Only one word...

Penang Women State Team vs. Innebandy! Co.

24th August 2009, Monday

5-1 (2-0, 0-1, 3-0)

1st period

Jason (Ephraim)

Joshua

2nd period

Sarah Ng (Sheryn)

3rd period

Ephraim (Joshua)

Nicholes

Joshua

The first game for Innebandy! Co. since the end of the Penang Floorball League. How will we fare?

We were invited for a friendly match on the 24th of August, Monday night, by the Penang women’s state team. It was a win-win situation for both parties with the Penang side looking to build on their team chemistry and strategies while Innebandy hoped to gain some valuable experience for the junior players by facing them off against the much seasoned Penang women’s team.

The atmosphere that night was pretty quiet with both teams starting off with their respective warm-up drills. Sam Teoh and Deswyn Wan both refrained from participating and coached the team instead as the objective of that night’s game was more towards helping the team get use to coping without two of Innebandy’s main players rather than winning. On top of that, Innebandy had to play without Cuilin and Valerie Tan, who were called up for State duty. However, with the return of the much missed forward, Nicholes Ong, and the ever solid keeper, Lin Ken, in goal, things looked to be leaning slightly towards Innebandy’s side.

Preeeeet!

And we’re off.

The first period started off with the women’s team putting on an aggressive mind-set. Their quick passes and constant pressuring nearly paid off for them. Quite contrary to the oppsition’s strategy, Innebandy played a calm and collected game. Our forwards were having difficulties getting past the women’s first line of defence. That combined with Sharron in goal proved to be a difficult wall to break down. Furthermore, the female forwards were playing well for about half the period by pressuring the Innebandy defenders. Fortunately for us, they did not keep up their starting momentum and soon Innebandy drew first blood with Captain E setting up Jason “the Superstar” Chew followed by Joshua Yam.

Nevertheless, at the break, the two coaches were not happy with our game play thus far. Sam demanded a more solid performance from us Innebandiens especially the back two. He also challenged us to net in another five more goals by the end of the second period.

In the second half, things didn’t exactly go to plan. The women weren’t improving, Innebandy was counter attacking well from defence to forward in a blink of an eye. However, the players couldn’t finish off the opportunities and blew a number of one-on-one chances against the Penang goalie. More than once, the cutting edge of Deswyn was sorely missed by Innebandy as they came close on more than one occasion. But as we all know, in floorball, coming close is just not good enough. As for the women, they lacked the speed and dynamicism to penetrate our back line, the forwards did not chase down each ball and soon their game play grew stagnant. The period ended unexpectedly with not only a clean sheet for the state team but a late goal as well! The Ng sisters, Sarah and Sheryn, combined to catch the defense ball-watching which left Innebandy in shock and Lin Ken on his feet screaming profanities at his defense who left him wide open.

Wow. Not only did we NOT meet Uncle Sam’s target, but we let in a goal too. Things were looking bad. With the score at 2-1, the women’s team could easily turn the tables on us in the next 20 minutes of the 3rd ,and final, period. Once again, we were told to go out there and grab five goals while keeping the opponent’s at bay. After a invigorating team talk, Innebandy marched back into the court again to do battle with the Penang women’s state team for one final period.

The third period saw a transformed women’s team coming on court. They played with a burning determination to win and pushed up high with good fore checking. In the goalkeeping aspect Sharron was replaced by Suleen at the other end. Suleen managed to pull off many fine saves that would have done Lin Ken proud. Her quick reflexes proved to be a difficult obstacle for Innebandien forwards to overcome. However, with Insane Courage, we successfully netted in three more thanks to the Captain and Nicholes getting one goal each and Joshua finding the net for the second time of the night. The final score : Penang Women’s State Team 1 : 5 Innebandy! Co.

After the match, our coaches gathered us round in our Inner Circle for the customary team talk. Although we succeeded in getting a win, the scoreline did not reflect the real story. Our players squandered a host of chances while our defense was penetrated time and time again by the women’s team. Sam asked us to describe our game using only one word. The answers varied from player to player, some calling it “Messy” and “Rusty” while others thought the play was “Good” and “Okay”. In the end, Sam told us only one word “Gai”. I could understand how he felt like sitting on the sidelines, unable to do anything to help a struggling Innebandy side which he felt deeply about.

So, I strongly encourage each and every Innebandien to start or build on your Independent Culture. It is vital to have personal training sessions to improve on our physical condition and also our floorballing skills. Do it for yourself, do it for your coaches who place their trust in you by coming week in week out to train us, do it for the feeling of ecstasy of lifting up the 2010 Penang Floorball League Trophy and knowing you deserve every bit of it, and most of all, do it for Innebandy.

One Team, One Way.