I am still in debt with the report of the last competitive match of the season. A bitter loss against Slovenia
(74659) was nothing to brag about. We were inferior throughout most of the match. I knew the opponent quite well, therefore I was aware of the difference in quality and knew we had to risk a lot. With the combination of double prediction and 2-3 zone we tried to successfully adapt to either inside isolation or inside attack, but such "safe" approach was not enough and I am sorry I didn't go with inside prediction.
We were competitive only in the first quarter, and even then the home team managed to win a 6 points difference at the final minutes. Second quarter was already decisive, and the difference steadily increased above 10 points, then it got over 20 points in Q3 and the last twelve minutes of the match were more or less an exhibition.
Maybe things would have been somewhat better if we had better game shape of crucial players, but it is hard to imagine, that we would be able to win this one. Well, not yet
Although Slovenians achieved a good result afterwards, the trophy of the consolation tournament (hosting the next EC) was won by Finland, who beat Slovenia last Monday in the semifinals. The final game Finland-France is yet to be played, but since France is not eligible to host the EC, the "true winner" is already known.
As of today, we are ranked 29th in Europe, meaning we will be seeded 5th. I am never completely sure which week is decisive for the next EC draw, but usually it is this one (so last rankings update before offseason). If this is true, then our opponents in the next EC will be Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Azerbaijan and Wales. I didn't bold the names, because this is still speculative
The team for the next season will not change much. Unfortunately, Tommy Fyhrhult is getting older, and this should hurt us a little bit. But there are some young guns who are getting better, so our quality should remain at the same level. More about that later.
A final word about this season - I believe we achieved a decent result, managed to beat some very good teams, and decently resisted some others. But at the end we were grounded in a game against Slovenia, so it is evident, that we need to develop a better team in order to hope for some outstanding results. I believe we will be able to do this, although it will probably take some time.
Once more, I invite you to the discord server, numbers are increasing
(https://discord.gg/xZNmX6jdX7)