After the excitement of Ahoy last week, it was time to enter my Dutch reality once again and refocus on what I want to achieve in the final countdown before I head back to New Zealand. Wow, it seems a bit surreal that my almost twelve month adventure away it almost complete. No doubt there will be a few reflective blog entries coming your way!
Admittedly it’s been a rather enjoyable week having a gold medal hanging around in my room and A1 captain Lisanne Koster said she rather enjoyed waking up to having the trophy sitting in her room each day. Now that trophy must join the rest of those at the field canteen that represent the history of success at DOS ’46.
This week also meant the return to training outdoors on the artificial field. I had forgotten how big the 60mx30m field was! There was certainly much more space to run on than the standard indoor 40mx20m court. It also meant that, weather permitting, the enjoyable rouge sunsets during training were also to return.
Saturday was also my first game back outdoors with DOS ’46 4 after missing a couple of the teams games with doing my physio duties for the juniors. The game, against De Meeuwen 4, turned out to be a good exercise in figuring out how much I have learned during my time here. This was because I was matched up against the same player from when we first played this opposition back in September. Back then I had a solid lesson from my opponent in smart post play and getting your opponent of balance to get a running in chance. It was also a chance to see test out how my match skills were after not playing a game for two and half months.
A windy day at the field made scoring quite difficult for frequent periods throughout the game, shots sometimes being blown significantly of course (and yes you could see them move in the air, they were not missing from horrendous shooting). Scoring was sparse for the first 20 minutes and while De Meeuwen was always keeping their noses in front they were never able to establish a telling lead in the first half. Against my opponent it was certainly much easier going than last year defensively and also getting free in attack. Unfortunately, the lack of match play was also telling, as I couldn’t score a goal from a number of good chances. At half time we were trailing by two at 5-7. I also had to remember we were now playing 35-minute halves!
The second half saw us slowly fall further behind and a couple of substations, where I was giving a rest, initially did not change this. At 6-10 things were not looking great for getting the first win of the second half of the field season for DOS ’46 4. Something finally clicked as the new players settled into the game and the boys started scoring. We scored seven unanswered goals through the rest of the game to eventually win 13-10. A highly satisfying feeling after the team having such a terrible hall season where we couldn’t even get enough players together for a team.
It was nice to at least have some idea that I have learned a few things during my time here after matching up against the same player and having a much easier experience. It was still evident that my play on court is much more conscious when compared with the automatic reactions of the locals who have played for many more years than I. I also think this was probably my last game as next week I am away at the U19 World Cup and will miss our match. Then our team is not scheduled for a game over the following two weeks and I depart the Netherlands on the following Saturday before we are due to play again.
Sunday it was off to the football with the boys, Ajax vs. ADO. I will try find some time soon to write another post about how that day went.
Back in New Zealand my team was having a national training camp. I’m very excited to finally be able to join the team and the next training camp in a months time.
The countdown continues…….less than four weeks to go!
Tot Volgende Keer,
Lorenzo