British Men’s Water Polo Team Faces Georgia in Good Spirits
Powered by British Gas, the British Men’s Water Polo team reached Tblisi, Georgia in good spirits. The contingent had been there after having a successful friendly match against the Dutch rivals. Trained in the new Olympics pool, the team was well aware
of the importance of starting well in the first round match against the Georgian players for there was a huge crowd besides the live coverage of event for millions of spectators.
The play started at sharp 8:30 in the evening, according to the local time, under the loud cheering of large crowd in favour of local team. The team Georgia kept its credibility and the trust of its supporters as soon after starting the game its players
depicted their strength and experience and took an early emphatic lead by 3-0.
At this situation, fighting back into the match the British team rightly took advantage of a man-up situation where taking the opportunity Scott Carpenter scored it, however the Georgians instantly struck back with a penalty and a fiver meter shot culminating
the quarter in favour for impressive 5-1.
Quite cruising, the Georgian players were keeping the complete control of the ball around with ease, though they did not manage to score too frequently, they were visibly a lot sharper than their British counter parts. Eventually there came a moment where
the locals could have extended their lead further, but a moment of brilliance from Matt Holland, the goal keeper, was depicted and he saved the penalty.
By the half time, the score was still hanging at 5-1, depicting a clear lead of the Georgian side. The local crowd was enjoying each and every moment of the game and was completely getting behind its team for support. Charged up with the support from huge
crowd, the Georgian side took advantage of another penalty in the third quarter and successfully scored it. However, this time the British retaliated on time and matched the goal with another man-up short by Scott Carpenter. Despite of being hit hard, the
English team was starting to pick up with noticeable performance from Craig Figes, the team captain, who had been consistently making efforts to pick the team up and work out the game plan which had served rather well at Zeist, the Netherlands.
By the start of the fourth quarter, the score stood at 6-2 and a victory against the hosts was still in reach of the English team as it had already been into a similar situation last year when the players had managed to score four unanswered goals against
Georgia when last time they had met in Lugano.
However, the bad luck struck and instead of levelling the score, the English side got another two quick goals by the Georgian team which had been clearly inspired by the home advantage. Though soon after that British too managed to score a goal back from
a five meter shot by the team captain Craig Figes, but right in the last minute Georgia scored one more to end the game with impressive 9-3.
The team Britain looked rather devastated after the game for not showing up the expected results, particularly having looked quite sharp and impressive during Holland battles. While commenting upon the situation, Cristian Lordache, the head coach managed
to look optimistic. He was of the view that the results depicted at Georgia did not mean that the team was not going to qualify for the coming round, however; it would make life quite difficult to progress.
Out of three goals scored by the British team, two were shot by Scott Carpenter, while the skipper Craig Figes could only pot the ball once. The team Britain would now assemble again on November 15 to presume with its preparations for the next group match
against Greece. The match would take place on 20th of November at Aquatics Center Manchester.
Talking in perspective of the coming match, the team has depicted its resolve to learn from the previous mistakes and perform well in the battle against Greece.
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