Korfball SA

Day 4 play saw nothing unexpected in the results.

The home crowd would have been disappointed (albeit understanding of the tactic) to see the “B team” line up for Australia against Regional powerhouse Chinese Taipei. The match result was below that hoped for with a very easy 34-8 win to the Taiwanese.
Despite that, there was some promising play by some of the up and coming players with some magnificent pressure out deep, but many times their efforts were wasted by insufficient support from team-mates at the post. The Australians regularly allowing the Taiwanese to hold both feed and collect of the same gender without challenge.
In attack, the Australians struggled against the tight defence, hesitating to give passes due to the ball-line pressure on both receiver and passer and relying heavily on one player in each division to make the play.

Today’s matches are all likely to be foregone conclusions except perhaps the final match of the Round-Robin, India-China. The Chinese have good height to nullify the Indian’s week long advantage at the post, but can they put enough goals on the board to stay with their opponents?
They would topple Hong Kong for 4th place if they can manage an upset which would be very disappointing for that much improved team.

Looking through the results of the day, there were few surprises. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Australia’s complete dominance over China. The Australians came out firing and took a 6-0 lead after 16 minutes of play. The Chinese held around that difference until half time. After the break, the Australians again dominated, adding 8 goals to 3 over 20 minutes to secure the match, running out winners 22-11.
Multiple missed Free Passes and Penalties cost the Chinese team dearly.

India struggled to compete against Chinese Taipei and became frustrated resulting in multiple Yellow cards against the team. They succumbed 17-38, a result that disappointed everyone following the tournament and hoping that the Indians might be a growing power in the region.
It will now be interesting to see how the Australian team performs against the Tournament favourites on Thursday night. If they can contain the Taiwanese attack and shoot accurately, they could secure a handy goal difference that might be the difference between a 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th final for the home side depending on the Indian team’s performance against Hong Kong and China on the final 2 Round Robin days of the tournament.

The final match of Tuesday was a battle to get off the bottom place between New Zealand and Malaysia. Both teams had played earlier in the day and had suffered big defeats.
The Malaysians appeared to have the ascendency in the first half, up by 3 goals at Half Time 10-7, but perhaps lack of fitness showed as New Zealand piled on the goals in the second half to draw level with 8 minutes remaining and then hold the Malay’s scoreless while adding another 3 goals for the remainder to win 16-13.

Wednesday is a rest day for the Tournament. Disappointingly for the visiting teams, the weather is a bit dreary in Adelaide (Tuesday was the coldest day in the past 3 years, reaching a maximum of only 11.4 degrees, and today is not much warmer, currently 10.3 degrees with an expected high of 12!).

12:10 IND-MAS: I think India ought to dominate the match against Malaysia. They have superior distance shooting in their males and their fleet-footed female players will likely run rings around their opponents.

14:00 NZL-HKG: It will be interesting to see how New Zealand fare against Hong Kong. One would anticipate that Hong Kong will easily account for the Kiwi’s, but all the same, the Silver Ferns might take it up to them.

15:50 AUS-CHN: Possibly match of the day, such a pity much of the home crowd will be unable to attend! The Australian’s struggled against the tall Indian rebounders and the Chinese will have a similar advantage.

17:40 IND-TPE: I predict this to be the Grand Final pairing. I think the Chinese Taipei players will be more highly skilled than their opponents, but I think the Indians will make good use of their Height advantage and their speedy girls will cause trouble for the Taiwanese.

19:30 NZL-MAL: New Zealand would have to be favourites, but I think this is the Malaysian team’s best chance at a win.

Seriously, if you haven’t made the trek down to Adelaide Arena to see some AOKC International Korfball, get yourself organised and get down there tonight, you’re missing superb entertainment at a bargain price (only $5 entry!).

Last night Australia took on Hong Kong and for the second night in a row the Hong Kong team found itself in a Golden Goal situation, this time, forfeiting the lead in regular time. The match swung either way with both teams taking the dominant position multiple times. The Australian’s appeared to have a safe, 3 goal buffer at the 3/4 mark, but either relaxed, or Hong Kong found another level and managed to peg back the gap and then take the lead with only minutes remaining.

