European Badminton Team Championships / Liverpool / 10-15 Feb 2009

Do or Die!

England are receiving great resistance from Poland with the score tied at 2-2.
England won the XD and WS and Poland took the MS and MD.

Poland's MD of Michal Logosz/Robert Mateusiak did well to beat Nathan Robertson/Anthony Clark 21-18, 21-12. So did Przemyslaw Wacha who also won a point against Andrew Smith 21-11, 22-20.

Thankfully England scored through WS Elizabeth Cann against Kamila Augustyn 11-21, 21-4, 21-9. I think Elizabeth had not performed as well before.

Now the important decider is the WD, and England's Donna Kellogg/Jennifer Wallwork are leading Kamila Augustyn/Malgorzata Kurdelska by 21-12, 14-19 ...
Will Poland be able to win the second game and force the match to a thrilling finish? Donna as well as Kamila had both played a match earlier in XD and WS respectively.

Yes the Polish girls had taken the second game 21-17 to extend the match to a rubber. Maybe they now have a slight edge and England must be on tenterhooks now despite playing at home.

 

The girls are fighting hard point for point, with England leading a point ahead at 8-7.

 

So far, the English girls scored heavily on smashes but might have lost quite a bit on unforced errors as the Polish girls seemed to have gained many points on "others", presumably from the mistakes of their English opponents.

England are now leading quite comfortably at 13-8 and if they kept up the pressure with their attacking smashes, I'm afraid Poland may have to succumb.

Poland need to change strategy from defence to attack if they hope to win!

 

Alas, England are now hard to chase leading 18-11, scoring 10 points from smashes against only 1 from Poland.

 

Bye bye Poland! Have better luck next year and please polish up your smashes, girls.

Phew! so England just managed to advance to challenge Denmark in tomorrow's final.
Poland missed a golden opportunity by not concentrating on the WS. And in their WD, they were completely outdone by England in the smashing department. England won a total of 23 points from smashes, whereas Poland managed a misery 5 points.

England may not be this lucky tomorrow though!

 

Oh how unlucky that Poland was unable to put up the best team. But these things do happen. I'm not sure whether Kamila has played in Southeast Asia before, but I have read of her name and is quite impressed with her performance in Europe. That's why I expected her to beat Elizabeth Cann, who did not perform so well in this tournament.

But Poland must have done well and exceeded their own expectations to become the last four. Congratulations!

On the other hand, Poland were third last year and may have to fight Russia today for retaining their position.

As for Russia, they were sixth last year and now they are at least fourth. Which means Russia are the team that have improved more than the others.

However, I'm not sure whether Poland and Russia will play to decide the 3rd and 4th positions as the tournament scores website does not indicate.

 

Now I hope England will have the entire Liverpool fans to come to the badminton court and cheer their countrymen for a change.

Then England, and even Andrew Smith will be inspired beyond belief and Denmark may be totally shocked before they realize it to make any sort of comeback. However to overcome Tine Rasmussen, Elizabeth Cann needs to surmon all her energies plus everything else and still may be found wanting.

I'd say England should take the important inspirational opening XD and 50/50%chances on MS, MD and WD.

Don't give up that easily England and for all you know, the Queen may grace the occasion with the Minister of Sports for that added motivation. Then, maybe even Elizabeth also can.