Match Analysis: European Games 2019 3rd place match- Germany vs United Kingdom
Hello there!
While the world is under Coronavirus lockdown and sadly no quidditch is currently being played, let's revisit one of the games from 2019's European Games in Bamberg, Germany. Honestly, European Games 2019 isn't a tournament I've really given much thought about since it happened. I was away at summer camp in the US at the time, almost entirely unplugged from the outside world so mentally I feel very disconnected from it but I guess now is as good a time as any to dive into some of the game footage available online. Special shout-outs to my friends Amund and James (UK coach for this tournament) for requesting this article, I hope they enjoy it just as much as the rest of you. Remember, if you would like me to do analysis on a specific game, please leave a message in the comment section here or on the facebook page (with a url link to the footage) and I will take it into consideration.
Of the matches I've watched, this is one of the more entertaining ones from EG 2019 with some excellent moments of physical, technical and tactical ability. The UK go into an early 50-0 lead before Germany pull it back into snitch range resulting in a tight scramble at the end with Callum Lake providing the emphatic game ending catch to seal a thriller.
Anyway, enough of the waffling, let's get into the article.
Footage can be found here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wu5reYpFZQ&list=PLi3d3UZlhDvpAVZ6pu74aXWO2I5PMNiMl&index=14
Brooms up is at around 12:40. That timestamp and all other timestamps used in this article refer to the YouTube video and not the game time shown in the graphic at the top of the screen.
Stats mentioned are created by yours truly based on the footage available. There may be an element of human error involved.
Final Score: Germany 90°-110* United Kingdom
Goals-
Tom Roloff X3 Tom Stevens X3
Julia Piazolo X2 Seb Waters X2
Sara Kauth Jeniva Chambers
Heinrich Ottensmeier Bex Lowe
Max Erik Schulze-Steinen Ben Malpass
Leander Troll
Assists-
Max Erik Schulze-Steinen X3 Ed Brett
Hanne Große Ben Malpass
Meike Hinz Seb Waters
Giulia Pugnaghi
Cards-
2 (Both Yellows) 2 (Both Yellows)
Turnovers caused by bludger-
1 (Leon Bürgers) 7 (Mikey Orridge X3, Kerry Aziz,
Bill Orridge, Jacopo Sartori, Dan Trick)
Offensive Efficiency-
40.91% (9 goals from 22 possessions) 36.36% (8 goals from 22 possessions)
Cool Britannia
Using the old football cliché, this match was well and truly a tale of two halves. In a 20 minute match, the UK controls roughly the first 10 minutes and Germany controls roughly the second 10 minutes. While there are moments of great defence and individual brilliance from the UK, a lot of the UK's early dominance stems from German mistakes and inaccuracy, particularly on the offensive end.
Germany go against bludger control for much of this opening section of the match and while you don't necessarily need it to score goals in quidditch, what is important is that your beaters are either making a play to regain bludger control or they're committing the opposition defenders long enough for the quaffle players to get a clean scoring opportunity. As the UK set up into a 2-2 zone early on, the German chasers make it clear that they intend to break it through good passing and movement. While this approach suits the German team, because they don't work in time with their beaters engaging the UK beaters first before they attempt to score, some of their attacking play isn't as effective as it could be and ends up being passing for passing's sake. For example, at 16:30 German keeper Max Erik Schulze-Steinen (9) makes a long pass out to the chaser in back left corner of the pitch who under pressure from a blitzing UK defender attempts to drive in on the hoops. With the German beaters yet to attack the UK, Mikey Orridge (15) is able to easily drop into the backfield and make a long range beat while the German chaser is being tackled, accounting for one of his 3 turnovers. The UK rack up 7 turnovers to Germany's 1 during this match which shows how dominant they were both in winning their exchanges and then affecting the quaffle game. We see a similar case at 25:50 where beater Leon Bürgers (1) makes a tap beat to free up space for chaser Leander Troll (7). Before Bürgers can make a play on the UK beaters, Troll runs into the space and throws a long diagonal pass across the hoops towards Julia Piazolo (5) which wildly misses its target. Now, if Troll were more central and this was a shot attempt, it would be a much better use of the space created for him however because it's a pass, UK keeper Alex Macartney (34) is easily able to track and cover any attack from receiver Piazolo. More importantly, because the UK beaters haven't been engaged, it relies on lots of things going right in order to succeed. If this attack from Germany is anything less than a perfect pass with a catch and release at the end of it, it would more than likely have been picked off by the UK beaters. We see this same problem in similar fashion at 24:58 and 28:38 as well, this time with bludger control. In these two offences, we see Germany run a pick and roll play and switch play which are both good variations to their attack however, on both occasions Keeper Heinrich Ottensmeier (12) goes too early before Madline Fischer (77) has thrown her bludger and gets wrapped up in contact. Ottensmeier manages to break the contact on both occasions however he is met equally by UK's armed beater Bill Orridge (5) who is able to split jump dodge Fischer's beats and nullify the attack. Had Ottensmeier waited a moment or so longer to make his drive, even with Orridge winning the exchange, the UK beater would've had to step out to him to make the same play, thus creating a shooting or passing opportunity.
