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Venue, a field in Luxembourg not the same as the football

 

Weather, Cloudless, bright, warm.

 

In attendance, The Hague, Brussels, Munich, Luxembourg.

 

Situation, not bad.

 

The Luxembourg hurling tournament was held at the start of June. Attending were teams from Brussels Zurich the Hague and the home club. This was our second outing in 2007 and after taking the Brussels cup we were optimistic even arriving with a few subs to spare. Paris was not attending so this tournament however so with a game less we were hoping our luck with injuries would hold. With John Sheridan, Mary Galvin (arriving in Luxembourg after a 2 day trip from Ireland) and Des Breen taking care of things on the sideline we were better prepared than any tournament so far this year.

 

The first game was against Brussels. As expected both teams were up for it. The Hague controlled midfield with John Forde and Frank and with Dennis Reidy, Owen Morrissey and Tom Reidy in the forwards we had a pretty confident win. The next game was against Zurich a win would put us into the final without having to play the final group game. This was secured and we faced a final against Luxembourg.

 

This was the toughest game of the day and followed what we expected from the Brussels tournament; however this time we didn’t give away a 3 goal lead. With the game never more than a point in front for either team there was no room for errors. Unfortunately some of our shooting was off and a few valuable chances from frees were lost. With seconds left The Hague was one point up however the last shot of the game saw Luxembourg point after some heavy pressure leaving us facing extra time. A good attack from Luxembourg during this play stretched the Hague defence and found the back of the net for the games most important score. Despite throwing everything at the Luxembourg their defence held still and a few points were swapped but the elusive goal was not found. 

 

Finishing yet again in a thunderstorm in Luxembourg we were disappointed to not have been able to put a strangle hold on the European Hurling Championship. We are still at the top of the table and the Zurich tournament at the start of July offers us the chance to put ourselves into a very strong position going into the final tournament in The Hague in September.