At the end of the 2008 Labor Day tournament at the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, I remember sitting around with the team just reflecting on a tournament where we only won one game. and lost maybe 5 or 6. It was a very difficult tournament in that we had a shortened squad, but there was no excuse as to how we played. We showed very little heart, a lot of nerves, and pretty much let down the Section and the Region that we represented.The team has changed a lot since last year but the veterans from '08 knew that we had to step it up this year and prove to ourselves that we could achieve all we set out to do.
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Round 1 vs. A.I.R.
Not a good start as AIR came out firing on all cylinders and had us down in an early 2-7 hole. Our offensive lines could not find a rhythm and we had some key drops and turns in our own end zone that led to easy scores. One key time-out later and a hungry defensive line finally got on the field and closed the gap from 2-7 to 7-8. Good way to end the half but we were still down, starting on D. We began to develop some "swagger" as Matt Welsh put it, and started dictating the game and closed strong after trading from half till 11's. Game to 13, we take the last 2 points of the game to win 13-11 and complete the comeback victory. AIR was, no pun intended, pretty deflated after that game as it was a very gutsy win for us avoiding another repeat of Chico and coming back to win from being down 4 breaks.
Round 2 vs. Denver Ultimate Club
We had a dreaded BYE the second round and I don't know if it was a factor, but we started flat again going down 0-2 but then begin to set the pace of the game. DUC played well, but we were able to contain their H-stack as well as run our offense efficiently. We threw a lot of counterpunches in transition D-->O and took care of the disc a lot better than we did in the previous game. We take half 8-4 and then storm up to 12-4. We took our foot off the gas near the end and take the game 13-8. Our offense feels a lot more fluid but our defense was still a bit sluggish. Good win after a bad start in the first round.
Round 3 vs. Night Train
I have no idea what happened this game. We currently had a 3-0 lifetime record against Night Train and I felt like we didn't take them seriously at all as they went up on us 2-6 quite easily. Our defense seemed soft and our offense confused and we simply could not establish a rhythm on offense and/or generate D's on defense. It was frustrating to watch them take the game 15-10, but our 20 throwaways told the story. We didn't play well at all and Night Train deserved the victory as they ran a DEEP H-stack that opened the entire under-lane for easy in-cuts that we neglected to respect. As our captain put it... it sucks to lose when we don't play well.
Round 4 vs. CTR
This was a friggin awesome game from the start. Both teams running their respective offenses well. CTR ran a standard vertical stack and relied on two main handlers to facilitate the offense and open up the deep game. We were in it from the start despite giving up an early break. We trade until 9's and then we go on a run to win it 13-11. We played this game with a lot of desire, and Barrs went crazy this game. It was wet, cold, foggy, and the last round, but we showed a lot of resilience against a very good CTR team and showed that despite the elements and a disasterous loss in the previous round, we could recover and bounce back, play our game and win.
3-1 on the day... went to sleep upset about the Night Train loss... in addition to the pain from partially dislocating my shoulder again on a lay-out D against DUC.
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Sunday
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Game 1 vs. Mischief
How do we even start with this one. We got pwned... nuff said. Mischief played a very sound game with minimal throw-aways which made our margin for error even smaller but we managed to give the game away right on the get go. We came out super flat at 8:00am and were never in it. These guys are a solid team... even at 8:00 in the morning. We are a great team... but we need to strive to be a team that's great whenever we take the field.
Game 2 vs. Golden Spike
Golden Spike is a good team. Well rounded with solid cutters, handles, and deep game, they surprised us out of the gate and went up 5-2 with relative ease. It was a very heated game with arguments, disputes, and finger pointing going on from both sides but that aside, it was a very intense and fun ultimate game. We had great offensive flow as did they, but our defense stepped it up and from 10-8, we go on a 5-0 run to take the game 13-10. This game had a lot of heated moments, but it was good to see our team keep our cool and work things out in a way that was both spirited and true to the game. Birthday boy Mark Miller catching the final score for the win through a defender was pretty sweet as well. Our ladies played well and made some pretty grabs. Great play all around. Great team win.
Game 3 vs. White Wedding
We STILL spotted them a 0-2 lead! There was a lot of wind in this game and we found ourselves on the field that had a straight up and down wind so a lot of zone was implemented (atleast from our side). We worked on zones and transitions and also played great offensive transition. This team was very short on numbers but it was very admirable to see them play the way they did against such great competition.
