lost to Falkenberg in the finals, thus completing the treble for Falkenberg.
Looking back it was of course a fun season and of course it was filled with ifs and buts, but everything is. It seemed for us it was a season of two halves, before xmas we couldnt stop winning away after xmas we couldnt really buy an important away victory. Before xmas we were 3-2 at home and 4-0 away from home. After losing the 2 games at Grand prix at the start of the new year we then went 4-0 at home and 1-4 away, then come play off time we went 4-1 at home and 0-4 away. I think the only team with a shit away record that still went on to win a championship was Manchester United this season. All this meant that April was a chance to party with all the swedes, celebrate my birthday, which involved a certain swedish girl finding an interesting place to throw up. The options she had were the bathroom, the balcony or Joe's closet with all his clothes in, you can guess which one she picked. Also april meant watching the EVS girls yet again lose out 3-2 in the Final to Katrineholm, they did well to come back from 2-0 in the series, but the 5th game they seemed to fall apart, although i dont remember much as we were in the middle of a 4 day drinking spree, which included one of my team mates sister getting really drunk and falling over repeatedly. After one last party at the EVS end of season gala, it was time to return back to England and leave the place i have called 'home' for the past 18 or so months and leave all the people that i had come in to contact with. If i wasnt so hungover i may have been a bit more emotional on that saturday morning when i was leaving. It is weird leaving people that have had an impact on your life in such a short time and not knowing when you will see them again. So in no particular order Joe, Kalle, Anton, Niklas, Martin, The Bjorcks, Tetatoo, Barbie, Carlos (for the 1st year),Anette the Spazzer, Emmie, Iza, Frojd + wife to be & the cat, Robin, Muck you crazy crazy japanese girl, Svante (even if you support liverpool), Kristian, Erin for making me and Joes life so easy to abuse you, Polska for being weird and the guy in Engelholm that makes the Zlatan pizza. If i missed you off the list, its not because i dont like, but there are to many people to name and i would be here all night.
So that is my farewell to sweden and the end of my "First country to play abroad in" chapter. Thus meaning a start of a new chapter. Luckily for me it is in a place where i hope there is less snow and the language may be a little less gay than swedish. In Mid may i had the pleasure of flying to paris to try out for a team based 30 minutes outside the centre of Paris, the town was nice, it sits along the river seine, its quiet small, the president of the club says there isnt much to do there, but i counted at least 4 bars that run along the river. After a few days training, a trip to paris and the coach and president forcing german beer down me before i flew home, they said they would like me to play on there team for next season. So where one door closes another one opens as they say.
Away from volleyball, United ended up walking it to the title despite being the worst team ever to win it, where as the team that plays the best football in the world but wins fuck all ended up winning fuck all. Then the real best team in the world pissed on united in the champions league final. Zlatan was re-elected king of sweden after winning serie A with AC Milan, i still cant get over the sight of Kevin Prince Boateng playing in the champions league and doing the moonwalk. I will go on record and say I hate the Boston Bruins/Zdeno Chara and the people that run the NHL, am pretty sure that if on a night out i rammed somebodys head in to a metal pole, which in turn resulted in that person being knocked out and suffering a broken neck, i would expect some sort of consequences, yet it seems if you do that whilst wearing a Bruins uniform you will not be banned, you will also go on to to win the stanley cup and your captain who should not have been playing will get to lift the trophy, whilst the guy who you almost killed missed the rest of the season and couldnt help his teams pursuit of Lord Stanley. Also I hope Lebron never wins a championship, highly unlikely i know, but after what happend last summer, it was karma Dirk and the Mavs did what they did.
If i havent bored you to sleep/death/tears/rage, thanks for reading, am sure the new season will bring some interesting things about france, the one thing i do know about it though, there kebab is shit.
Monday, 27 June 2011
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Daiquiri's, Rut's, Comebacks and a New year
So after 2010 ended in a slightly depressing way, 2011 began in a slightly happier way. New years eve will live in the memory for all the right reasons. New friends, old friends, alcohol, various coloured clothing for the Rubiks cube theme and all of Denmarks frozen fruit, made for a happy new year. Antons Strawberry Daiquiri making skills do leave a lot to desired, with most of it ending up on the windows, radiators and the floor and not a lot in an actual cup.
After new years, we had a few days of training before we embarked on a road trip to the stockholm area were we would play 4 games (2 at Grand prix, a practice game and a league game) in 5 days, taking in 3 different town. So we arrived in Katrineholm after driving through a few snow storms and a car deciding to fall off the road down a ditch, just in time for our evening practice slot to get the journey out of us. The next day was semi final day against Falkenberg. The game certainly wont make any game of the season DVD's, it was a scrap affair with both teams fair from playing their best volleyball, Falkenberg just about managing to step up slightly and ended up beating us 3-1. The dressing room after the game was filled with a lot of frustration, from my point of view it felt like we tried to hard to put in a good performance, which in a logical sense would mean that we would win. However sports not like that, sometimes you have to learn to win ugly and do the things that matter at the right time to get the result. Scraping tight wins when its 'squeaky bum time' is what wins you titles as proven many times by Manchester united and Chelsea in their pursuit for silverware. Only a few of our guys could hold their heads high after the semi final and it was mostly the guys that came in from the bench. So the next day we had a bronze medal game and not the gold medal game we had been hoping for. The bronze game was against Tierp, whom we would face in a few days time in the league so the result would be important psychologicaly. The game itself wasnt a classic, it was played in a smaller hall, the atmosphere was dead and it felt more like a practice game, with both teams trying a few things out, whilst trying not to lose, we ended up losing 3-2 and with it our 4th defeat in a row. After the game the feeling in the dressing room wasnt great, the older players were frustrated that we had lost our winning touch, but most of us had been through spells like this. The rookies on our team i think blamed themselves to much and this was a new thing to them, especially after we had started the season so strongly, mentally they were not used to a run of bad defeats and how to get out of it. After our game, we watched the EVS girls walk there way to another GP title and then Falkenberg upset the odds and beat Sollentuna easily 3-0. We then stayed in Katrineholm over night before making the trip across to Stockholm, we played Sollentuna in a practice game on the friday, then on the saturday we did some touristy stuff and walked around the city. Stockholm was nice, although I swear if you lit a match in the posh shopping centre we went in half the people would melt. After that we traveled north up to Tierp, after an early morning practice and a few hours sleep it was game time and a chance to end our run of 4 straight defeats and try to reclaim 2nd place. Easier said than done. We came under constant pressure from the service line, so it was hard for me and joe to get in to the game in an attack sense, and it seemed only one of our outsides could kill the ball. We lost 3-1, the only highlight for me was getting 7 blocks, 5 of them on the same guy. So the 7 hour trip home to cap off the 6 day road trip wasnt exactly what i would call fun.
