Skogs Ultimate Göteborg

It´s with a bit of disappointment I have to write this. A couple of months ago we managed to win our own Wintertrophy for the sixth time in a row and of course that was our goal at this year's WCU in Copenhagen. Mattias had threatened that they wouldn´t arrange another WCU if we won it again this year. 

The preparations for this years tournament weren´t as good as they could be. Personally injury after injury spoiled the last preparations. I don´t know if that’s a sign of age but it sure as hell feels worse and worse for every time you have to take a break from practice. The team also had some setbacks in the preparations. I know we live in the northern part of Europe but the snow I late March and beginning of April didn´t help us at all. Instead of necessary playing time it was out into the trails again. 

Anyhow we were confident when we left Gothenburg for Copenhagen and the exciting and hard games ahead of us. We´d like to thank the organizers of the tournament for their new and interesting format. Tough, hard games on the right level from the beginning, I think that’s what everybody wants. Hope to see this format next year (if the body can make it another season). We were also excited about our new players Nas and Hanski, how would they fit in? The longer the tournament went on the answer became more and more obvious, the fitted in splendid! 

Friday, Karhukopla and Liechtenstein in the afternoon, sweet! An easy victory over Karhu that couldn´t  reach the level we know they can play at thanks to heavy D and a clinical O from Skogs. Liechtenstein was harder, or rather a lousy start from our side made it constant uphill in that game. To summarize, lousy start, strong comeback and loss in sudden death. 

Saturday saw another tiny European country Andorra in the morning. Again a bad start but we managed to get the victory in the end. German Inside Rakete was the last pool game and of course, bad start again! Once again we had to struggle really hard to get our victory. Last game on Saturday was Örebro, our opponents in last years National's finals. The pattern repeated itself, a really crappy beginning of the match. We got a bucket of shit right in the face by coach Nicklas in the first timeout. And boy, did we deserve that!! In the end Örebro couldn’t hold up against Skogs and we could go back to the hostel and start our preparations for Sundays semifinal. 

In the evening it was a Mongolian feast. Just loads and loads of meat and some small, scared pieces of vegetables topped with great amounts of chili and other hot stuff made our tummies full and whirling! Back to the hostel (and toilets) for some sleep. Thank you Petter Lumberjack for not keeping us awake that night as well!! 

Sunday and semifinal. Don´t remember very much from the game except that it was a tight and hard game. Don´t remember the result but I think we were a bit stronger the last goals.

Afternoon and the final. Unfortunately an old familiar pattern returned, our crappy starts! With a poor offense with a lot of unforced errors and weak D we let Liechtenstein take the initiative in the game. This continued until we were down 10-5 when we suddenly got the D going. Wow, a couple of minutes later the game was tied 11-11. Some mistakes  and another strong comeback later we had lost the final. Again we lost in sudden death to Liechtenstein 15-14. For the first time ever the organizers had other winners than Skogs. The disappointment was big and the surprising runner-up position in the fair play competition couldn´t  sooth that bitter feeling.  

Skogs would like to thank our opponents for some hard games and for some reminders. Unless we have our heads, tactics and technique in the game we will loose. That’s what we bring from this years WCU since we didn´t get the first prize. And of course that it took a national team to take the trophy from us. 

We also would like to thank the WCU staff for yet another great tournament. Especially with this format we´ll get tough games the whole weekend. It´s always a pleasure playing WCU where tings run smothely, there is water, fruit, cake and even some Red Lebel this year. Thank you guys! 

Hope to see you all next year if the body………..aah well you know what I mean. See ya!! 

Tobias Johansson

Skogs #57