DEAF SPORTS Waterpolo Deaflympics

As we had no swimming events today due to the day being a swimming rest day, we only had the water polo match against Germany to prepare for. Luckily, this allowed both the swimmers to rest for today's match and we all took it easy this morning with a late breakfast at 9.30am. However, Donal Desmond the national director for swimming had to attend a technical director meeting to discuss issues relating to swimming. All nationals have agreed to some changes i.e timing of medal ceremonies, specific lanes for training and starting lights.

Dave the coach ran through some tactics with the team and called for them to try and beat the Germans for the first time in history. The players were eager to write history today! We all arrived at Hsinchu Swimming Plaza in time to watch the match between Hungary and Italy. It was close at the beginning but soon turned into one way traffic for the Hungarians.

Ireland and Germany did the usual deed in lining up in front of the crowd and officials and set about in exchanging the pennants and shook hands with each other. Warm up in the pool came along and then it was ready to record a victory against Germany! Nolan came close 3 times but the German goalie was on form and saved all three shots. By then Ireland knew it would take more than a simple shot to score, collective team working was needed here. Germany got a goal only for it to be disallowed due to a foul earlier on on Ireland. First goal then came along for the Germans (GER 1:0 IRL) and it quickly followed up by another goal (2:0).

Defensive errors were the cause for both goals. Determined to equalise, Nolan came close again and cleverly lobbed the ball in the goal (2:1). Then it was the end of the first quarter.

Maher started the second quarter by hitting the post, it seems we could not convert chances. Germany soon made it 3-1 up by slotting in a goal from a narrow angle. Man up for us but we failed to capitalise on the opportunity. A German was resorting to dirty tactics and the referee seems to have failed to witness it all and heard Culhane swear. This resulted in Culhane being suspended for the rest of the game. Grace finally came alive in the game and took a shot only for the German goalie to save it. A timeout was called for the Germans, their coach seem to have done the trick as a goal quickly came afterwards courtesy of a man down at our end. Ireland then did the opposite calling a time out but an attempt from Grace could not get through and missed. Again, we were man down due to Ryder fouling their hole man as a result, we got punished with a goal (5:1). By then it seemed impossible to come back at this stage. Keating went close but missed. Determined to improvise, we set about in stringing a clean set of passes, Grace to Turner, to Nolan and to Keating to superbly finish with a goal (5:2). The Irish fighting spirit was evident with a further goal but got disallowed due to a foul. However, we frequently got possession and got awarded a penalty due to a foul near the goal. Grace swam up and took it, and in it went through the net (5:3). Resorting to a long throw tactics, Keogh threw the ball to Nolan and Nolan threaded the ball into Maher's path and he did the business (5:4). A lapse at our end with Ryder going off, Germany took advantage of this man down with a goal (6:4). We quickly started attacking with ball going through several players, Maher, Turner, Nolan, Liam and finally Keating but got saved by the German. Finally the half time break came up!

Confidence became sky high at our end as it was possible to come back from 4 goals down. Dave called a timeout at half a min into the 3rd quarter to clarify a tactic and it seemed to have done the trick with a man up at our end and Grace did the scoring this time (6:5). Keogh was extremely busy at his end saving a number of German attempts and giving us a lifeline at the same time. Keating got the ball and tried to fight off three men bogging him down and after doing so, he attempted to shoot but it went over the bar. Turner was busy releasing pressure off Keogh by defending well and enabled Germany to score high over the bar. Keating was in action yet again moments later but missed with a shot. Nolan integrated well with Keating but no goal came out of it. Germany was stepping up their momentum by shooting whenever they had a chance but none of them went in. Keating had a shot but was too high. Keogh saved a ball and quickly saw Keating available and threw him the ball. Keating, knowing he was heavily marked by the German, resorted to a different tactic by passing the ball to Nolan who had a better view and it worked, resulting in a goal (6:6). 1 to 1 actions were plentiful in the match. Keating had a good chance but needed to restrain the level of shooting as most of them went over the bar. Finally Keating saw some justice from the referee, got a man up in return but Liam mistook an Irish for a German and mistakenly gave him the ball. This proved to be quite a costly mistake as it resulted in a German goal afterwards (7:6). Grace was ever so determined to make his mark in the game and succeeded in doing so with a goal (7:7). However, Grace paid the price for using up all his energy to score earlier on as he could not press properly and this in turn allowed the German to score (8:7). Soon the break came along, the players were thankful for a breather.

Final quarter was exciting and had the crowd cheering both teams on! Maher was lively and came close with a shot but hit the post instead. Referee was watching the German like a hawk and caught a foul, man up for us, Grace saw Turner free and did the deed of lobbing the ball into Turner's path and a goal was created (8:8). The opposite occurred moments later but luckily a German lost possession along the way. Keogh quickly passed the ball to Ryder, then to Turner, then to the prolific Nolan for him to seek a gap and score (8:9). For the first time in the game, we are now leading but this was to be short lived as the German goalie saw a German waving for a ball near Keogh, no Irish men in sight and as a result, the German equalised (9:9). The score stayed the same for the rest of the game. Both teams went close and the ball either missed the goal or got saved by the goalie. The match was now over and we were quite disappointed with the result as we felt we should have converted a series of chances coming our way. This effectively meant we have finished fourth in the league and will be playing against Hungary in the semis. We were hoping to avoid this draw but belief within the camp is still high and we are convinced, with a rest day tomorrow and an hour of training, we should be ready to face the Hungarians again and win for a change.

"I was heartbroken at the end of the match as it was clear we should have won the game, we fought really hard after the 1st Quarter. Our minds were just not there and the players know themselves that they did not quite perform in the first quarter. But we still can do it in the semis against Hungary!" says Sean Herlihy. Sean came across some interesting facts; Germany has a panel of roughly hundred players to choose from whereas we only have 16 to choose from!!