Thursday 6 June 2013

UKUTour 1 Wrapup

Saturday:

Game 1: Loss to Fire 2 (13-11)

Ka-Pow! got off to a shaky start against Fire 2. We had lost to them at the Fog Lane Cup and they came into the tournament with a gameplan aiming to stop our offense with poaching defense. Our defense managed to get blocks and turns and put in some goals, but Fire 2 managed to convert more breaks than us.
This game did shake us into action in our other pool games and made us take a deep look into our strategies and made us really think about our aims for the season.

Game 2: Win over BAF (15-9)

Coming into this game we knew we had to perform better and play with a bit more confidence. We went up early and started to build the kind of momentum we wanted to continue through the weekend. Unfortunately, in what would be a slightly worrying trend for us, we experienced a slight lull in our performance. Luckily the result was never in doubt.

Game 3: Win over Cambridge (15-9)

A similar game to the one against BAF in that we took an early lead and let it slip slightly but closing out the game. Cambridge had just been in a tight 15-13 loss against Fire 2 whereas we had come straight from beating BAF comfortably so we gained momentum early and never looked back.

Sunday:

Game 4: Win over DED (13-7)

DED were our rivals last season after both teams were formed at the same time and we ended up playing them more times than any other team. This offseason again we ended up playing them twice coming away with two wins. A year ago at Tour 1, DED knocked a short rostered Ka-Pow! out of the top bracket and we were out for some revenge. We turned up earlier than they did, had a focussed warmup and went into the game on offense. We decided upon a shortened O-Line and expanded D-Line for the Sunday as the D-Line had been on the field a lot more on Saturday. We started strong again and DED seemed beaten after a short while. They mounted a couple of small runs but Ka-Pow lead from start to finish. Having heard that DED had only lost to Clapham by the same points differential as we had just beaten them by filled us with more confidence in our aim to finish as high as we could.

Game 5: Win over Bear Cavalry (11-9)

We came into this game with a bit of hesitance. We didn't want to be upstaged by a team comprised of players who we all knew well and who, at one time, looked as though they would be playing for Ka-Pow! at some point this season. The game started and was a little chippy with a couple of calls, but sometimes that happens. As the game progressed though, it was apparent both teams really wanted the win. Bears were short on numbers but continued to play their quick offensive style employing plenty of handler movement. We tried to run our offense, but like in the Fire 2 game the Bears had game planned to take it away (knowing and having access to our play book couldn't have hurt). We took the game in an ugly final point but I think we weren't as pleased with the win as we would have been had we played our systems well or had it not contained quite as many calls. We all respect the Bears and their achievement over the weekend is really impressive, and we can't wait to have them back under the Ka-Pow! banner and wish them luck at Mixed Europeans and Worlds.

Game 6: Win over Cota Rica (15-8)

UKUTour 1 is a great tournament as some of the best teams from Europe are usually in attendance to get some strong competition either in the build up to their own national competition or to consolidate their performance at their nationals and build towards Europeans. Cota Rica had notched some big wins over the weekend, but playing with 9 for 2 days and having 1 player leave to catch a flight before our game against them, leaving them with 8 means they weren't as competitive as they could have been against us. Their long game continued to give us easy turnovers and we were able to convert plenty of breaks. When they scored it was through very impressive play and coming out on defense they played a variety of zone and poach sets which was quite stifling to our offense. We had another lull in this game, but again we were never in any real danger of letting the game slip.

Overall we reached our aim of finishing as highly as we could. It's clear that we need to step up our game to run with the big boys but the building blocks are there for the rest of the season.
9th at Tour 1 translates to 5th out of the Tour teams and we finished behind Clapham (O + D), Chevron, Emo and Fire. A finish of 5th at nationals would gain us qualification for Europeans this year, but there is still work to do for us to achieve our aim of Worlds qualification in 2014. It was a great start to the season though!

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