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In all, this tournament was very successful in that it helped us gauge where were and where we need to be for the series. We have one full practice before Sectionals, and then two practices until Regionals. It's the heart of the season right now, and when it all counts. Time to finish healing up injuries (in my case), to hit the track, to eat healthy, and to be in top shape because when you're in the game to go to nationals, you don't have a second shot. Life then goes point by point until a winner is decided. Overall it was a great tournament for us outside our two losses. We showed heart, grit, and passion with every point we played, every deficit we clawed back from, and every game that we won or loss. Sectionals in Long Beach in a week and a half.
Till then,
Hammie #10
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Elite-Mixed Final Standings
1. Mischief (6-0)
2. LA Metro (5-2)
3. A.I.R (5-2)
T-4. CTR (4-3)
T-4. BCBC (4-3)
6. Golden Spike (3-4)
7. Night Train (2-5)
8. White Wedding (1-6)
9. DUC (1-6)
Showing posts with label CTR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CTR. Show all posts
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Cal States 2009 Wrap-Up
For LA Metro, this tournament was the first "official" tournament where we would finish up our rounds of tryouts and also gauge where our team stood against the best from Southern Cal and NorCal. As stated in the preview, we were seeded 4th out of a field of 12, with games against Brown Chicken Brown Cow, TWSS, two byes, then wrapping up the day against GNT and CTR.
Keegan's keys to the tournament:
-Start strong, offense needs to score the first 3
-Minimize turns to x<10
-Boring red-zone offense
-Disc movement near the end-zone
-AMP it up on D
----SATURDAY----
Last year we had to wait until the finals of the So-Cal Sectional to play our rivals Brown Chicken Brown Cow. This year, the TD's wasted no time and scheduled us with a first round, 8:00am game against our rivals from the city of angels. The game started out in our favor, with BCBC making several early mistakes and calling a time out with us up about 4-1 or so. It was a good time-out as they went on a run of their own, tying the game at 4's. From there it was very close with our team gutting out the victory 10-8 on hard cap. Our offense was pretty sloppy all game, and our defense was sluggish, but it was a feel-good win and we knew that if we wanted to play well this tournament, we would have to step up our energy. We suffered a big loss this game when our captain, Keegan, went down with an injury catching the game-winning goal. We knew that with him out, we would have to play even better and that huge hucks would be more evenly matched. LA Metro wins 10-8 hard cap.
We then played TWSS n a relatively close game that featured breaks back and forth as well as some sloppy zone play. At this point, most of us had our legs under us so we were running well, but we were not taking care of the disc. We were definitely winning the battle of the sexes as our women were dominating and showed great poise in zone as well as in cutting for the disc. It was a quick round, LA Metro wins 12-9.
(insert two round bye here + lunch, Strike-Slip vs. Street Gang, quick nap)
Next up in round 5 was GNT. We had been soundly beaten by this team last year in Chico 13-6 and
we were looking for redemption. GNT ran a quick offense with their movement based solely on handler movement with the disc. This movement definitely gave our defensive line trouble as both men and women alike were constantly being beat up the line and/or letting of easy resets off the dump. It was frustrating trying to stop this, but we knew that although they were effective in the beginning, their handlers would eventually tire out and their strategy would not be as effective; which proved to be true. We began to wear down their offense, forcing up difficult throws, or long hucks at high stall counts. It was still a closely contested game but the defense did its job and got several key breaks. LA Metro was sitting pretty at 3-0 on the day with a 12-9 win over GNT.
Last round of the day was the battle of the unbeatens. CTR vs. LA Metro. CTR had cruised through their rounds and was looking good. CTR ran a very effective verti cal stack, using their women very well and also had the deep hucks to stretch out the defense. Their defensive zone also stiffled our offense as we would work it up 3/4 of the field very easily and then get stuffed or be forced into a bad decision whereupon CTR would jack a huge 70+yard huck for the score. It was a frustrating game for us as we could not figure out a way to break through. We did get our scores in however the game was not as close as the final score dictated. The offense frequently stalled and there was very little flow through our horizontal stack and even so in our vert. Barrs did make a spectacular lay out callahan snag to keep it close but CTR proved to be too fundamentally sound for us this time. CTR wins the pool with a 12-9 win over LA Metro.
Turns killed us the first day. We turned it atleast 20+ times in the first 4 games that we played. Although it was an early tournement, even that stat was unacceptable. We were lucky to be sitting at 3-1 going into Sunday. We knew that if we wanted a shot at playing against Mischief or at CTR again, we would need to clean up our offense. It was really frustrating watching our offensive lines struggle, just sitting there with Scott, Barrs, and d-liners... just anxious to get in and earn that break. Our defense was the highlight of the day, with great all around play from our ladies and our men after generating turns. We had a lot to work on and think about but we knew that we could turn it around.
