Gibraltar vs. Portugal (Men)
Posted by on 1 August 2017
Gibraltar Men’s vs. Portugal
After a few weeks of preparation for The EuroHockey Championships at the start of August the National side travelled to Lisbon to face the Portuguese national side. Friday 21st July saw the meeting of the Gibraltar Hockey Association’s men’s squad at the Gibraltar-Spain border as they made their way to Lisbon, Portugal. After a six hour drive up the team arrived on the outskirts of Lisbon, near the Jamor Sports Complex, which is a local base for many sports including Hockey, Football, Golf and athletics. Saturday morning saw an early 6:30am rise for a team briefing and breakfast, and after a short journey the team arrived at the hockey pitch.
After settling into the changing rooms, positions were set and objectives were made clear. The team then began a quick and intense 30 minute warmup session led by Coach Christian Zammit. Over the course of the weekend 10 local players made their debut in this International tournament. Gibraltar took an early lead in the match as Julian Lopez scored a goal from a short corner in the second quarter, but this lead was not long lived as in the last quarter, the team conceded as Portugal scored two goals, one in the last minute. Despite the result of the first match, the team’s spirits were not dropped and after another team briefing the atmosphere was still positive. Sunday morning saw another early rise and journey to the pitch. It was here the squad held their briefing and warmup, from behind the scenes it was clear that the team had come back with a stronger determination. Despite this, the irony of the sport is that the performance of a team may not reflect the outcome. After an extremely strong first quarter, the team was at a 2-0 loss by half time and Portugal scored a further 4 goals by full time. Nevertheless, the two matches were a great opportunity for the team to practice and prepare for the EuroHockey Championship VI tournament in the hope to achieve excellence.
