Día 11. Y sigue contando…
Yesterday, Scotland qualified for the World League 2 Semi-finals out here in sunny-ish, but colder today, Valencia, by beating the overly physical Russians. The next opponent in their way to the Final is Spain, who they play tomorrow at 4:30, the final match of four on the day. Conditions should suit Scotland as it’s not going to be too warm, and might even be a bit chilly. What won’t suit them is our record against the hosts. With one draw and three defeats in the January tour and a last minute goal defeat in the warm-up match a few days ago, Scotland are definitely the underdogs. Where have we heard that before…?
But underdogs with a bit of bite. When other teams arrive at the stadium, it’s all personal music or shuffling off the bus, chatting amongst themselves. When Scotland arrives, it’s to whatever music has been chosen for that day, blasting out on somebody’s i-Pad-Phone-WiFi-Speaker-thingy and then these girls own the road down to the pitch. The others know they’re coming! No flying under the radar for this particular Scotland squad!
Now all they have to do is beat a team 7 places above them in the World rankings and they have exceeded Head-coach, Gordon Shepherd’s target. Can they do it? Absolutely. Abso-£#$*&^-lutely!!
In other news…. Once this is diary entry is done, I’m up to date with all Scottish matters from Valencia. And then it all starts again tomorrow (11th). When’s it all going to end? Sunday……
So now the dust on it’s way to settling, how’s it been?
Busy, with hardly time to think. What with training days, team photos, matches, more training, walks to the beach, training, more matches and approximately 7,000 images to go through, sift and edit and being at the sharp-ish end of an Elite International sports team, seeing how most of it works. All-in-all it’s been a great experience, if a trifle awkward at times being the new boy in school. And being in the room furthest down the corridor……
I’ve also eaten about a months worth of food in 10 days, but that’s a different story and one I won’t elaborate on as I may be heavier than when I arrived……
Anyway, we’re not done yet and there are only two more sleeps to the title. Or third place. Whichever happens, it will in no small way be down to the preparation and back-up from Shep and his team to have put 18 young women in prime position to qualify for the next World League round in Belgium or South Africa. And those 18 young women have probably got their own small part to play……
