U-16 Girls, International Tournament
Valkenswaard (HOD), 22nd-23rd March 2008
Over the Easter weekend Wales U16 Daffodils took part in an International U16 Hockey Festival held in Valkenswaard in Holland hosted by the HOD Hockey Club. The participating teams were a mix of national sides (USA, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Wales) and club and regional sides from other parts of Europe. On Day One the twelve teams entered were divided into two pools of six to play five games each in total of twenty five minutes each duration. Wales Daffodils started slowly and needed the first game to begin to familiarise themselves with playing with each other for what was their first competitive game this season. In the second match Wales narrowly lost out to the Czech Republic putting in a much stronger performance that in match one. Against Southgate, the only English side in the competition, Wales put in a determined effort but despite creating several chances could not take advantage and the match ended in a 0-0 draw. The late afternoon was Wales face two Dutch sides. Zuid Nederland proved too strong and with some well structured team play and individual skill ended 4-0 up on Wales. The final match of the first day was played in the cold conditions of the early evening. Wales fought hard but went down 2-0 leaving them placed at the bottom of the group.
The second day started with a match against the home club HOD. Wales had the majority of the possession and put together some excellent passes but could not put the ball in the net. In the next match Wales faced the Czech girls again and for large parts of the game were in control. Although losing 1-0 in the end they deserved more from what was a decent team performance. Their final match was a play off for 11th and 12th place against the French team in the tournament. Once again Wales were the stronger side and created a handful of good chances hitting the post on one occasion and earning several penalty corners. Wales were unable to convert all the possession into actual goals though so the score at full time was 0-0. In the resulting penalty flick competition Wales were victorious by 5-4 so finished in 11th place in the tournament.
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Results summary
Day 1
0-1 v Nijmegen Girls
0-1 v Czech Republic
0-0 v Southgate
0-4 v Zuid Nederland
0-2 v Ring Pass
Day 2
0-0 v HOD
0-1 v Czech Republic
0-0 v Nord Pas de Calais (Wales won 5-4 on ps)
11th place overall out of 12
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