EuroHockey Trophy

30th May  v HC Mori Villafranca  1 - 7 Loss

Swansea started this game brightly against their Italian opponents and seemed determined to put the previous day’s defeat behind them. For the first five minutes they were camped in the Villafranca half but then they failed to spot the dangerous Yuiliya Laptsevich lurking deep in the top corner. She collected a long ball hit from the Italian half, went in on goal and found Elena Apelganets free to push the ball in on the near post after 6 minutes. This goal encouraged Villafranca to push forward and Swansea had to concede a penalty corner. They defended the corner well but did not clear the ball fully and this allowed Villafranca to bring the ball back into the circle. Apelganets went left and, with impressive skill, crashed the ball high into the Swansea goal on her reverse on 12 minutes. Villafranca now started to dominate possession and kept coming forward in waves, forcing Abbey Bintcliffe to dive to her right to prevent another goal. In a rare push forward Jaynaya Boyles won a free hit at the side of the circle. From the hit, the ball went right across the Italian goal but nobody could connect with it. Sian Fowler and Kat Budd were linking well on the right and managed to put Rebecca Treharne in on goal but she was well tackled. Swansea were finding it difficult to string more than a few passes together resulting in Villafranca having far too much of the ball and putting the Swansea defence under considerable pressure. Eventually this pressure told when the ball came back to Paola Lombardi standing at the top of the D and, under no pressure, she calmly slotted the ball home just inside the right post on 34 minutes. Swansea went into the half time break 3-0 down but had no reason to be as disappointed as they had been the day before.

Unfortunately, Swansea continued to concede possession for the first ten minutes of the second half but then managed to pull themselves together. Fran Williams and Jaynaya worked the ball down the left channel and won a short corner. From the strike, Angharad Griffiths picked up the ball as it went loose and struck a cracking shot which went up off the keeper’s pads for another corner. This time Natalie Blyth connected really well and the ball was deflected past the keeper off an opponent’s stick on 53 minutes. The goal re-energised the Swansea players and, with Sarah Lowman tackling and pressing well, the momentum for a second goal began to build. Then came a critical moment in the match when Sian Fowler was put in one on one with the keeper and, as she pushed the ball on at an empty goal, she was taken out by the keeper. The umpire ignored the Swansea appeals for a penalty stroke leaving Sian distraught. As often happens, from a potential 3-2 position the ball went up to the Swansea half. Laptsevich attacked around the right of the circle, put the ball across the goal and Silvia Debortoli scrambled the ball over line on 64 minutes to make it 4-1 to the Italians. This was the point for the floodgates to open. The ball was lost by the Swansea defence giving the Italians a 2 on 1 against keeper Laura Davies. As she committed herself the ball was transferred to the spare player who pushed the ball at the goal but it hit Angharad’s foot and the umpire awarded a penalty stroke. The stroke was duly converted by Anna Tagliasacchi on 67 minutes and Villafranca were now irresistible. They swarmed forward creating an overload in the circle and the ball was worked around the keeper for Tagliasacchi to push it home on 69 minutes. In the very last minute a long through ball split the defence and allowed Tagliasacchi to complete a three minute hat-trick.

This was a game which went right away from Swansea after they looked capable of rescuing it. But, this can happen so easily in European hockey.

Thanks to Rob Fowler for the report