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Six hour trip to Austrian league
The last weekend of August Tricksters Ladies played a match in Graz with hosting team The Graz Gladiators. Regarding to the circumstances in which our ladies played the match, they deserve a genuine compliment.
We should mention that the girls had travelled previous night from a training camp in Prague so they would be able to catch a train to Graz. But the journey from Prague took about 6 hours instead of 4. Despite this, they hurried to match. They got to the field with only a few minutes delay. Beyond all understanding, the Austrian referees proclaimed the match as won by default 5:0 for Graz. Fortunately, our players Katarína Bratová and Ľubica Štubňová refused to give up and persuaded the referees to let the match be played correctly. However, they gave our ladies only 10 minutes to get ready for the match. Therefore players were under a considerable stress and this condition influenced their game in the first half of the match. Moreover, it was raining heavily so it was really hard to run on a wet field. In spite of the incredible effort of our defense, the opponents took use of our distraction and nervousness. The offense also didn’t manage to succeed and after first 20 minutes the score was 6:0 for the hosts.
In the second half unbelievably everything suddenly changed. The Ladies started to play really well. Already in the first minute, our goalie Romana Hostačná scored a goal which roused all our players from lethargy. After that, Austrian players had real problems with our defense, as well as with our offense. Also the communication was improved and the game became controlled and interesting. Our girls managed to put to use new techniques and combinations they had learned at the training camp in Prague. Our second goal, and it was from the backhand, was scored again by Romana Hostačná with an assistance from Ľubica Kopčová. Maybe Ladies could score more goals if not for the unfair referees that were making up fouls; nevertheless this wasn’t in girls‘competence to change. Regrettably, The Gladiators scored two more goals even though Ladies played with an enormous effort and if their coach Ivan Černák could see them, he would be definitely proud of them.
Furthermore, our new players as the twins Stejskalové, Martina Tkáčová and Zuzana Negliová deserve a compliment too, for their effort and courage. The match ended with a final score 9:2 for The Graz Gladiators. All in all, Tricksters Ladies can be proud of them and if they won’t stop making a considerable progress like up to now, next time they could go to a match for a victory.