After a day off we re-grouped, talked a few things over, and prepared for our first home game of 2011 against rivals Hylte. We went out with the mentality of win at what ever cost i.e if it comes to it win ugly. After half a set we seemed to find our rhythm and before long we had wrapped up a convincing 3-0 win and I won 2 new towels for getting MVP. After the game we received some news that our Physio and ex-Orkelljunga outside hitter had signed with the club to play again as our libero, thus giving us a more experienced player in a position the club has struggled with over the past few years. Buoyed by this news and on the back of win, we headed in to a home show down with Falkenberg with the winner taken over 2nd spot. THe build up was all going fine until friday practice, when i was running backwards after a ball and my ankle gave way. Friday night was spent on crutches, saturday spent lying on the sofa with my foot in a bag of ice. Sunday came around and I wanted to play, i took painkillers and got tapped up, but after a set and a bit i wasnt feeling comfortable and that was my game over. The game itself was a bit strange, Falkenberg seemed to be going through the motions and we couldnt find an extra gear and found ourselves 2-0 down, then suddenly things started to click, the confidence was back amongst everyone and we pulled out our 3rd 3-2 win of the season (all 3 after being 0-2 down). We closed out January with two 3-0 wins against the 2 bottom teams. We now are 8 points from 1st place and 2 points clear of 3rd as the race for play off seedings enter the last month. We have 4 games left and 3 of them on the road, all in difficult place to play.
Moving away from the volleyball and I still cant get my head around Liverpool paying £35 million for Andy Carroll. There is no way in hell he is worth more than David Villa who is arguably the best striker in the world at the moment. There is also no way is worth more than Nedved, Vieri (in his prime) and Buffon who are some of the best players of the generation. My only guess is that who ever made the call to bid for him put the decimal point in the wrong place and actually wanted to bid £3.5 million, either that or Liverpool thought it was a game of Football Manager and accidentally clicked 'make offer' after they got Newcastles response to their enquiry. Another thing, the audacity of Newcastle to knock back the 1st offer was something and to raise the price, but for Liverpool to agree to the raise was something of pure stupidity.
Those calling for Delneri to go after the Udinese game, move a long, give the man some time to build his squad and his system. Think Sir Alex and Wenger (to a certain degree) are good examples of what happens when you give a manager more then 6 months to put together a half decent team.
Think thats about it, cant remember any one doing anything that stupid this month, havent seen the girls so cant say anything about them, Joe has behaved, Lennie will get the car stuck in snow every 5 minutes, Sebbe needs a phone stapled to his face so he doesnt lose another one.
great tackle
average ;)
After new years, we had a few days of training before we embarked on a road trip to the stockholm area were we would play 4 games (2 at Grand prix, a practice game and a league game) in 5 days, taking in 3 different town. So we arrived in Katrineholm after driving through a few snow storms and a car deciding to fall off the road down a ditch, just in time for our evening practice slot to get the journey out of us. The next day was semi final day against Falkenberg. The game certainly wont make any game of the season DVD's, it was a scrap affair with both teams fair from playing their best volleyball, Falkenberg just about managing to step up slightly and ended up beating us 3-1. The dressing room after the game was filled with a lot of frustration, from my point of view it felt like we tried to hard to put in a good performance, which in a logical sense would mean that we would win. However sports not like that, sometimes you have to learn to win ugly and do the things that matter at the right time to get the result. Scraping tight wins when its 'squeaky bum time' is what wins you titles as proven many times by Manchester united and Chelsea in their pursuit for silverware. Only a few of our guys could hold their heads high after the semi final and it was mostly the guys that came in from the bench. So the next day we had a bronze medal game and not the gold medal game we had been hoping for. The bronze game was against Tierp, whom we would face in a few days time in the league so the result would be important psychologicaly. The game itself wasnt a classic, it was played in a smaller hall, the atmosphere was dead and it felt more like a practice game, with both teams trying a few things out, whilst trying not to lose, we ended up losing 3-2 and with it our 4th defeat in a row. After the game the feeling in the dressing room wasnt great, the older players were frustrated that we had lost our winning touch, but most of us had been through spells like this. The rookies on our team i think blamed themselves to much and this was a new thing to them, especially after we had started the season so strongly, mentally they were not used to a run of bad defeats and how to get out of it. After our game, we watched the EVS girls walk there way to another GP title and then Falkenberg upset the odds and beat Sollentuna easily 3-0. We then stayed in Katrineholm over night before making the trip across to Stockholm, we played Sollentuna in a practice game on the friday, then on the saturday we did some touristy stuff and walked around the city. Stockholm was nice, although I swear if you lit a match in the posh shopping centre we went in half the people would melt. After that we traveled north up to Tierp, after an early morning practice and a few hours sleep it was game time and a chance to end our run of 4 straight defeats and try to reclaim 2nd place. Easier said than done. We came under constant pressure from the service line, so it was hard for me and joe to get in to the game in an attack sense, and it seemed only one of our outsides could kill the ball. We lost 3-1, the only highlight for me was getting 7 blocks, 5 of them on the same guy. So the 7 hour trip home to cap off the 6 day road trip wasnt exactly what i would call fun.