There are certainly moments where Germany make the right plays however it's purely a case of accuracy in terms of why they don't finish in a goal. At 20:39, although the German beaters lose the exchange, Schulze-Steinen realises all 3 bludgers are on the ground and goes for the drive, draws 2 defenders before passing to Giulia Pugnaghi (25), Pugnaghi's pass/shot attempt loops to Rosa Kuhn (11) but by the time Kuhn sends a return pass to Schulze-Steinen, the UK beaters are back in play and force a turnover and fast break goal. Germany definitely could've scored on this play however because their beaters lost out in the beater battle, they only have a small window of opportunity to do it in which means everything they do needed to be accurate. Similarly at 23:33 when Germany have a power play for Ben Malpass (20)' yellow card, they decide they want to score in a 3 vs 3 scenario rather than waiting to attack with more numbers and using their extra player advantage. On both occasions in which Troll passes in this play, he's made the right choice to do so but his execution lets him down as the UK scramble defence does just enough to contest each time in a situation where they really should've lost.
While I've mostly focused on Germany's errors, there are also some excellent pieces of play from the UK that help them establish their lead. In Germany's first proper half court offence at 15:08, while we can't see the first section of it due to the camera angle, we see the UK beaters are able to clear out a German beater and two chasers quite easily, with Bürgers still armed and protecting the quaffle they hold their defensive shape into the next phase of the German offence. When the ball ends up in the hands of Hanne Große (55) in the centre of the pitch, point chaser Jeniva Chambers (21) steps away and instead follows the run of Schulze-Steinen. Isolated and with no defence immediately in front of her, the UK invites Große to take a shot against UK keeper Seb Waters (10) and an armed Dan Trick (3), knowing that this is a weakness in hers and Germany's game. Under pressure, Große instead looks to pass instead but the UK zone coverage is able to stifle the play and force a turnover, overall great recognition to exploit a weakness in their opponent. At 16:55 we see some great offensive play from the UK too. The German defence starts this play in a similar 2-2 zone but following the initial failed drive and dish attempt from Waters, Malpass ends up with the ball and Pugnaghi marks Waters out of the play. Noticing this, Malpass waits for Mikey Orridge to make his attack before beating point chaser Max Martens (89) 1-on-1, forcing Schulze-Steinen to step up from his hoops. Having committed Schulze-Steinen, Malpass shifts the ball to Chambers cutting in on the hoops to score. The timing on the drive allows the UK beaters to keep Germany's armed beater Paul Fander (22) out of the play and also, because Malpass attacks the right side where Schulze-Steinen is covering two hoops, it gives Chambers two options to score in. You could argue that the UK even left some scores off the board in these opening 10 minutes with some missed opportunities on the counter in part thanks to some excellent transition defence and tackling from the Germans as well as the UK quaffle carrier being isolated in the contact. We also see some intelligent game management from the UK when running down the clock on Malpass' card at 24:12. We see Bill Orridge protect keeper Macartney with the UK's only bludger, Kerry Aziz (89) pressures Bürgers back before Bill makes a beat attempt on him. This is really smart play from the UK cos in this window where Germany have a power play, they want to be trying to force a turnover so they can score and make the most of their player advantage. However, the pressure from Orridge and Aziz deters Bürgers from pressing the quaffle (something he's very good at) and instead this role falls to his partner Lena Steuer (17) who seems less confident to do so. While the UK don't score off this play or get bludger control back, they manage to get Malpass back in the game without conceding a goal and thus achieve what they set out to do.
The Comeback Kids
Now let's look at the second half of the game where we see a resurgence from Germany.
