Last night’s match between England and Switzerland turned out to be a frustrating encounter. The Swiss, who man for man are a minimum of 2 years older then the English, played the intelligent and mature style of hockey that has raised the standard of their national teams to amoungst the best 5 in the world.

The English went down early by 2 goals in the first half, but defended well for the first 14 minutes, holding out a sustained Swiss attack that used superior player size and experience to win the 50/50 balls that would normally go the opponents way.

Captain James Taylor was awarded a penalty, that he was unable to convert, and, with 40% of the possession the English team created numerious opportunities that they were just not accurate enough to convert under strong physical pressure.

“The boys played well against a strong opponent” said Coach Carlos Amaral, “Our team is the youngest here and they have shown we have some real tallent”.

“What we now need to do is to ensure that we arrange more opportunities for the team to play together against strong international opponents, outside of the European Championships”.

The Swiss skated fast and strong for the entire match and by the second half the English tired significantly and allowed mistakes on the back line that resulted in counter attacks from the last third of the rink. The final score was 6-0.

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Reporter: Kos Galtos