After a day off we re-grouped, talked a few things over, and prepared for our first home game of 2011 against rivals Hylte. We went out with the mentality of win at what ever cost i.e if it comes to it win ugly. After half a set we seemed to find our rhythm and before long we had wrapped up a convincing 3-0 win and I won 2 new towels for getting MVP. After the game we received some news that our Physio and ex-Orkelljunga outside hitter had signed with the club to play again as our libero, thus giving us a more experienced player in a position the club has struggled with over the past few years. Buoyed by this news and on the back of win, we headed in to a home show down with Falkenberg with the winner taken over 2nd spot. THe build up was all going fine until friday practice, when i was running backwards after a ball and my ankle gave way. Friday night was spent on crutches, saturday spent lying on the sofa with my foot in a bag of ice. Sunday came around and I wanted to play, i took painkillers and got tapped up, but after a set and a bit i wasnt feeling comfortable and that was my game over. The game itself was a bit strange, Falkenberg seemed to be going through the motions and we couldnt find an extra gear and found ourselves 2-0 down, then suddenly things started to click, the confidence was back amongst everyone and we pulled out our 3rd 3-2 win of the season (all 3 after being 0-2 down). We closed out January with two 3-0 wins against the 2 bottom teams. We now are 8 points from 1st place and 2 points clear of 3rd as the race for play off seedings enter the last month. We have 4 games left and 3 of them on the road, all in difficult place to play.
Moving away from the volleyball and I still cant get my head around Liverpool paying £35 million for Andy Carroll. There is no way in hell he is worth more than David Villa who is arguably the best striker in the world at the moment. There is also no way is worth more than Nedved, Vieri (in his prime) and Buffon who are some of the best players of the generation. My only guess is that who ever made the call to bid for him put the decimal point in the wrong place and actually wanted to bid £3.5 million, either that or Liverpool thought it was a game of Football Manager and accidentally clicked 'make offer' after they got Newcastles response to their enquiry. Another thing, the audacity of Newcastle to knock back the 1st offer was something and to raise the price, but for Liverpool to agree to the raise was something of pure stupidity.
Those calling for Delneri to go after the Udinese game, move a long, give the man some time to build his squad and his system. Think Sir Alex and Wenger (to a certain degree) are good examples of what happens when you give a manager more then 6 months to put together a half decent team.
Think thats about it, cant remember any one doing anything that stupid this month, havent seen the girls so cant say anything about them, Joe has behaved, Lennie will get the car stuck in snow every 5 minutes, Sebbe needs a phone stapled to his face so he doesnt lose another one.
great tackle
average ;)
Monday, 27 December 2010
Hot, Cold and a Somber Christmas
So as the days of 2010 count down, the snow keeps falling and Great Britain is on the verge of self-imploding at the sight of the white stuff, its time to put to bed this past month on and off the court.
The start of the month seems ages ago and a trip to Habo. We were planning to go into the game with the same starting line up as the one the beat RiG the week before, however that got blown out the water, when the night before our new outside that got MVP against RiG fell victim to his own sofa and twisted his knee ligaments. So the decision had to be made as to how we played the Habo game, option 1 was to go back to how we had started the season, Option 2 was to throw a 19 year old rookie into the deep end. We/our head coach went for option 2 and it paid off with a comfortable 3-0 win only the 3rd set we had to stage a late comeback to seal it and the rookie did good. The following week brought us up against Linkoping, the defending champions and the team that beat us 3-2 in the semi finals last season. They had a bad start to the season this time around and we wanted revenge. We reverted back to the team that we started the season with, however the game was a complete disaster on our part. our passing unit got served off the court and our wing spikers could only seem to find the block time and time again. Before the game we had been given our tactics from our coaches about how they play and how we have to play to stop them, yet we didnt seem to buy into the system, they did what we were told they would do, yet stood around and let them do it. It seemed none of us had the right mentality, some of us, myself included wanted it to much and to get revenge for last season, plus i had been hurt about some comments made about my performances in the play offs last season, so i wanted to prove some people wrong, but I think I ended up concentrating to much on that, then concentrating on the game. I felt a few others didnt want it enough and let the game pass them by and some others seemed to get complacent, thinking that because we had won 7 in a row we would win this one whatever. I hope this game served as a kick up the arse for all us and will serve us well in the long term. So we closed out 2010 and the first half of the season at home to Sollentuna, who we in fact were the first team we played in 2010. Whoever won this game would be ranked number 1 in the league and the number 1 seed for the Grand Prix tournament at the start of January. The line up this time had the rookie back in so same team the started against Habo. The game was pretty similar to the Linkoping game with tough serving and us making to many errors, quickly we found ourselves 2-0 down, the 3rd set saw the return of our No.1 setter who has been injured all season, and was predicted to be back late January early February time, so it was positive to see him back, we won the 3rd, then raced into an early lead in the 4th however they clawed there way back and took the 4th. It was a disappointing end to 2010 and to the first half of this season. We need to raise our level of expectations of ourselves and each other and stop becoming complacent, just because things have happened in the past and turned out good for us, doesnt mean it will happen all the time. So we will head to GP as No.3 seed and face a difficult game against Falkenberg in the semi final.
