English We Will Know the ELL 2013 Champion on Saturday
18.10.2013
The players‘ nervousness is increasing, managers are negotiating last trades, spectators are getting excited and organizers are tuning last details. A great lacrosse highlight is coming – the ELL finals. On Saturday at 7 p.m. CET the final battle will start at the LCC Radotín arena.
Previous three tournaments indicated the teams‘ strenght, but now everything starts from the beginning. The champion has to win two more games. The chances are equal and it is really hard to guess who will celebrate on Saturday night.
LCC Wolves and Pietro Filipi will match in the first semi-final. PF’s play improves during the course of the ELL. They lost the last head-to-head game against Wolves in the last period and we can expect very close game. Pietro Filipi will have Sean Gibson who lead the team in the first tournament and also English Mark Webb. But coach Mirek Knotek can also rely on other excellent players: goalie Ginny Capicchioni and runners Brandon Bocellari, Klaus Hauer or Alan Keeley and he will certainly use his experience from the Czech national team assistant coach carrier. The Wolves‘ coach Jiří Pechar’s key player’s will be goalies Jakub Mareš and Tomáš Říha who was traded in the last moment from Custodes, and Czech national team players Martin Hodaň, Jiří Loskot, Emil Moravec and Jiří Košťál. The Wolves have performed the best lacrosse in the basic part of the ELL and let’s see whether their young team can bear high expectations and pressure.
Defending champion Deutschland Adler will play Custodes in the second semi-final. Their previous game in this season were very tight and so we expect in the play-off.
The goalie’s performance will be crucial on the German side. Felix Neumann nor Tomáš Čekal do not reach Neil Taycke’s level from last sucessfull season, and also defence was not very sure in some moments. On the other side Adler’s offensive strenght is enormous. Jamie Plunkett, Brian Tyacke, Pavel Došlý or Marc Bradenburger are top ELL players and they are able to brake important game.
Custodes will send Dominik Sika or Patrick Crosby to the goal. They both played great games and they will be certainly the pillars of the defense. But the play of Custodes triplet Petr Poupě, Radek Skála and Dominik Pešek will be the key factor. If they play their best, they are able to dissolve any defense and they all are excellent shooters. But they were not at their best shape in previous games. Let‘s see if they save their aces for the decisive moments.
11.00 Semi-final 1: Wolves vs. Pietro Filipi
13.00 Semi-final 2: Deutschland Adler vs. Custodes
17.00 Third place game
19.00 Final game
Regardless who gets to the final we are looking forward to an exciting highlight of the fall which should not be missed by fans. The ELL brings the highest concentration of top European box-lacrosse players. We can expect dramatic games and that is the thing which makes the ELL so attractive both for players and spectators.
There will be a spectators competition at the arena with a great prize – 50litre keg of beer sponsored by Gambrinus.
You can watch all games live at www.net-tv.cz.
Jan Barák, Ondřej Mika
Author: Ondřej Mika | Section: 2013 | Print | Send article to friend