In Golden Goal extra time, superb, tight defence against Hong Kong’s top scorer and hero of Sunday night Kwok Keun HAM saw a number of defended shot free passes to Australia’s defence and finally, Daniel Papalia was able to take a relaxed drop off shot as his defender moved to defend a magnificent, fast break, run-in by Patty Branford. The Hong Kong players appeared to think they would have another opportunity to attack and both teams appeared a little confused, suspending both celebration and devastation for a few seconds until the referee finally indicated the end of the match. Meanwhile, the home crowd (who almost appeared to know the Golden Goal rules better than players and officials) were celebrating and cheering loudly.

After the acknowledging their opponents, the Australian team came as a group to the vocal audience and shared the celebrations.

In other matches, both India and Chinese Taipei confirmed their superiority against New Zealand and China (respectively) and in the first match of the day, Hong Kong easily accounted for debutants Malaysia. (as usual, official match reports are available on ikf.org and match statistics and live scores are available on worldkorfball.org)
Interestingly, both teams who have played 2 matches in the day have lost the second match. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues with 2 teams playing twice on the longest day of the tournament, today, starting from 12:10.

Sadly (although probably happily for my voicebox which is feeling the strain of 2 consecutive nights of yelling) I am unable to attend matches tonight, so no match reports from me tomorrow.

Steve

Wow! If you weren’t excited about this tournament before, then after last night’s matches, you ought to be!

The first Golden Goal match of the tournament between China and Hong Kong went right down to the wire. Hong Kong levelled the score with only seconds remaining in regular time and then put themselves in advantage with a goal in the first attack of the Golden Goal extra time period.

China had to score in their reply attack, but Hong Kong took the rebound from a medium distance shot and some of their players began to celebrate on court, not understanding that they had to bring the ball safely out of defence to seal the game. Fortunately the message was communicated to the prematurely celebrating few and the team was able to carefully work the ball into their offensive half to end the game.

The second match was close fought in the first half. The female Indian players were lightning fast and hurting the Australians badly on the scoreboard. Well assisted and supported by the male players who held big height advantages over the Australians and dominated the post and threatened to score directly under the basket simply by receiving the ball above arms reach of their defenders and superb body positioning.

In the second half, the Indian males started to become damaging from deep, demonstrating superb accuracy from half court, and breaking the deadlock to take a 6 goal lead that the Australians couldn’t re-bridge.
The Indians appear to be the real surprise package of the tournament which must increase the interest for their Tuesday evening matchup against Chinese Taipei.

More match reviews at ikf.org and don’t forget to keep track of scores live on worldkorfball.org

The Opening Ceremony Sunday July 10 from 3pm will feature Sikopi Korfball Club’s Coach and Player, Angela Easson, performing the Australian National Anthem.
Angela is currently finishing up her first full length album after a breakthrough 2010 where she won numerous Country Music Awards and was invited to perform throughout the nation at Country Music Festivals.
Although officially classified as “Country”, her music is of the sort to please most tastes, it’s not stereotypically “Country”, she doesn’t at all sing about utes, cattle and dusty roads.
To hear some samples from her upcoming album and stay abreast of the progress on her album, head to angelaeasson.com or follow her Facebook page.

A record ten countries will participate in the 2011 IKF U23 Asia Oceania Korfball Championship (IKF U23 AOKC) in Adelaide, Australia, from Saturday 9 to Sunday 17 July.

The Asia Oceania Korfball Federation (AOKF), a continental federation within the IKF, has received ten entries for the tournament, which is for athletes aged under 23 years, and will act as a qualification event for the 2012 IKF U23 World Championship in Barcelona, Spain.

Entries have been received from:
1. Australia
2. China
3. Chinese Taipei
4. Hong Kong
5. India
6. Malaysia
7. Mongolia
8. Nepal
9. New Zealand
10.Pakistan

IKF regional vice president for Oceania Mrs. Helen Searle, who is the co-ordinating officer for the tournament, said the entries signified excellent recent growth in the region and were a reward for the development efforts of many korfballers.
“It will be very exciting to welcome Malaysia and Mongolia to international korfball, also for Nepal to enter its first regional confederation tournament. Considering we had four entries in the IKF U23 AOKC eight years ago and five in 2007, doubling the entries in four years shows what impressive strides korfball is taking in our region,” she said.
(copied from IKF.org)

[UPDATE] there have been some time changes made to the timetable… Updated version is viewable and downloadable below.

The 2011 timetable is out and has been distributed to clubs. For reference, it is included here.

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