The seventh traditional winter tournament „Mayor’s Lax Cup“ took place once again in 20–22th January in Prague’s Jizni Mesto (South Town) and Slovak players were there again.
This year was special, though. Our players did not play duels under the banner of their mother teams but they supported the „Nationals“ team with the line up: Černák, Engliš, Havlík, Herbanský, Horváth, Jeck, Kubovič, Mareček, Martinusik, Patzko, Pisár, Polák, Radimák, Rydlo, Šagát, Thomay a Žiak
For those who haven’t heard about the Nationals team yet, it’s a Slovak selection of players from Bratislava, Prievidza, Skalica, and Trnava, who are preparing for the European Championship. That will take place in Turku, Finland, and this significant milestone of the lacrosse year will take place between 7–15the July 2017.
Twelve teams from Czech republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and last but not least Slovakia participated in Mayor’s Lax Cup. They played 2×12 minutes of rough time and the teams were divided into two groups of six teams.
And now something about Nationals’ performance at the Prague tournament.
We had two matches waiting for us on Friday.
- In its first match the Slovak selection went up against the eventual tournament winner LCC Radotin (CZ). The strong opponent took charge from the beginning of the match and quickly got into a 0:1 lead. Three more goals followed and even though we tried to resist, the match just more or less played out and eventually ended 2:8 against us. Tomas Jeck and Simon Thomay scored in this match.
- For our second match we went up against the German team Bundeswehr Lacrosse and it was like a swing. Our team took the lead after a goal from Thomay but then came two goals from the opponent and half-time ended 1:2. We entered the second half with great force and scored three goals against the opponent (Patzko, Sagat, Thomay). However, the opponent managed to lower the score and even (with a minute remaining) tied 4:4. Everyone expected a tie result, but seventeen seconds before the end our aces from Prievidza got into a 2 on 1 break situation where Sagat uncompromisingly scored after a pass from Thomay. The final result was a tight 5:4 but what’s important is that the game we displayed was a promise for future participation in the tournament.
On Saturday we had three matches.
- We had the Czech opponent LC Pardubice waiting for us in the third match. This defiant opponent was pretty hard to conquer. Only one ball went into the goal in the first half of the match when we got in the lead with a score from Patzko. Englis raised our lead in the second half and we believed that the match was in our hands. However, Pardubice lowered and even had a powerplay where they could have tied. Luckily Horvath got the ball. With an accurate pass he found Sagat who did not hesitate in a break situation and ended the match with a ratio of 3:1.
- In our next match we challenged the Swiss team Chocolax White. On paper this was a weaker opponent but they got in a 1:2 lead. The Nationals’ first goal was shot by Patzko, who found himself alone in front of the goal post after a pass from Jeck and he did not hesitate. The first half of the match ended 2:2, when a second before the end, and even with an announced penalty for the guest team, Englis scored with a lovely shot. We put the pedal to the metal in the second half and with three goals (Englis, Thomay, jeck) in the opponent’s net we recorded a 5:3 win.
- The last match of Saturday was against the Polish Eagles. We didn’t manage to noticeably assert ourselves in the first half of the match, which was probably due to exhaustion and resulting weaker effort. Two goals from the Polish unit meant that we hit the lockers at 1:2 score. Only Thomay managed to score for the Nationals. We began to play much more actively in the second half, when Patzko ordered attack with goal. Englis followed suite twice and so we could celebrate a 4:2 win.
With this match the group phase ended for the Nationals with four wins and one loss, which meant second place in the group.
- On Sunday morning we faced the unpredictable Czech team LC Old Dogs Plzen in the match for advance into the top four. We entered the match with a goal from Jeck, but that was all for a long time. The opponent was much more effective and even though we exerted pressure in the match, we weren’t able to score from our chances. Unlike our opponent, who managed to net five goals, we only struck one more time – with a goal from Thomay – and the match ended 2:5.
Disappointment was palpable after this match. We didn’t lower our weapons, however, and we entered the next match with panache and a dedication to win.
In the battles for 5.-8. place in the tournament we firts met an opponent we knew from the group phase. LC Pardubice had some new supports, but we didn’t let them anything anyway. We held the match in our hands from the beginning. Offense was going full force, defense was rock solid and goalie Pisar supported us once again, as in several previous matches of the tournament. Englis worked especially hard and improved his statistics with four goals. Thomay and after some nice action also Radimak joined in with a goal each and Patzko solidified the final score 7:2.
The last match of the tournament awaited us against the Czech team TJ Malesice. History suggested that it should be an even match, but after the opening goal from Thomay we didn’t manage to assert ourselves and we lost with a marked difference of 1:6.
We finished in sixth place on the Mayor’s Lax Cp 2017 tournament.
This fight was a great starting point for us in preparation for the Czech box lacrosse league, which starts in March and where we’ll once again play as the Nationals. We also got necessary information on what we need to work on and improve.
At the end, we would like to congratulate Jižní Město for excellent organization and we are looking forward to the next edition of this excellent tournament.
More informations about tournament: http://mayorslaxcup.cz/
Some pics from tournament: https://www.flickr.com/…675965095633“:[https://www.flickr.com/…675965095633]
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