Last weekend, for the fifth time in a row, the Ken Gallucio Cup, the so called Champions League of European Lacrosse, has taken place in Gent, Belgium. All national champions were invited to compete to become the best club team in Europe. Being the champion of the Austrian Lacrosse League 2017, we qualified for the tournament to represent our country at this event.
The draw placed us in a group with Zürich Lions and the national champions of Finland, Turku Titans. On Saturday morning we played Turku Titans. After playing strong defense and efficient offense, the score was 3-9.
The second game against Zürich Lions ended 1:2. Again, great defense and we were able to create great opportunities, but the ball just couldn´t find the net. You can rewatch this nailbiter here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIGO-_uhqzc
Two losses in the round robin led us to play in the bottom bracket. There we have competed with Amsterdam, Wroclaw and Braine for the placements 9th – 12th.
The first two games against Braine and Wroclaw we were able to play focused throughout the game, so we have finished both games with 9-3. Eventually in the “smallest final” against Amsterdam, we had to suffer a tough loss with a final score of 3:6. So we ended up in 10th place.
We surely have had bigger expectations about the final placement, but it´s the little things, which decide games on this level.
The young team led by coach and captain Adrian “The Animal” Balasch were able to learn a lot about the game and more importantly gain much experience. All the results and stats can be found here: http://stats.pointbench.com/kgcm/2017
We will now focus on our regular season in the NFLL.
Stay tuned for more!
(by Rintaro Fujita)
