England v Catalonia

England finished in 6th place in the World Under 23 Championships today as they lost out to Catalonia in the 5th/6th play.

England coach Colin Boys stayed with the same starting line he had used since the opening the opening game against Belgium with Luke Francis and Johnny Nickerson in instead of Craig Gosling and Davesh Patel, but as ever the concern would be just where the goals would come from.

England got off to the best possible start as Natasha Dawson scored from mid range in the 1st minute but the momentum was soon lost a Catalonia went into a 3 - 1 lead with a Jose Luis Jurado running shot and close range and free pass goal from Javier Blazquez. 

England replied with a 3 goal spell of their own with Luke Francis scoring from mid range followed by a Joe Bedford penalty and a goal from mid range from Rebecca Woolmer.

Catalonia used their first time out with 21 minutes gone and England extended their lead to 5 - 3 from a close range
Otto Fabius goal but Catalonia pulled one back to 5 - 4 as Jose Luis Jurado scored from mid range.

Both teams struggled to find the basket in what was looking likely to be a somewhat low scoring game and as at half time the score stood remained 5 - 4.

In the 2nd half England brought on Davesh Patel for Johhny Nickerson and minutes later the Catalonian's made their own change replacing Laia Rosa with Tamarra Gutierrez Ruiz.

Jose Luis Jurado scored his 3rd of the game from close range to bring the score even at 5 - 5 and a minute later Javier Blazquez was shown a yellow card by Alle Visser.

Rebecca Woolmer's close range goal took England into the lead again but another 3 goal spell from Javier Blazquez and Jose Luis Jurado, this time with Jurado scoring the two took Catalonia into and 8 - 6 lead.

Rebecca Woolmer pulled one back from close range, her 3rd of the game, to bring the score to 8 - 7 but another Javier Blazquez goal, this time from the penalty spot too the Catalonian lead to 9 - 7.

As Catalonia used their 2nd time out with just 9 minutes remaining England brought on James Woolmer for Luke Francis in an effort to get back in the game but with just 9 minutes remaining the question would be whether it was too late.

Seconds later Catalonia extended their lead to 10 - 7 with a goal from long range from Jose Luis Jurado as 5th place looked to be slipping away from England.

With 6 minutes to go coach Colin Boys called a time out but as Jose Luis Jurado took the lead to 11 - 7 from the free pass line England looked to be struggling.

With 3 minutes England brought on Neala Brennan in a desperate last minute substitution but with 3 minutes remaining it was too little too late.

Catalonia made three changes of their own in the last minute and Javier Blazquez took the lead to 12 - 7 with just a minute remaining.

Rebecca Woolmer added a 4th goal as she brought the score to 12 - 8 seconds later but Salva Fort was to have the last word of the game from the penalty spot with a final score of 13 - 8 and Catalonia securing the 5th place, 'best of the rest' title while England end up finishing 6th, which was of course in line with expectations.

England have produced some credible results, particularly in defence, in this tournament and gave Chinese Taipei one of their tougher games of the tournament,  But games are not won on defence alone at this level and the fact that in the play off Rebecca Woolmer scored 50% of England's goals highlights England's lack of goal scoring power.

Browse through reports of championships through the years and you will read the same story, England battling well, strong defensively, disciplined, but unable to put the ball in the basket and until that picture changes this is as good as it gets.

This game topped a highly impressive performance for England captain Rebecca Woolmer who scored 19 goals during the tournament making her Englands leading scorer and the 13th highest scorer in the tournament prior to the top 4 play offs.
Jose.  Otto Fabius was England's 2nd highest scorer with 16 goals but far too many England players simply failed to find the basket to the extent this level demands.

England coach Colin Boys, who will now lead Great Britain into the World Games in Taiwan next summer, will have gained a valuable insight into just what that tournament is likely to demand and will be under no illusions as to just how tough a task that will represent. 

Jose Louis Jurado who scored 7 in this game ended the tournament on 18 goals while Javier Blazquez who scored 5 ended the tournament with 26 goals.