What an incredible weekend we had at this year’s Algarve 7s tournament! Going into the tournament we were unsure how we would fare against various other unknown teams from all over Europe. We knew we had certainly improved over the season, but would it be enough to hold our own against other teams? Often we haven’t had enough players at our practices to make up 2 whole teams of 7 players, to play a full game, with players in all positions. Would that affect how we played? Two new players: (Sara and Cekaye) were joining us, as part of our team, for the first time. Would they fit into the team well?
Over the past few months we have been focusing on shooting, clean passing and better movement on the court. That certainly served us well over the course of the weekend. Our first match was against ‘3 second sisters’, 2-2 at half time, which we eventually lost 8-3. A match well played though and we felt positive. The second game was against Bileracay All Stars, who were incredible throughout the whole tournament & made it through to some of the final matches. We lost that game 9-3, but again were pleased with our performance and resilience, especially with Nina and Cekaye in defence.
After lunch we played against the Tay Daquiries, a university team, much younger than most of our players. We played hard, used the court well and won 9-2 with excellent goals from our shooters. Our first victory as The Rockets! Our last match of the day was against the ‘Prison Service’, a lovely group of ladies from the UK who have worked, or do work for the prison service. We were all very tired by the end of the day but we pushed through to another victory! Our energetic midfield players kept us going and once again, defence and our shooters did an incredible job. Nora, our coach, worked the substitutes well to bring on more energy exactly where it was needed.
Apart from our magnificent players a huge shout out has to go to our supporters who are, by far, the best supporters at any event. Always full of energy & 100% supportive, with their Rockets tops, flags and pom-poms. So many of the other teams commented how great you were & it kept pushing us on when we were down a goal or two, so thank you for your support.
Exhausted but exhilarated by Saturday evening, we nervously awaited which pool we would play in and who we would play against the following day. On Sunday we were drawn against 2 other Portuguese teams: the Silver Coast Sirens and our friends from Lagos, the Fireballs. We were also to play against the Tay Mojitos ( a great team with some players that we met last year) and Jay Division, one of the Valley Vipers teams from France.
Our first match was against the Tay Mojitos, an excellent university team, who beat us 19-1. Not the best start to the day but we played well and knew we had more in us. The next match was a hard fought & very physical game against the Silver Coast Sirens. It was a tight 4-3 win to us and went down to the final whistle.
Then it was our ‘local rival’ match against the Fireballs, a team we continue to admire. We lost 9-2 but it was one of the most fun games of the whole weekend and a lot of people commented how much we’d improved & learned over the season. In past matches we’d lost by 20+ goals to the Fireballs, so we are inching closer. One day we might even win!
Our final game of the day was against Jay Division, a team we’d watched play over the tournament weekend and had been impressed by their teamwork and movement on the court. It was a heart stopping match, going right down to the whistle again. Our supporters were at their loudest, shouting encouragement. We finally lost 5-6, with the ball in our shooters hand. Another 30 seconds and we could have possibly pulled back a draw. A win to finish the tournament would have been the icing on the cake, but a well played match was a great way to end the weekend.
A big thanks to everyone involved in organising the Algarve 7s event, which was run and umpired impeccably, as it was last year.
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