Wednesday, May 28, 2008

No Room for Pushovers

Lean, Mean and Scary flew all the way from Singapore up to Penang for a friendly match, full size, in dearly beloved Balik Pulau Stadium, against the Penang state team (more or less).

Earlier in the morning the floorballers of Nanyang Technological University had had a friendly with Contact-Innebandy. Full size court and also game time. NTU won by a close 2-goal margin, but 60 minutes of intense floorballing should take its toll on the players.

Apparently not.

In comparison with Singaporeans, Penangites are lightweight. And less fit. The ladies started off first, and the difference between the two sides was obvious. NTU's movement off the ball was amazing (now all you Frontliners get why Coach Jason stresses on movement so much). Their players knew exactly where and when to run, and it was tough to keep tabs on them, so no surprises when they took a quick two-goal lead early on (should have been three to nothing, but bigger-than-normal holes in the goal-net can be blessings sometimes).

The ladies pulled a goal back through Calvin, one of the three guys deemed good enough to play with the ladies. But the giant 40x20m court seemed to get bigger and bigger as each minute passed, and when the whistle blew, it was 4-1 to NTU.

The men lost narrowly by one goal, a much more even fight, but again, NTU's movement and technique just topped Penang's.

Penang and Frontliner's floorballers are no poorer with the experience gained and lessons learned last Saturday (plus Singaporean chocolates), and we look forward both to linking up with NTU again and also Tuesday's friendly against Meridian Junior College.

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