EUC Update VI - Belgian Open Gameplay

After the picture here's the gameplay of the Belgian Open team so far :

==> Belgian Open vs Ireland  (Sunday morning) : 9-17
The Irish put up massive pressure so our belgian youngsters quickly got down 1-5.
The Belgian Open unfortunately started realising that they didn't have enough practice for this EUC to blindly find eachother on the field. They all have great skills and so they were able to give the Irish somewhat of a game making it 5-9 for the halftime.
That halftime took a little too long for the belgians and the concentration was a little off.
Robainz did lay out completely horizontal for a big pancake catch but unfortunately dropped the disc during his landing.
The Irish kept on putting loads of pressure, since we all knew that have been training like beasts ever since last year and even last EUC in 2007.
I do believe the Irish are the "next-best-thing" in Europe, showing great dedication and great preparation.
The boys in green took the 8-13 score to a 9-17 for the win.
Quote by the belgians : "They were simply too strong..."

==>Belgian Open vs Italy (Monday morning) : 5-17
The Italians started off with an impressive zone putting our boys down an amazing 0-10 !
A bit intimidated by the Italian stallions and their hard zone defense the belgians simply didn't find their game.With a lot of stress Boris finally managed to put a disc in the endzone for the first belgian score of the game by Broeske.
After halftime it got a little better and both teams traded some points while Italy released some pressure.
Italia kept on playing zone D and showed some beautiful hucks,unstoppable for the belgians (while captain Davide just lead his troops from the sideline in the second half.)
Italia took the game making it 5-17...
The belgian Open continued it search for a victory but knew no easier opponents were coming with GB next..


==>Belgian Open vs Great Britain (Monday afternoon) : 8-17
The belgians started out really enthousiastic as they knew they didn't have anything to lose against the reigning European champions Great Britain.
They started out playing without any pressure and the intention to just stay in the game for as long as possible.
GB played really efficient and the belgians stopped their hucking game by putting up a smart zone defense.
The belgians even forced the Brits to get a little nervous but their quality still showed and the belgians had no solution to their tight defense and efficient offense.
GB never got in trouble even though the belgians managed to score some points.
Endscore of the game : 8-17.
I might say I'm quite proud of the Belgian Open for still giving them such a hard game.
Funny thing was the Brits tried to throw an upside over Raf, who really isn't that tall, and he managed to some kind of a backwards layout D on it.
After the game Rhino himself (Rien) was voted MVP after skying a Brit bigger than him twice !

==> Belgian Open vs Netherlands (Tuesday morning) : 16-17
One word : thriller !
The battle of the lowlands was a must-win game for the belgians as they knew this was the team to beat.
After a very hard beginning the belgians were up 7-5 with Raf also doing an amazing diving grab D just in front of the endzone, one meter short for the callahan score.
Talking about which, it was a callahan that gave the Dutch their comeback with 3 points in a row to make it 7-8 for the dutchies at halftime.
After halftime both teams started trading points up untill 12-12 when the Dutch made a very spirited call by overruling one of their own team player's calls by calling a disc down.
The game went on with both teams scoring nice points up until 16-16 where a universe point would decide the end of the game.
The belgians started out on defense in the double game point but the Dutchies quickly scored by throwing a full-field huck just before the endzone and scored with a little give and go pass.
The belgians knew they gave it all but our youngsters were all very disappointed by the outcome of this game.
I'm pretty sure games like these will be part of the motivation to keep up the practice with the Belgian Open team to definitely get a revenge sometime soon !


==> Belgian Open vs Israël (Tuesday afternoon) : 11-16
The belgians kind of missed the start of the game by getting down 1-5 by lacking some concentration and enthousiasm..
After a while the whole belgian mixed team arrived at the field for the first game we could see of the belgians in the whole week and the enthousiasm started flowing in this highly spirited game.
The belgians found their game and made a comeback till 8-11
The mixed team kept on shouting and runnign around the field with belgian flags and the boys made some nice scores (including Jasper aka "Iron Claw" who caught 2 amazing high passes in the endzone) to make it 10-12d
After a truly amazing diving D by Robainz (in the endzone to prevent an Israelic score) the Israelites managed to  supervette diving d van robainzget a too easy callahan after nobody was cutting since Jasper just left the field with an injury call due to a bug in his eye.
The confusion on the middlefield caused this game to end at 11-16.

Conclusion of the Belgian Open :
They are all doing really well, but are lacking some experience to make it through the big games.
Their average age is 22,9 years old ! Rien,Arent and Mikael are the only ones pulling up the age average.
Eeven though most of them are really young the team is starting to find it's game.
The Brits even told them that if they are all so young they have a bright and shiny future ahead !
I couldn't agree more with that.
There's a good atmosphere in the team and I'm pretty sure that each and every one of them will fight until they drop for that first victory at EUC.

Keep checking their results, scores and stats online at http://euc2011.ultiorganizer.net/?view=frontpage