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England 108-120 Philippines
A very humbling defeat at the hands of Philippines resulted in our first loss of the season. In all honesty, the score-line doesn't tell the whole story here. For the first three quarters we were utterly dominated by Philippines and thanks to garbage time allowing us to claw the deficit back somewhat, it ended with us looking as if we'd put up a good fight against a strong opponent.

Defensively we were a shambles, which is a total surprise as I would always expect our defence to offer more than our offence, but Philippines were able to score at will and we offered very little in trying to stop them. Offensively I thought we were okay. Maybe it was naïve of me to think we had a chance against Philippines away from home, operating on less enthusiasm and them having a much better game shape update. Ultimately, our game shape has not been good enough so far this season. To have 5 out of 15 of the squad on 9GS is extremely disappointing and we are currently unable to select some key players due to them being out of shape.

Next week we welcome our European friends, Croatia. They're in the same boat as us with a 2-1 record and most recently were in a nailbiting finish vs Portugal, in which they lost by 3 points. Again we go into the game with less enthusiasm so our game shape will need to improve as Croatia have a strong squad.

In other games, Israel narrowly beat Slovenia to remain unbeaten and Germany produced a fourth quarter comeback to defeat Ukraine.

Croatia 81-92 England
Not the most convincing of wins at home, but good to get a win regardless and bounce back after last weeks defeat. This game could have proved to be a banana skin for us, given the enthusiasm advantage they had, the injury suffered by Lee to rule him out of the fixture and then the decision for Croatia to use more enthusiasm in the game.

When analysing Croatia, it was clear we had to stop their two main scorers in Ecsegi and Pasaric. With both of these two in optimum game shape and our bigs not being in the best of shape, I felt Croatia would attack inside or go with II as they commonly do and with Kanjilal dropping in game shape, I predicted Croatia would go with an Outside Box to contain Kemp. This is where the selection of Miller and Buchan were important because both players were key offensively in offering scoring if Kemp got isolated and on the defensive end, Miller had the job of looking after Ecsegi. After a shaky start, Miller prevented Ecsegi having a huge impact. I made a decision to call up Jody Hanes on Monday, who (I believe) has become the youngest starter since Luke Innes, back in Season 26, so some 40 seasons ago. Congratulations to Arrows on this achievement and it's exciting to see the further growth of such an exciting prospect.

Next week we travel to the Caribbean to play Bahamas. Should be a game that we're winning with ease and hopefully boosting the PD.

There were plenty of eye-catching games this week, particularly between some European sides. Bosnia beat Romania comfortably at home, whilst Latvia defeated Turkiye. Slovenia bounced back to hand Greece their first loss of the season and Spain remained undefeated after beating Hungary.




Last edited by js8 at 10/23/2024 11:45:48 AM

England 115-87 Bahamas
A comfortable win in the Caribbean extended our record to 4-1. This is one of those games where the sole aim is to boost the PD and climb the standings and a +28PD away from home is okay. Given the PP100 of both teams, it looked like we should have won by a lot more than we did, but again our defence wasn't that good. Duguid and Forrest impressed off the bench and added to the efficiency that Kemp and the returning Harris scored with. Also a congratulations goes to Dave Smith on entering the top 10 assist rankings.

Next week we head back home to play against Denmark, which is a game we should be winning relatively easy at home however they already have two losses and a third would really dent their qualification hopes.

In other games, Greece defeated Italy with both teams now sporting a 4-1 record, Japan secured an impressive home win against Bosnia to remain one of the seven unbeaten sides. Another unbeaten side, Spain defeated Serbia away from home and Turkiye bounced back from defeat last week to beat Portugal.

Denmark 91-123 England
For the first three quarters, we didn’t assert the dominance I expected considering we had home court advantage. We struggled to build a lead that felt comfortable as Denmark scored with relative ease and our offence didn’t fire as I had hoped, until finally in the fourth quarter, things seemed to click as we out scored them by 25 points and built some good PD to climb the standings. With Denmark’s guards having lower game shape, it made sense to attack outside with Duguid, Kemp and Kanjilal in optimum shape. I did expect an inside attack from Denmark and did contemplate an inside GDP, but felt it wasn’t worth the risk. For the second game running, our opponents scored pretty well considering how low their PP100 was.

On Monday, we face another Scandinavian nation in Sweden. Two seasons ago we narrowly beat them at the same stage in the Consolation and I expect another close affair. They’re one place above us in the rankings so it’s a key game for both teams.

In other games, Italy won a close fought battle against Czechia whilst Estonia picked up a great home win against one of the favourites Israel. Russia handed a second loss to Türkiye and Argentina beat Romania.