The Blacksmiths fielded a team of 16, with player coaches Henning Schmidt and Greg Ritts in the coaching bench. The Blacksmiths’ team registered several losses, attack man Ryan Widmar moved to the UK, home grown midfield machine Clemens Schusterschitz who moved to Brussels and joined the team Brussels beavers.
The Oupeye Foxes fielded an experienced, returning all of last season’s top scorers. #95 Marco Daniele and #99 could be somewhat contained by a physical Luxembourg defense benefiting from the additions of Corey Forbes (from Hillcroft Lacrosse Club, London) and Andrew Robillard who recently moved to Luxembourg from the US.
The game plan of not letting the Foxes’ efficiency in front of the goal come to play through denying goals from up close and maintaining longer bouts of possession had proved effective at the last game where Luxembourg had kept the game level until the last ten minutes of the game. Here, Foxes would not give any quarter and lead by 6-0 before Luxembourg recorded the first score.
While Luxembourg could produce goals from Hugo Coelho, Mario ‘Sandro’ Salvia, Andrew Robillard and Darius Seuchter in the second half, the game remained a narrative of Luxembourg’s club side doing many things right and then not rewarding itself with a last successful move. This was not helped by the Foxes goalie who denied Luxembourg several usually safe goals – including a very very fast drop to a bounce shot after three good fakes that had the goalie on the move and out of position.
The post game reviews of players and coaches Henning Schmidt and Greg Ritts suggested that the significant improvements made over the summer break and the effective additions to the roster had not had enough time to build the sort of cohesive unit that would unsettle a Foxes’ side that collectively had a very good day. The Foxes’ offensive efficiency is underlined by their having nine different scorers and half their goals assisted.
‘We knew that if the stars aligned a little bit we could have had the upset. Credit to Oupeye, they have not forgotten the last game and were mentally very ready to play, making almost no mistakes throughout the game.’ When asked on where to go from here, Coach Schmidt said: ‘We have a big home game on 13 October against Namur Knights and this game gives us confidence that after a few small adjustments we have the potential to do much better and this time also on paper and not only hustle stats’. The team fielded several home grown players, including Ricardo Machado, Melvin Hatto, Mario ‘Sandro’ Salvia, Sören Salvatore and Nirav Haria.
President of Luxembourg Lacrosse of Pit Bingen added: ‘We are really focusing on recruitment this year and seeing Sandro score yet again on away ground was amazing. With more growth certain to come in the next years, we are now inviting everyone who would like to try it to come and train and play with us – it really is a lot of fun for everyone.’
Luxembourg Lacrosse invite players of all ages and experience to join their practices on Friday nights from 7.30pm onwards, please email coach Henning at schmidt@lacrosse.lu or see lacrosse.lu for details
