Day (2) 1 at WUCC with Colony. Here is Konrad to tell us all about it.
Konrad here. After a leisurely breakfast at our hotel we cruised over to the fields in the Colony bus. Hype was building and the lads were ready to froth. Mark and Konrad had finally been dethroned from an epic Fussball winning streak by Rory and Julio, Rory however needing to either celebrate the victory or circum to the heat by removing his upper body undergarments as we clambered onto the bus. As the fields got closer the nervous sense of excitement building from the fact we were to play our actual first game at worlds came to a head. It’s that first look at the fields of day 1 (well, 2 in our case) as the bus swings round the last corner that goes straight to our veins. The fields are vast, this tournament is big. The fields are also water logged. Apparently vacuum water pumps and helicopters can only do so much. As they always say though, every team is in the same boat and we still have a job to do: beat the Finnish on the Showcase field and kick off our WUCC tournament with a bang.
It’s warm, the sun is out, there is no wind and the field is trash. Large mud patches are being temporarily salvaged by piles of sand as we start to throw and fill our water bottles. Our time draws closer and we loudly pump out our best warm-up yet. The noise, the intensity and that special glint can be seen and felt around the team. It felt good and I was stoked to be here with this awesome team and group of guys. We were also introduced to a very professional seeming ‘game advisor’ who ran us through his role and gave us a watered-down taste of playing under the USAU style of observer. A few cracks of the whip on some off-side calls aside, all went smoothly.
Our opponents are a team called Otso from Finland. They are seeded second in our pool so will likely be our toughest opponents of the 3 initial games, but like the other teams we really don’t know anything about them. The wise gem from the brains trust warns of a tradition of inside breaks to downfield targets, so with the adjustment in mind a fired-up man D-line takes the field.
We generate turns early with big blocks from Julio, Jimmy and Nick D, and set a dominant tone for the game. On the way to finding our grove we unleash a couple of wayward decisions but ultimately the O lines proves itself too strong and holds on to resist getting broken.
Some early hucks from the Finnish demand some slight adjustments, but tight D around the muddy field consistently creates the pressure we need to get the disc and score breaks. Cupcake and Julio serve up some dimes to our big boys deeps, Sweet As having a cracker with 3 huck goals. Our Yank Tommy Lamar also found a versatile role throwing a hammer for a goal and laying out big late in the game to block one going the other way.
O line faced an interesting poachy/zone look but were solid and patient working the disc in using all their members. Henry popped up regularly when we needed him and helped deliver the disc downfield. Marky cruised around downfield getting some goals including a hammer and massive exciting laser backhand from Cal. Joel and Abra and Oli Jung rocked it as usual.
It was a solid 15-7 victory and start to Worlds and the lads are in a good space. After the game we enjoyed a pretty decent serving of tournament food and were able to sneak in some further game viewing as Rogue went down to Bristol after some vigorous sideline passion from Pete and Joel regarding a dicey call from the Brits on an up line cut for a goal. Sarah Hammer proudly kept her cool.
In mixed, Roadkill took on some Germans on one of the more terrible fields and some hearty sideline banter was had. Over at the Hippo/Black Sheep game a bunch of the boys cheered and heckled members on both sides in what developed into a bit of a huck-fest.
Hard to say no to your first day at worlds. It’s good to be here!
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