National Team 2013 - Phase 2 - Day 10 in Russia

Day started with an early breakfast. 630 am to be exact. Went over by myself and had an interesting array of food. Cheese pancakes again of course, some grilled potatoes, bacon, a chicken patty and a beef kabob (interesting flavour and texture). Once again I opted out of the duck for breakfast.



Came back after breakfast and finalized my practice plan as we had practice at 9am. I thought it was a good prep workout and the girls were in good spirits.


Came back and went straight to a film session. Showed them what we should expect and then showed them what I thought we could do to be successful.



A little while after the film session I went over to have lunch. 
I had a (very bad) sausage, potato, some pasta and something called brisket but not like any brisket I have ever had before. It was kind of like a small circle pork chop with a piece of grilled eggplant and some cheese melted on top. Very different

. 

Returned home and sent some emails  then grabbed a nap. A very good sleep. Got ready after that and headed to the game.

 I knew we were in trouble and would have a battle on our hands. They are very good and when you add up their international experience they have 24 years to our 12. That is a huge gap. They jumped on us early but we came back and battled. They held a 10 point lead at half. We were missing shots everywhere and our execution was poor. Part of that was them and a lot of it was us. Nothing seemed to work.

We tried to make adjustments at half but they extended the lead and were almost to the point of total blowout but we rallied a bit and cut the lead down. It finished at 12 points and our thoughts of a medal were dashed.
 I never really expected a medal or to be in the top 8 for that matter so I guess anything from here is nice. Would like to get a win at some point after the first one. Oh well, I am counting down the days to get out of here right now. The kids have been very good and a nice challenge but there is a dynamic on the bench that disgusts me and I need to get away from it. Has made the trip very unenjoyable. 

Tomorrow we have Sweden who will be very tough to beat. They are quite good. We will have our hands full again. After that we have a day off then we play on the 15th. We have the 16th off and we fly home that night. I will update after the game tomorrow