It was great for us coaches to be able to participate at the Continental Cup at Poland with ”re-enforced” Tartu Kalev-Välk team. Those 3 games gave us a lot of good knowledge about our players from Estonian league (yes, our team had most of the top players from 3 Estonian league teams). Some players made a good impression on us and will be part of the final Team Estonia at the World Championships in Tallinn next spring. These key players showed great efforts when we did come back from 2-0 deficit during the last 2 minutes of the game against Lithuanian Energija and ended up winning them 2-3 in overtime. This result shows that Estonian league players can play this game.
On the other hand some players showed to us that they were not 100% committed to the team and therefore they will not be invited back to any national team events this season. This was also good information for us and will enable us to focus our efforts on those players that really want to play for Team Estonia.
Naturally majority of the key players for the national team will be coming from various foreign leagues, but local league players do compliment them well and together we will make this a successful team.
We have a lot of work ahead of us and that requires also extra efforts from all candidates. We are confident that our players will be putting those extra efforts in with programs we are providing for them and extra workouts we are arranging at Estonia as often as either one of us coaches can be present. Our goal is to be the best and hardest skating team at our World Championships.
We are also looking forward to our upcoming game at Finland against SaPKo on 19.12.2009. This will be special event that will end SaPKo’s anniversary year, so we expect to be playing in front of sell out audience.
Sisu on kõik!
Jukka & Ismo
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti