Darrell Pearce, Assistant Coach has sent the following report.
The England Ladies team left Luton airport at 7am on Friday, 26th, for another step in their preparation for this years World Championships in Chile. The venue in Barcelona was CAR a Spanish sports complex for excellence. This is where all Spanish National Teams train. The trip was organised through the NRHA in conjunction with the Spanish Federation.
On arrival there was no time to settle in as the first training session was organised for the first of 3 matches with the Spanish National Ladies Team. Their Squad consisted of 20 girls which had to be reduced to 10 so they were all playing for the places.
Match 1 Fri 26th
The first of the 3 matches was against what was more or less the Spanish under 18 team. The game started with the English girls hassling Spain in defence. In attack the girls were getting rushed in their play with the opposition pressing from the word go!! It was not until the second half that the girls settled and got used to the pace of the game which was much faster than in the UK. The game stayed level with most chances going to Spain. A bad pass in attack led to a counter which Spain finally managed to break the deadlock. The game finished 1-0. Overall it was gutsy display in defence. The team had a lot to learn in attack and how to play against pressure.
Match 2 Sat 27th
This saw Spain put out 7 of their first team from the last championships. Our girls started badly conceding a goal almost immediately due to poor defence. The early positive signs were England were causing problems going forward. Chances were coming regularly and the defence improved immensely. Half time 1-0 down. The girls started well in the second half with solid physical defence and they were stealing balls on every other attack from Spain. Deep into the second half saw a well worked move from training open up Spain to see a twisting turning Claire Currey flick into the top right corner for the equaliser. That is how it stayed, 1-1 the final result. Overall it was a good all round team performance.
Match 3 Sun 28th
The girls started this match excellently with a chance coming instantly!! The only problem was that they could not get past the excellent Spanish goalkeeper. Half time was 0-0, when England really should have been 3 up. The second half started badly with a direct free hit being given against us. 1-0, immediately after a quick counter attack it was 2-0. The girl’s were now starting to look tired after the weekend’s schedule! They got back into the game and for once England intercepted a pass which led to a counter attack, with a superb pass from Beth Cook to Claire Currey who finished on the far post. Final result was 2-1.
Overall the weekend was a great success in measuring the level the girls had reached and what has to be worked on in future training sessions. Lots of positives gained from a valuable weekend.