LA Metro goes 3-1 on Saturday. Currently 2nd in the pool.
---- SUNDAY ----
First round bye, so our game started round 2 against S.F. Rush. You think we would clean up the offense for this game, but it was not the case. Rush ran a pretty good zone defense that we managed to break through several times. But we frequently turned it about 5-10 yards from the end zone while the zone was still in effect. This game became a battle of the defenses. Both team's defenses were completely owning the opposition's offense. At one stretch, defenses scored 3 straight for each side. It was kindof of hilarious... but also sad knowing that our offensive lines, which are designed with scoring in mind were finding themselves playing defense most of the time while the defense did the bulk of the scoring. It came down to 8's, game to 10 but at 9's, hard-cap blew and universe point. Both teams had multiple posessions on universe before our ladies finally worked it through the zone for the goal. 10-9 Metro. Yay us! It was a good game for the defense, but continued to demostrate the flaws in our offensive execution. With the win, we advanced into semi's against Mischief.
At games end, Mischief had scored two callahan goals on us. That's the type of game it was. It was very high intensity, very well played game despite the score being 7-15 in favor of arguably the top co-ed team in the n
ation. We didn't have answers for their guys who were schooling us but our ladies held more than their own and were very effective. We went 3-4 at several points and it worked. We did have the help of Matt Welsh, who picked up with us for the last two rounds. He proved to be not only an asset on the field, but also aided in calming the team down and making plays when needed. With the loss, we headed to the 3rd place game against Classy, who got shalacked by CTR in the other semi-final.
Our captains had been awesome all week in terms of leadership, pep-talk, and implementing strategies that proved to be successful, an
d if unsuccessful, adjusting according. We had a lot of great frisbee minds with plenty of "strategery" up their sleeves. For this game, we decided to practice a zone we had been talking about. 3-2-2 zone with just handler sags and poachy defense from the mids. The point was to get the handlers to swing to their hearts delight, and to channel throws through the gut of the defense (to the mids), rather than allow the throws up the sideline. Our women proved to be awesome on their handler marks, with some of our women even fouling male handlers (lolz). We went on a big run again, with our defense proving to be solid and at this point, more impactful than the offensive lines. We played very well, great movement, and although we failed in our bid to get our turn count under ten, we ended up with a tournament-low
12 turns.
LA Metro wraps up the tournament with a 3rd place finish and a 15-7 bounceback win over Classy.
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What now?
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After this tournament, Metro will be making a first series of cuts to gradually trim our roster down to it's final size. Every single person who was trying out with us played well and I know that the captains will have a very difficult time deciding who makes the roster and who doesn't. We have a lot to fix, but with a 3rd place finish at cal-states after only one practice, things are looking good. We finished 2nd last year, but the field had definitely gotten better and the level higher.
Being the top Southern California team there was a good thought, but I know every single one of us want to be one of the top in the Region if not the Nation. We have natties on our mind and what's gonna take us there is adjusting to our bad tendencies, working hard, and playing as one team with a common goal. I always tell younger players. Don't think you should be the superstar. If the team plays boring ultimate with sound fundamentals and low risk throws. You will win. Every single time. On the defensive side of the disc , if you don't like contact, then you will not win. You have to sacrifice your body for the disc. Leave your feet and get in the offense's grill. Most offensive players don't like being harassed. They're the clean-shirted "wine and dine" crowd. Defense should be there to crash the party, make them feel awkward, take that disc away and then show them how it's done. That's what our LA Metro defense strives to be.
Being the top Southern California team there was a good thought, but I know every single one of us want to be one of the top in the Region if not the Nation. We have natties on our mind and what's gonna take us there is adjusting to our bad tendencies, working hard, and playing as one team with a common goal. I always tell younger players. Don't think you should be the superstar. If the team plays boring ultimate with sound fundamentals and low risk throws. You will win. Every single time. On the defensive side of the disc , if you don't like contact, then you will not win. You have to sacrifice your body for the disc. Leave your feet and get in the offense's grill. Most offensive players don't like being harassed. They're the clean-shirted "wine and dine" crowd. Defense should be there to crash the party, make them feel awkward, take that disc away and then show them how it's done. That's what our LA Metro defense strives to be.
Next up is a series of practices, and then P-Town throwdown (if it happens), and then Discos up in Chico. But yes, till then, rest up, keep on striving for more.
-hammie #10
-hammie #10
(all photos courtesy of Simon Margolis)
moments after my lay-out callahan against Cla$$y
barrs skying for the disc
Matt Welsh goes up against Haegen(sp?) for the disc
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