NOw off the court and Christmas time and all that balls. So the day after the sollentuna game i was meant to fly back to England, but because Heathrow are run by a bunch of muppets and only have a spade and bucket to clear the runway I didnt even leave Sweden. So i got re-booked on to an easyjet flight to Gatwick for the next day. So tuesday comes i get on the train to the airport in denmark and their is signal failure, so i get to the airport an hour late and 10 minutes before check in closes, i get to the desk and they tell me i am not on the passenger list, I check my booking, and the person that had booked my flight had booked me on the flight for Wednesday instead of Tuesday!!! So a few phone calls and i get my ticket changed to a tuesday night flight which is meant to leave at 9pm (cet), after 13 hours in Copenhagen airport i finally get on my plane at 11pm, then the fuel hoses breaks, and we have to get de-iced, so we take off at 12pm. So i land at 1am (gmt) at gatwick, get off the plane to get my bag and my bag isnt on the baggage belt, so i go through to arrivals to get some help and in the end they find my bag in the back somewhere. I finally got home at 4.30am wedneday morning instead of 2pm monday afternoon.
First few days a home are fine, do some xmas shopping, see some people, chill out, then xmas eve i was hoping to see me dad and my sister, but for some reason he didnt get in touch so for the 2nd christmas in 3 years i didnt see him or my sister, the only plus was i got to see my nan and give her the xmas present i had brougt for them and her birthday present. This disappointed me more than pissed me off, maybe I need to stop jumping through hoops.
So onto the big day, and Mother and I went up/across to Portsmouth to have Christmas with my Great Aunt and my Mums cousin. After being in the door 15 minutes, my great aunt suddenly collapsed in the kitchen and had suffered a stroke, so i spent most of Christmas Day in hospital, while they could find out what had happened, she came round in and was talking by the evening after a few scares through out the day. The rest of the family arrived during boxing day whilst i was taken to the airport to fly back to Sweden. My plane was delayed buy a few hours and i ended up getting home at 2.30 am this morning instead of 11pm sunday night. This morning i got a phone call from my mum saying that my great Aunt had passed away in the evening about the same time i was taking off.
I dont want to get to emotional and OTT, but i just want to thank aunty Joy for all the wonderful family parties we have had at her house, all the wonderful food she has cooked for us, for treating me like a direct relative, for showing an interest in what i have been doing with university and volleyball and for being proud of me when closer members of family where being nasty to me.
RIP Aunty Joy, I hope Grandma doesnt boss you around to much up there.
Sorry to end my blogging year on a low note, hope the rest of you had a good Christmas and will have a happy new year.
The start of the month seems ages ago and a trip to Habo. We were planning to go into the game with the same starting line up as the one the beat RiG the week before, however that got blown out the water, when the night before our new outside that got MVP against RiG fell victim to his own sofa and twisted his knee ligaments. So the decision had to be made as to how we played the Habo game, option 1 was to go back to how we had started the season, Option 2 was to throw a 19 year old rookie into the deep end. We/our head coach went for option 2 and it paid off with a comfortable 3-0 win only the 3rd set we had to stage a late comeback to seal it and the rookie did good. The following week brought us up against Linkoping, the defending champions and the team that beat us 3-2 in the semi finals last season. They had a bad start to the season this time around and we wanted revenge. We reverted back to the team that we started the season with, however the game was a complete disaster on our part. our passing unit got served off the court and our wing spikers could only seem to find the block time and time again. Before the game we had been given our tactics from our coaches about how they play and how we have to play to stop them, yet we didnt seem to buy into the system, they did what we were told they would do, yet stood around and let them do it. It seemed none of us had the right mentality, some of us, myself included wanted it to much and to get revenge for last season, plus i had been hurt about some comments made about my performances in the play offs last season, so i wanted to prove some people wrong, but I think I ended up concentrating to much on that, then concentrating on the game. I felt a few others didnt want it enough and let the game pass them by and some others seemed to get complacent, thinking that because we had won 7 in a row we would win this one whatever. I hope this game served as a kick up the arse for all us and will serve us well in the long term. So we closed out 2010 and the first half of the season at home to Sollentuna, who we in fact were the first team we played in 2010. Whoever won this game would be ranked number 1 in the league and the number 1 seed for the Grand Prix tournament at the start of January. The line up this time had the rookie back in so same team the started against Habo. The game was pretty similar to the Linkoping game with tough serving and us making to many errors, quickly we found ourselves 2-0 down, the 3rd set saw the return of our No.1 setter who has been injured all season, and was predicted to be back late January early February time, so it was positive to see him back, we won the 3rd, then raced into an early lead in the 4th however they clawed there way back and took the 4th. It was a disappointing end to 2010 and to the first half of this season. We need to raise our level of expectations of ourselves and each other and stop becoming complacent, just because things have happened in the past and turned out good for us, doesnt mean it will happen all the time. So we will head to GP as No.3 seed and face a difficult game against Falkenberg in the semi final.
