Wow things have been busy here lately, and with a heat-wave coming across the ditch from our mates in Australia where it gets proper hot.
Temperature has hit 36 degrees C in our workshop, that's the current record. Needless to say I have been appropriating a large quantity of the kids ice-blocks.
Next up in the blog is the last couple of semi-finals, both involving GB, with the men playing France who beat them 1-0 in the RR (first game of the comp or very close) and the women playing Colombia.
This one is a bit of a wordsy one with stats. Ooh statistics, exciting!
We will look at the men first, and today I've abandoned nick-names. Too mentally draining. But I will just say "Ross the powerful back" once, for form. Instead we can have a different look at it and check out the shape of the game through the reffing calls. I've done some limited underwater nerdery and come up with firstly this, here are the calls as they happened... TLDR, fast forward to summary at bottom.
FR free
FR goal
GB free
GB free
FR free
FR free
FR free on GB bin- FR goal
GB free
GB free on FR bin- GB timeout
GB free
GB free in FR zone
GB free on FR bin
FR free- FR timeout
GB free on FR bin
GB 7 1min (flick)
FR free
GB 3 2min (flick)
FR free
FR free
GB 5 2min (freearm?)
Halftime---------------
FR 13 2min (flick)
GB free
GB pen shot - GB goal
GB free in FR zone
GB 6 2min (freearm)
FR free
GB free
GB free
FR free
GB 5 2min (freearm)
FR free on GB bin
FR 8 2min (obs)
GB free in FR zone
FR 5 2min
GB free- GB timeout
GB goal
FR timeout
FR free
Overtime---------------
GB free
FR free in GB zone
FR free on GB bin
FR free on GB bin
GB free
FR free
GB free
Halftime---------------
GB free
GB 10 2min (obs)
FR free
FR free in GB zone
FR goal
SUMMARY
18 FR free
18 GB free
GB 11 mins sinbin
FR 6 mins sinbin
Amazingly after an overtime game there were exactly the same calls for and against each team, and actually the same number of adv pucks in each defensive zone as well. Of course the obvious difference here is that of their fouls, GB had calls severe enough or repeating enough to get 11 sinbin minutes (6 kickouts) while France only had 6 minutes (3 kickouts).
Here's a bit more of a visual look, please note the court isnt to scale, just approximate.
Above are the 4 quarters of the game from the French point of view, playing up the page. Black dot is French Adv puck, Big black dot is a french powerplay(GB kickout)
And here it is for GB, white dots playing up the page.
I think I have that right, apologies if I've muffed something up.l
Why not lay them all over each other? Because each quarter the subs benches swap sides, and it can be interesting to see if there is a bias to the subs bench side in play. Maybe? Also so we can see any changing momentum in the game as it goes on.
All this really shows is where the fouls are called and not where the puck actually goes, but it does give a good indication of flash points and where momentum is. You'd have to say looking at the 2 halves of normal time, GB are pretty dominant in territory, almost all the play is happening in the french half and a lot in the french 5m. Hardly any action in the GB 5m until the 3rd quarter, really, when the french get a series of calls in the GB zone which pins the play up that end.
But, the 2 French goals in the first half were from Adv pucks that went straight through the GB defense against the run of play, they didnt need any territory to convert those chances. Bit like a team in football defending in their third and scoring counterattacking goals when the chance comes.
Is it like a ropeadope? Well, not really because Ali did it on purpose. I'm betting the french would have preferred to have been on attack all game.
Imagine how awesome if Uwh tactics evolve to that level! Crazy.
On the diagrams, interesting to see the play go from all over in the first half to almost strictly walls in the second too.
Quite similar for the French to their Quarter-final against Colombia, where the Colombians forced most of the territory and lots of chances, but France just hung in there keeping them out and finished their own chances really clinically. Really really good defence from the French team seems to be the most powerful characteristic for them, but you can't underestimate how important it is to actually finish those chances too. One goal from GB was scored with Raphael G in the bin for the French, and you would have to say he was a very important figure for their backline... I don't think he subs, he just sits in most of the game and they operate around him.
For GB, probably more of a case of not managing to get those finishing touches on all the opportunities they managed to create.
Here's a few things that stood out. One is a bit of a sherlock holmes, what did Ben S from GB get kicked out for?
Camera doesn't get a clear view but we can see french #7 Quentin go "Ooof!" as the puck hits his belly...
And here the classic "what'd you do?" "flicked 'im."
If you watch from the start of the second half, Ben is allowed back in as the puck is touched (ref lets him in a couple seconds late), he drops on it as it gets to the wall. He then stays down pretty much on the puck for 25 seconds until the next break in play...
He's not cruising along behind the play either conserving energy like backs, he's involved on the puck pretty much the whole time. Great effort from the young fella.
Here's the penalty shot to make it 2-1 to france
Not long after, great dummy from ... can't see his number! The frenchman with the magnificent beard.
Unfortunately, it's not that easy to dummy a left hander, those guys come back like zombies. GB have 3 big lefties in their team, which is a lot!
Pretty decent body-check on the barrier wall here from the french back, helped a bit by the GB guy he's trying to beat...
Bomf! I do recall seeing a french player in 2004 when the puck was right on the corner of our bin, come screaming up so fast and furious from the back he swam headfirst into the wall. I was amazed that this could happen, until years later I did it myself while playing forward and feeling overly optimistic about a scoring chance.
Here's the GB goal that equalizes. This was clutch, only 2 minutes to go they had to get it. Boils down to, can they turn the puck back into the middle once the french had started to shift it sideways, Ali Monteath manages to sweep it back in and someone does a great pickup in there and scores it.
What a photo-finish at the end, you can see in the gif the clock tick down and Scott's time in the bin is up, but literally a couple seconds before he can reach the play the momentum breaks and GB run out of defenders and France forwards flood the goal.
What a tight game, a great one really. Some dominating moments from GB and great come from behind to equalize, but you have to hand it to the French hanging in there with defence all the way to the end and getting the result.
I'll try to figure out an interesting way to approach the womens semi, and it's nearly all she wrote for this blog, only a couple to go!
