There were to be no surprises in England's opening clash with
Belgium as the Belgian side stormed away to a 5 - 1 lead in the
first quarter. England pulled a couple of goals back,
courtesy of Rebecca and James Woolmer and Joe Bedford, but went
in to the half time break trailing 8 - 3.
At half time England coach Colin Boys brought on the Netherlands
based Otto Fabius and Jocelyn Hoffman for James Woolmer and
Neala Brennan and another goal in the 2nd half from Rebecca
Woolmer took the score to 10 - 5, but a double substitution from
Belgium brought three goals in three minutes, two from Nick
Janssens, and saw the Belgians pull away. Otto Fabius
added two goals to England's slim goal tally and with 10 minutes
to go Johnny Nickerson replaced Luke Francis.
Natasha Dawson came into the game with 5 minutes remaining for
Aimee Evans and added a goal from a running in shot but the game
was long over and Ken Coekaerts had the last say with his goal
taking the final score to 14 - 8.
England were never expected to be able to compete with the
Belgians and this result comes as no surprise and in terms of
the scoreline would seem reasonably credible.
Sadly there was bad news for the Belgians in the last minute of
the game as Stefanie Versele suffered what the IKF reports are
suggesting was a 'serious' injury, although just how serious is
not known.
With England facing clashes with Hong Kong, Australia, Catalonia
and the highly fancied Chinese Taipei coach Colin Boys will have
a lot to think about after this opening game, Nick
Janssens was Belgium's leading scorer with 5 goals with
Rebecca Woolmer and substitute Otto Fabius both scoring 2 for
England.
The England starting line up
for the opening game was:
Attack: Joe Bedford, Luke Francis, Neala Brennan, Aimee
Evans
Defence: Davesh Patel, James Woolmer, Rebecca Woolmer,
Charmange Francis
Did you get to watch the game or were you back in the UK relying
on the updated statistics?
Don't forget to add your views and thoughts on this opening game
on the korfball.com
forums