NOw off the court and Christmas time and all that balls. So the day after the sollentuna game i was meant to fly back to England, but because Heathrow are run by a bunch of muppets and only have a spade and bucket to clear the runway I didnt even leave Sweden. So i got re-booked on to an easyjet flight to Gatwick for the next day. So tuesday comes i get on the train to the airport in denmark and their is signal failure, so i get to the airport an hour late and 10 minutes before check in closes, i get to the desk and they tell me i am not on the passenger list, I check my booking, and the person that had booked my flight had booked me on the flight for Wednesday instead of Tuesday!!! So a few phone calls and i get my ticket changed to a tuesday night flight which is meant to leave at 9pm (cet), after 13 hours in Copenhagen airport i finally get on my plane at 11pm, then the fuel hoses breaks, and we have to get de-iced, so we take off at 12pm. So i land at 1am (gmt) at gatwick, get off the plane to get my bag and my bag isnt on the baggage belt, so i go through to arrivals to get some help and in the end they find my bag in the back somewhere. I finally got home at 4.30am wedneday morning instead of 2pm monday afternoon.
First few days a home are fine, do some xmas shopping, see some people, chill out, then xmas eve i was hoping to see me dad and my sister, but for some reason he didnt get in touch so for the 2nd christmas in 3 years i didnt see him or my sister, the only plus was i got to see my nan and give her the xmas present i had brougt for them and her birthday present. This disappointed me more than pissed me off, maybe I need to stop jumping through hoops.
So onto the big day, and Mother and I went up/across to Portsmouth to have Christmas with my Great Aunt and my Mums cousin. After being in the door 15 minutes, my great aunt suddenly collapsed in the kitchen and had suffered a stroke, so i spent most of Christmas Day in hospital, while they could find out what had happened, she came round in and was talking by the evening after a few scares through out the day. The rest of the family arrived during boxing day whilst i was taken to the airport to fly back to Sweden. My plane was delayed buy a few hours and i ended up getting home at 2.30 am this morning instead of 11pm sunday night. This morning i got a phone call from my mum saying that my great Aunt had passed away in the evening about the same time i was taking off.
I dont want to get to emotional and OTT, but i just want to thank aunty Joy for all the wonderful family parties we have had at her house, all the wonderful food she has cooked for us, for treating me like a direct relative, for showing an interest in what i have been doing with university and volleyball and for being proud of me when closer members of family where being nasty to me.
RIP Aunty Joy, I hope Grandma doesnt boss you around to much up there.
Sorry to end my blogging year on a low note, hope the rest of you had a good Christmas and will have a happy new year.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
Oh look, a snowflake and a snygging
So now that winter has officially started everywhere it seems and the fun yet bringing countries to a stand still snow is falling, I thought i might as well write something to cover the past month and the fact its -15 outside so would rather stay in and be warm.
The start of November seems age ago, but we started the month with a 3-1 derby win at home to Lund, a bit of a wobble by us in the 3rd and some unreal defence from the visitors pushed the game to a 4th set but we came through. 3 days later we made the long trip to the Stockholm area to play Vingaker, the gym smelt weird and they played with gala's, which rolled back the sheffield years. To cut a long story short, they bombed us from the service line and we found ourselves 2-0 down, and staring our first defeat in the face, however we then decided to play our volleyball won the 3rd, then won the 4th on a yellow card (pattern emerging here) and then we squeaked out the 5th 15-13 to keep our top spot and winning record. 5 short and snowy days latter we made the longer trip to Uppsala for the swedish cup finals, now we were meant to practice when we got up there, but because of the weather we got there late, so instead of practicing at 11pm on friday night, our coach decided to send us on a half hour run....... in the snow. Onwards to saturday and the semi final against sollentuna and de ja vu from last weekend, we went 2-0 down, then decided to play and 'make the girl say yes' as Martin would put it and won 3-2. Saturday night was mainly a snow ball fight against the american girls from Lindesberg, then bed, but not with the girls. So sunday was final day against Falkenberg, and to put it simple, we were poor, there game plan worked perfectly and we did nothing to stop it and it was our worse performance of the season and with it our first defeat. This may be a blessing disguise as now the tag has gone and we can move on. So after dusting ourselves off, mainly from the snow, we tinkered with a few things and closed the month out with a 3-0 win against the Swedish Junior National team that plays in the top league. Was our best blocking game of the season and we soon shut up the yapping they were giving us through the net. They pissed me off in the warm up in the fact that they would hit cross court, and if they hit one of us they would high five each other. Then in the 1st set after being 5-1 down, there coach moaned that the small light from the video camera at the other end of the gym was putting his players off, so after a lengthy delay the refs said we had to put some tape over it. Somehow I don't think the little light was the problem why there 'star' player kept getting blocked but hey ho.
So into December, 3 games before xmas and not a lot of traveling. This weekend we are away to Habo, following week we welcome the defending champions and team that beat us in the semi final last season, Linkoping. Then we close out 2010 at home to our lovely friends from Sollentuna. A hard run to end the year, but hopefully we end on a high.
Unfortunately I cant recall anyone doing anything really stupid this month apart from the Canadian girl in EVS firstly saying she thought they did stats from games 'just for fun' then followed by 'do you get extra points for doing different things', maybe they have a different scoring system in Canada compared to the rest of the world.
