Tournament blog

Germany game

The game against Germany held on Saturday 17 April at the Point4, Royal National College in Hereford was a great success for the team and a fabulous introduction to international blind football for the people of Hereford.

We last played the Germans in a friendly tournament in Greece in the Autumn of 2009 where we won 4-0. Previous to this, we beat them 4-1 in the group stages of the 2009 European cup. From the training game on Friday night which ended 0-0, we knew they had improved considerably over the last 8 months and also knew we would have to be on our game to win the main match on the Saturday. We were also missing two key figures from the squad in Keryn Seal and Will Norman.

Hereford put on a great show and the atmosphere walking on to the pitch was electric. It was really nice to walk on and receive the national anthems with local children who really took a keen interest in the game. Just as the German national anthem started, the magnitude of what we had achieved in Hereford with the new complex, the football academy and our hosting of the world Cup really overwhelmed me and I can admit to getting a little emotional (a bit of a weird feeling for an elder statesman of the game!!).

The game itself was a really good spectacle and saw Owen Bainbridge and John Heenan both make their international debuts. It was great to use the whole squad during the game albeit we had to fight hard for the right to play our football against a very well organised and powerful German side. We did dominate the game however and all of the stats proved that in terms of possession, shots for and shots against, we had much the better of the first half with some good passing and very steady defending from Dan English, Robin Williams and Craig Lundberg. I also felt that link up play between Jon Gribbin and myself was working really well in what was a relatively new attacking formation. We were starting to think that it might not be our day as we hit the wood-work on 7 separate occasions. However, when the goal came early in the second half it was a real neat finish by Jon Gribbin after a superb quick throw from goalkeeper Lewiss Skyers. The Germans were finding it increasingly difficult to live with our speed of play and in the middle of the second half, Jon Gribbin was brought down for a certain penalty which I had the pleasure of converting to make it 2-0.

One really pleasing note from the game was the quality of play out of defence with Dan English particularly laying through some superb passes. Robin Williams also came very close to his first international goal with a shot late on which just missed the outside of the left post.

In all, the game was a fantastic spectacle and a taster of what is to come in August. We now move in to a further 4 months of solid work to get our self physically and mentally prepared for 14 August and the start of the World Championships.

I would like to add a huge vote of thanks to the German side who owing to the volcanic ash crisis had to endure extremely long journeys by road. They were always determined to make it to Hereford and once there, played the games in a great spirit and with a fabulous level of intensity given their long journeys.

Posted by David Clarke on 22-04-2010

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