YEREVAN, ARMENIA – The World Championships were held in Armenia, Yerevan at the 8000seater SCC sports complex.
The teams competing were Armenia, South Africa, North Korea and Mongolia. Team South Africa departed from Johannesburg on Friday 9th April 2010 and landed in Armenia Saturday 10th April 2010.
Their first game was a warm up game against Georgia. Team RSA had a practice session on the 11th April.
The game was played at 4pm on 11th April with a decent size crowd watching. It took a while for team RSA to get off the mark but they ended the game winning 8-1. Not a very convincing win, but a win none the less.
Team Armenia played Georgia the following day. They emerged victorious with a score of 22-1. The Armenian team which was made up mostly of players who live and play in America dominated the game from start to finish.
The tournament started on the 14th of April with the first game been played between North Korea and Mongolia. DPR Korea emerged victorious with a score of 21-1.
The second game of the day saw Armenia taking on team RSA. There were a lot of problems encountered with team Armenia as they did not submit the correct documentation for the tournament. By 7pm a team roster for the game had still not been submitted. This caused a lot of issues with the tournament directors and team RSA manager as he had to conduct a passport check before the game.
Armenia eventually decided on a team roster of 15players plus 2 goalkeepers, which none of them had previously played in Armenia.
Team RSA entered the Arena for warm up to a capacity crowd of 8000 hostile Armenian Fans. As the first team RSA jersey was spotted, 8000 people booed the team in sync but this did not hamper them.
Team Armenia entered to a tremendous roar from the crowd. The game kicked off with a high intensity from both teams. Armenia opened up the scoring and RSA went 3-0 down but hit back with a goal which silenced the crowd.
By the end of the first period the score was 4-1.
The second period kicked off with much excitement from the crowd as their team was in the lead. The other Armenian players who did not make the roster were sitting in the changes chanting “you suck” to team RSA. The second period with Armenia in the lead 7-2.
The third period was intense with the tempers heating up amongst both teams. Armenia emerged victorious 9-2.
Throughout the game though, there were a few problems experienced. During the second and third period somebody blew a whistle in the crowd 5 times when team RSA touched the puck. RSA stopped playing as a whistle had been blown and Armenia capitalised.
The next games of the tournament saw RSA taking on Mongolia which was won by RSA 12-1 and Korea taking on Armenia.
Once again in front of an extremely hostile crowd.
Korea opened up the scoring early in the first period and took a commanding lead; they entered the first break 3-1 up.
Armenia came out in the second period with all guns blazing and scored 3 quick goals in succession, but this was partly due to some very good acting on their behalf. The players did not show much sportsmanship throughout the game as every time they got touched they would fall the ice and wait for whistles during the play.
Korea managed to silence the crowd twice but Armenia scored 5 goals this period. Armenia went into the break 6-5 up.
The third period was played with high intensity and much excitement from both teams. They both scored one goal a piece and the game ended with Armenia been victorious 7-6.
On the 17th April the next round of games were played with RSA facing Korea and Mongolia facing the hosts Armenia.
Korea opened up the scoring in the first period at 18:53 and entered the period 1-0 up.
The second period started with RSA playing with and intensity that has seldom been seen from a team and managed to tie the game up with an early goal.
Korea answered back and the second period ended with Korea 2-1 up.
RSA did not give up the fight and answered back to tie the game up at 2-2 with a deflected goal. RSA then took the lead midway through the third period but Korea answered right back to tie the game at 3-3. With 18:21 gone in the third period Korea took a penalty. RSA was on the attack, but when the puck took a nasty bounce off the boards and went past the defence, Korea had a breakaway.
A great back check by team RSA captain Jack Valadas ended in vain, as he dived; the Korean player stopped dead in his tracks and had a 1 on 0 with goalie. He deaked the keeper and put the puck in and gave Korea the 4-3 lead with 51 seconds left in the game.
Unfortunately RSA could not answer back in time and the game ended with Korea the victors and advancing to the gold medal game.
So the scene was set, Bronze was to be played between Mongolia and RSA and Gold to be played between Korea and Armenia.
The game between Mongolia and RSA kicked off with Mongolia playing a very good game in the first 2 periods. At the end of the second period the score was 4-3 to RSA. They caught a wake up in the third period and opened up the gap with 2 quick goals. The game eventually ended with RSA the victors and bronze medallists with a score of 8-3.
The gold medal game was once again going to a hotly contested game between Armenia and Korea.
It turned out to be just that.
The first period ended with Korea leading 2-1. Armenia answered back quickly in the second period to tie the game at 2-2 but Korea battled away and played an excellent game of defence and fore-checking and took the lead. The ended the second period 4-2 up.
The third period was guaranteed to be an intense battle and did not disappoint. Once again a hotly contested period saw Korea emerge with a 1-0 score this period and with this they won the game and gold medal with a score of 5-2 in front of a capacity of more than 8000 spectators.
The crowd was not impressed and booed Korea through their national anthem.
Before the medal ceremony, RSA had to be escorted out of one area of the arena as fans were throwing bottles at them and were becoming increasingly angry.
The tournament ended with Korea taking the gold, Armenia taking the silver and RSA taking the bronze.
A very good tournament of great hockey was experienced by all the players and staff at the tournament.
Contact Gary.Bock@prohockeynews.com
Pro Hockey News congratulates Team RSA on their Bronze medal
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