Joe has been normal this month, which will be of disappointment to his family as he never tells them when he does stupid things. (He did do something stupid but am keeping my mouth shut...for the time being)
Not many things to rant at this month, so will have a look at the videos
clever video, the longer version got taken off youtube
don't think everyone will understand, but its funny
pretty clever
this is just strange
enjoy the snow
The start of November seems age ago, but we started the month with a 3-1 derby win at home to Lund, a bit of a wobble by us in the 3rd and some unreal defence from the visitors pushed the game to a 4th set but we came through. 3 days later we made the long trip to the Stockholm area to play Vingaker, the gym smelt weird and they played with gala's, which rolled back the sheffield years. To cut a long story short, they bombed us from the service line and we found ourselves 2-0 down, and staring our first defeat in the face, however we then decided to play our volleyball won the 3rd, then won the 4th on a yellow card (pattern emerging here) and then we squeaked out the 5th 15-13 to keep our top spot and winning record. 5 short and snowy days latter we made the longer trip to Uppsala for the swedish cup finals, now we were meant to practice when we got up there, but because of the weather we got there late, so instead of practicing at 11pm on friday night, our coach decided to send us on a half hour run....... in the snow. Onwards to saturday and the semi final against sollentuna and de ja vu from last weekend, we went 2-0 down, then decided to play and 'make the girl say yes' as Martin would put it and won 3-2. Saturday night was mainly a snow ball fight against the american girls from Lindesberg, then bed, but not with the girls. So sunday was final day against Falkenberg, and to put it simple, we were poor, there game plan worked perfectly and we did nothing to stop it and it was our worse performance of the season and with it our first defeat. This may be a blessing disguise as now the tag has gone and we can move on. So after dusting ourselves off, mainly from the snow, we tinkered with a few things and closed the month out with a 3-0 win against the Swedish Junior National team that plays in the top league. Was our best blocking game of the season and we soon shut up the yapping they were giving us through the net. They pissed me off in the warm up in the fact that they would hit cross court, and if they hit one of us they would high five each other. Then in the 1st set after being 5-1 down, there coach moaned that the small light from the video camera at the other end of the gym was putting his players off, so after a lengthy delay the refs said we had to put some tape over it. Somehow I don't think the little light was the problem why there 'star' player kept getting blocked but hey ho.
So into December, 3 games before xmas and not a lot of traveling. This weekend we are away to Habo, following week we welcome the defending champions and team that beat us in the semi final last season, Linkoping. Then we close out 2010 at home to our lovely friends from Sollentuna. A hard run to end the year, but hopefully we end on a high.
Unfortunately I cant recall anyone doing anything really stupid this month apart from the Canadian girl in EVS firstly saying she thought they did stats from games 'just for fun' then followed by 'do you get extra points for doing different things', maybe they have a different scoring system in Canada compared to the rest of the world.
Joe has been normal this month, which will be of disappointment to his family as he never tells them when he does stupid things. (He did do something stupid but am keeping my mouth shut...for the time being)
Not many things to rant at this month, so will have a look at the videos
clever video, the longer version got taken off youtube
don't think everyone will understand, but its funny
pretty clever
this is just strange
enjoy the snow
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
End of the Month
So October came and went and it went pretty quick. Thankfully for us it was a good month, as Novemeber rolls in, we sit top of the league with a perfect 3-0 record, and are 2 points ahead of second place. Obviously nothing is decided in the first month of the season, but it is good for confidence to have gotten off to a good start, especially in comparison to the start we had last season.
After me and Joe had been given the freedom of Hylte to hit and score all day in the middle, it was on to our home opener agaist Tierp, who the previous week had beaten the defending champions. So it was set to be a good game, in front of a good crowd 400+. Unfourtantly for Joe and myself the Tierp game plan was to shut us down, so we didnt get a lot of ball, but it enabled our outside's to score for fun and we ran out comfortable winners 3-0, a good win and more importantly a good win infront of the home crowd. This past Friday we made the short trip up to Falkenberg (via Engelholm, if you were in the car with Joe). Falkenberg have been one of the best teams in Sweden for the past 5 years or so, and they beat us 3 out of 3 times we played them last season. So we prepared for a difficult game, we won the first set, mainly because they couldnt keep out of the net, the second set they bombed us from the service line and we had no answer, after a bit of 'hair dryer' treatmeant fergie style from our coach we closed out the 3rd set to win after battling back from a few points down mid-set, the 4th set we had more control and wrapped up the set to win the game, although match point we won on a yellow card, which was slightly bizarre, I have never experienced this as a player or watching a game.
So onwards to November, we have a local derby at home, a trip to the stockholm area, a trip to uppsala for swedish cup final fours and the chance to win the first silverwear of the season and we close the month out with a visit from the volleyball high school. Hopefully we will carry on our positive start to the season.
Thankfully the Rooney saga has been put to bed, although he has a lot of making up to do when he returns. The way he went about everything was wrong although i think his so called 'advisors' didnt help the situation. Nani's goal was comical, it was harsh on Spurs, but Gomes must take some of the blame, the 1st thing you learn in any sport is play to the whistle, maybe they teach something else in Brazil.
Other highlights, Zlatan and milan losing to Juve in the san siro and Alessandro Del Piero scoring his 179th serie A goal to become Juve's top serie A goal scorer.
A previously mentioned non-swedish team mate taking a shot of sambuca after it had been set on fire and burning his lips on the glass. He now has blistered lips.
