Elimination day with Owen

The fourth day of play was business time for the team. A pre-quarterfinal and a quarterfinal. Win and we advance. Lose and there are only placing games. 

Each day we start by sprawling around our hotel lobby, taping, stretching and chatting. Then it is on to the coach with Johnny Encore or Fury or Rogue or Eastern Greys. It's good to share a few tales with other teams. Or learn about your teammates. Such as one outspoken Colony individual: "If I were WFDF president, I would make such good advices". 

At the fields we trudge through mud of varying gooiness to our field - there are 33 of them. We walk across planks acting as bridges over small trenches. And the Alps gaze down upon us. 

First up today was Nomadic Tribe from Japan. 

As the game started, Colony D was a hungry beast. A few high counts lead to a few breaks for our team. We took half 9-3. 

Nomadic Tribe were very judicious with their hucks, only sending a few during the game,  but with great precision. They are shorter than most of us. Their handler iso was super effective - they could have used it more. 

They were also very conservative on D, often playing a loose zone, in the hope that 20+ passes by Colony would provide a turn. However, our O was solid. 

For the Tribe, #1 was dropping 40m pinpoint hammers, smiling throughout the whole game. A worthy MVP.

Colony prevailed 17-11. 

In the post game circle, the Japanese were gracious in their comments and Abra got to take home a DVD on Japanese culture. 

Next we faced Heidees of Heidelberg, Germany. We had played them a week early in Heilbronn and won by a single point. This rematch would be fun. 

A crowd was gathering. Spectators had gathered in the nearby shade (a limited resource). 

We Aussies took confidence in our experience with Aussie summers. Bring on the sweat. 

Both teams were vocal - at times, we had competing chants echoing around simultaneously.  

Once again Colony D stepped up to get some early breaks. 

And our offence intimidated the HeiD - they played a lot of zone for a still day, trying to reduce the threat of our tall deeps. 

Half was 9-6 to Colony. 

Highlights included Julio's sneaky poach block, a big Konrad sky grab and Joel, Abra and Mark orchestrating the offence. 

Colony won 17-11.

Our reward is a semi final match against Seattle Sockeye. Several of the lads have had games against the Fish before on Australian teams. We are hungry for more. 

Lastly we are thinking of Nick who is bedridden with a bug. It lead to "probably the worst night of my life". Get well soon.