Whilst sat in the resturant at the Ice hockey arena eating lunch, the polish EVS girl looks at the ice rink and ask's if the big white thing is ice.
a few random videos
After me and Joe had been given the freedom of Hylte to hit and score all day in the middle, it was on to our home opener agaist Tierp, who the previous week had beaten the defending champions. So it was set to be a good game, in front of a good crowd 400+. Unfourtantly for Joe and myself the Tierp game plan was to shut us down, so we didnt get a lot of ball, but it enabled our outside's to score for fun and we ran out comfortable winners 3-0, a good win and more importantly a good win infront of the home crowd. This past Friday we made the short trip up to Falkenberg (via Engelholm, if you were in the car with Joe). Falkenberg have been one of the best teams in Sweden for the past 5 years or so, and they beat us 3 out of 3 times we played them last season. So we prepared for a difficult game, we won the first set, mainly because they couldnt keep out of the net, the second set they bombed us from the service line and we had no answer, after a bit of 'hair dryer' treatmeant fergie style from our coach we closed out the 3rd set to win after battling back from a few points down mid-set, the 4th set we had more control and wrapped up the set to win the game, although match point we won on a yellow card, which was slightly bizarre, I have never experienced this as a player or watching a game.
So onwards to November, we have a local derby at home, a trip to the stockholm area, a trip to uppsala for swedish cup final fours and the chance to win the first silverwear of the season and we close the month out with a visit from the volleyball high school. Hopefully we will carry on our positive start to the season.
Thankfully the Rooney saga has been put to bed, although he has a lot of making up to do when he returns. The way he went about everything was wrong although i think his so called 'advisors' didnt help the situation. Nani's goal was comical, it was harsh on Spurs, but Gomes must take some of the blame, the 1st thing you learn in any sport is play to the whistle, maybe they teach something else in Brazil.
Other highlights, Zlatan and milan losing to Juve in the san siro and Alessandro Del Piero scoring his 179th serie A goal to become Juve's top serie A goal scorer.
A previously mentioned non-swedish team mate taking a shot of sambuca after it had been set on fire and burning his lips on the glass. He now has blistered lips.
Whilst sat in the resturant at the Ice hockey arena eating lunch, the polish EVS girl looks at the ice rink and ask's if the big white thing is ice.
a few random videos
Monday, 18 October 2010
Let the fun begin
So i have been back in Sweden for just under 2 months now, and everything is back in full swing, my dislike of zlatan, my dislike of various swedish foods, and now my dislike of swedish road works. Also back is my poor attempt at speaking and understanding the swedish language although i have learnt a few new words and they are not even rude ones. Any way, the past month or so has seen us in pre-season training, and playing 9 pre-season games, including 5 in one weekend at the Hylte tournament. The highlight of the trip to Hylte was on the way back, when my american team/room mate, decided to fill up the car at the petrol station, the only problem was that he put diesel in the petrol car. Cue complete melt down on his part, and hysterics on the rest of the teams part. After what seemed 3 days of deciding what to do, we drove on and all seemed well, the car didnt blow up and we made it home, just a bit later than planned. He will never live this down.
So fast forward to yesterday afternoon and 200 days since that disappointing night in Linkoping, we where back to the scene of the diesel crime , and our opening game of the season away at localish rivals Hylte, the team that we knocked out of the play offs last season. They have had a considerable makeover in personal on the court and off it with a new coach coming across from Habo. We knew they would come out all guns blazing in the first set, we talked about before the game, but we didnt really prepare for it on the court and we lost the first set 25-21, onto the 2nd and we had settled into a bit more of a rhythm, and managed to squeeze out the 2nd 27-25, after that we controlled the game and won the next 2 sets with out much danger and a satisfying away win and 3 points to kick off the season. Now on to our home opener next weekend against Tierp who beat the defending champions Linkoping 3-0 in there opener, so it has the potential to be a good battle.
Comparing things to this point last season, I feel the team we have know is a lot more settled, even with the new guy coming in, we have had a good month to get used to each other and get into the grove. We have had some off court drama's in the run up to this season just like last season, but we havent been rattled by it and have just got on with it. The temperament of the squad is a level above last season and there is a good team spirit which makes it a pleasure to play in. That team spirit shone through last weekend when we had a kick off party with our sister club EVS, and we were victorious in the party games, including a dance from our coach that MJ would of been proud of. But know pre-season and party season are over at the main business is off and running.
I watched a lot of the FIVB world championships over the past few weeks, and overall it wasnt a great championships. The system the Italians and fivb put in place was stupid and it basically gave Italy a free pass to the semi-finals and screwed over better nations such as poland and bulgaria. As a result there where teams trying to lose on purpose so they had an easier draw. In the 2nd phase Bulgaria played there bench, so Brazil put out there bench team and used there second opposite as a setter. Bulgaria won 3-0, but got knocked out in the next phase, Brazil went all the way and won the championship. Lots of people are slagging off Brazil, but if a system this bad is put in place then it is open to be abused, and Brazil did it for the best result for themselves. It was also suggested Serbia lost a first round game on purpose and they ended up 3rd in the championship as a result. After the opening week only Russia and Cuba looked like decent teams, but russia bottled it late on, Cuba got to the final but lost to Brazil. Brazil turned it on when it mattered. For cuba this was there first major final with this generation so big game nerves played a part, but now the young guns have experienced it, they could we worth a bet for Olympic Gold in 2012, providing they hold on to this group of players.
In other news, United sort yourself out, Rooney sort your life out, and the Liverpool saga is just to stupid to comment on. Yanks should just stick to their own sport, and leave ours alone. Nice to see Price doing his Halak impression as well, could be another run to the finals hopefully.
So fast forward to yesterday afternoon and 200 days since that disappointing night in Linkoping, we where back to the scene of the diesel crime , and our opening game of the season away at localish rivals Hylte, the team that we knocked out of the play offs last season. They have had a considerable makeover in personal on the court and off it with a new coach coming across from Habo. We knew they would come out all guns blazing in the first set, we talked about before the game, but we didnt really prepare for it on the court and we lost the first set 25-21, onto the 2nd and we had settled into a bit more of a rhythm, and managed to squeeze out the 2nd 27-25, after that we controlled the game and won the next 2 sets with out much danger and a satisfying away win and 3 points to kick off the season. Now on to our home opener next weekend against Tierp who beat the defending champions Linkoping 3-0 in there opener, so it has the potential to be a good battle.
Comparing things to this point last season, I feel the team we have know is a lot more settled, even with the new guy coming in, we have had a good month to get used to each other and get into the grove. We have had some off court drama's in the run up to this season just like last season, but we havent been rattled by it and have just got on with it. The temperament of the squad is a level above last season and there is a good team spirit which makes it a pleasure to play in. That team spirit shone through last weekend when we had a kick off party with our sister club EVS, and we were victorious in the party games, including a dance from our coach that MJ would of been proud of. But know pre-season and party season are over at the main business is off and running.
I watched a lot of the FIVB world championships over the past few weeks, and overall it wasnt a great championships. The system the Italians and fivb put in place was stupid and it basically gave Italy a free pass to the semi-finals and screwed over better nations such as poland and bulgaria. As a result there where teams trying to lose on purpose so they had an easier draw. In the 2nd phase Bulgaria played there bench, so Brazil put out there bench team and used there second opposite as a setter. Bulgaria won 3-0, but got knocked out in the next phase, Brazil went all the way and won the championship. Lots of people are slagging off Brazil, but if a system this bad is put in place then it is open to be abused, and Brazil did it for the best result for themselves. It was also suggested Serbia lost a first round game on purpose and they ended up 3rd in the championship as a result. After the opening week only Russia and Cuba looked like decent teams, but russia bottled it late on, Cuba got to the final but lost to Brazil. Brazil turned it on when it mattered. For cuba this was there first major final with this generation so big game nerves played a part, but now the young guns have experienced it, they could we worth a bet for Olympic Gold in 2012, providing they hold on to this group of players.
In other news, United sort yourself out, Rooney sort your life out, and the Liverpool saga is just to stupid to comment on. Yanks should just stick to their own sport, and leave ours alone. Nice to see Price doing his Halak impression as well, could be another run to the finals hopefully.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Sweden Part 2... a humbling experience
So after a summer of not a lot of sun back in England, I have returned to a surprisingly sunny Sweden. I have been back for just over a week know, after traveling for what seemed an eternity via Bus, Plane, Train and Ferry I finally made it to Helsingborg, which will be my new home until April time. I have upgraded from living in the small town of Orkelljunga to the bigger city of Helsingborg, where there are actual things to do after 5pm. After sleeping on one of my team mates sofa's for a few days, I got the keys to my new apartment that I am sharing with my American team mate. Its a decent apartment and has a dishwasher in so can't complain. So obviously we had to have a house warming party as the weekend just gone is our last free weekend for a month or so. Party was good fun, got to meet/bully/take the piss out of the two new oversea's players that have joined the Engelholm team. Including a wannabe geography teacher from Canada not knowing her US states. Was good to catch up with the other girls that I had become friends with over the past year and find out how their summers had been. After the Friday party, Saturday was a lazy day and Sunday we had been invited to take part in an event organised for children that have cancer or have had cancer.
So on Sunday morning we made the drive to a farm in the south of Sweden. The event its self is run by the guy who owns the farm and this was its 8th time of hosting it. Apart from our team being their, their was Malmo fc who are top of the Swedish football league, rally cars, motorbike display team, a robin hood play, live bands, entertainers, face painting, an orchestra, emergency services and the Swedish airforce. The whole point of the event is to put a smile on the kids face's and let the parents have a good time to. Their was 400 kids and 900 people in total at the event, they had come from Sweden, Poland and Lithuania. The language barrier was a bit tough but we got by and it was good to see all the kids enjoying themselves and getting them involved with volleyball. It was a humbling experience for myself and the rest of the team, and it put a lot of things into perspective and made me realise a lot of every day problems are superficial when you hear about the stories of the kids such as one girl has had to fight cancer twice and she has just turned 11 and another girl who has gone blind at the age of 6 and thankfully we seemed to make a good impression (especially our captain) on her and her family. Am glad that for the 6 or so hours we where their we brought a lot of joy to the bravest kids I have ever met.
So on Sunday morning we made the drive to a farm in the south of Sweden. The event its self is run by the guy who owns the farm and this was its 8th time of hosting it. Apart from our team being their, their was Malmo fc who are top of the Swedish football league, rally cars, motorbike display team, a robin hood play, live bands, entertainers, face painting, an orchestra, emergency services and the Swedish airforce. The whole point of the event is to put a smile on the kids face's and let the parents have a good time to. Their was 400 kids and 900 people in total at the event, they had come from Sweden, Poland and Lithuania. The language barrier was a bit tough but we got by and it was good to see all the kids enjoying themselves and getting them involved with volleyball. It was a humbling experience for myself and the rest of the team, and it put a lot of things into perspective and made me realise a lot of every day problems are superficial when you hear about the stories of the kids such as one girl has had to fight cancer twice and she has just turned 11 and another girl who has gone blind at the age of 6 and thankfully we seemed to make a good impression (especially our captain) on her and her family. Am glad that for the 6 or so hours we where their we brought a lot of joy to the bravest kids I have ever met.
Glädje
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