They finally get on the score board at 10:58 game time thanks to a well-timed offence on a power play culminating in a great off-load from Große to Troll who cuts in superbly from behind the hoops to finish. From then on, Germany score on every single half court offence and fail to score just once on a fast break in the next 10 minutes. So, what prompted this purple patch? While you could see glimpses of Germany's ability to play a passing game in the first half, more often than not they were attacking against bludger control however, during this second half of the game they have a lot more of it which allows them to produce some of the best half court offence I've ever seen. With control, Germany send one of their beaters directly behind the hoops, not really with the intention of actually making any beats but to protect their chasers in the backfield and give them more freedom for passing and movement. We see this at 32:08 where Germany freely move the quaffle around back to front, the quick ball movement causing the UK to shift out of their defensive shape. Because Germany haven't attempted any mid/long range shots all game, Waters cheats the defensive system by hedging towards Große in the back right corner, leaving the hoops wide open which Ottensmeier takes advantage of with an easy floated shot through the top hoop. At 34:35 we then see a beautiful half court offence and arguably the best goal of the match. The quaffle is worked around to the backfield once more but this time Fander throws his bludger all the way back towards the German half and goes after UK's armed beater Mikey Orridge, positioning himself directly behind him so that when Bürgers beats Orridge he is ready to try and pick up the UK's only bludger on defence and subtly block off Orridge's path back to the hoops to tap in. As Fander makes his attack, Tom Roloff (45) sets a pick on Waters to free up a shot/pass from Sarah Kauth (8), Schulze-Steinen receives it then sends a pass back over the hoops to Roloff who rolls to his left and finishes through the medium hoop. A 6 pass offence with beaters and chasers working in sync throughout and finishing with an alley oop at the end with the German's securing bludger control for their next defensive set thanks to Fander's throw back. The half court offence at 35:48 isn't quite as clean as the previous one but again shows how destructive Germany can be in this setting even when things don't go quite right for them. Using the same beater setup, UK armed beater Jacopo Sartori (99) looks unsure of where the attack is going to come from. As soon as Mikey Orridge moves away, Fander uses this uncertainty to attack from the front, creating a no bludger situation. Schulze-Steinen times his drive well, draws two defenders and dishes to Roloff who is running a line to the small hoop. While both Waters and Asia Mikolajczak (14) read Roloff's run and Orridge gets back into the play to beat him, Roloff is still able to get the ball to Pugnaghi who finds Kauth for the finish, doing well to step in on the angle to score through the top hoop.
One of the reoccurring themes in this game is that when one team exploits a weakness in the other, we see the in-game intelligence of the other team as they adapt and make amends almost immediately afterwards, notably without the use of timeouts which surprises me as both teams could have definitely used with one when their opponent was going on their scoring run.
At 31:30 we see Germany pull off a classic example of the Bonn defence*. In this setup with bludger control, the defensive team aims to get the quaffle out of the hands of the team's primary ball carrier (Seb Waters in this case), the chasers then cover all passing options while the beaters press to the new ball carrier (Malpass) with the resulting pressure forcing them to either get beat or make a mistake and allow the defensive team to regain the quaffle. This is something that Rheinos Bonn had a lot of success with against London QC at EQC Division 1 2019 and having rolled it out mid-game like this, it proves to be pretty effective. In response, on the very next UK offence at 32:30, we see the UK counter this defensive system. Waters provides a well-placed pass to Malpass who shakes the mark of Roloff then once he's caught it he backs off so that Trick can beat Roloff out. He passes back to Waters who's protected from Bürgers by an unarmed Mikey Orridge, the UK beaters make a play on Bürgers which gives Waters enough of an opportunity to sink a mid-range shot on the medium hoop.
*= I'm not sure what the official name for this defence is but seeing as I believe Rheinos Bonn were the team that pioneered it, I'm gonna call it the Bonn defence.
The UK mix it up again at 34:00 in which (as the commentators point out) secondary ball carrier Malpass starts with quaffle with an unarmed Trick in front him and Waters supporting laterally behind an armed Mikey Orridge. We then see Orridge clear out Roloff who's attempting to mark Waters, allowing for Malpass to shift the quaffle to Waters for another shot on the medium hoop but on this occasion Schulze-Steinen reads it easily having been caught out by it previously, a read he also makes at 36:30.
127 Seconds
Thanks to the German's comeback in the second half of the match, the UK lead by only 70-50 at the end of the seeker floor (42:04) and while they do end up winning this game, their overall snitch on pitch play is not something they'll be particularly proud of. One of the hallmarks of the UK team that won the previous European Games in 2017 was their domination of snitch on pitch, popularising the idea of the beater 'bubble' around the snitch protecting their seeker and preventing the opposing seeker from catching while 'killing the game' with the quaffle, prioritising quaffle retention and only taking high percentage scoring opportunities. These ideas sought to give order to the most chaotic period of a quidditch match as the gameplay pretty much splits in two and the 2017 team had great success with them. However, in this game, their quaffle players get outscored 40-10 in 2 minutes and while starting with bludger control, they do allow Germany plenty of alone time with the snitch. The Germans were rampant in the quaffle game in the 8 minutes prior to snitch on pitch and with the beaters focused on snitch and out of the picture, this advantage is further consolidated. Having struggled to score in the last 8 minutes, the panic sets in for the UK quaffle players. Following Germany's first SOP goal from Piazolo, Macartney (43:35) looks to counter but play is stopped for a brooms down. I feel Macartney is unfortunate here because with momentum it's quite likely he'd have scored but the stoppage slows him down and throws him off. As a left hander, he wants to step inside the defender to score but when play restarts he doesn't draw the defender to a side before doing so and ends up running straight into them and getting tackled. Speaking of momentum, on the very next play at 43:50, the UK defence fails to get set in time for Germany's attack. All 4 quaffle players have dropped back to around their hoops with Bex Lowe (13) being the frontmost player a couple of metres outside the keeper zone and Tom Stevens (59) and Chambers with only one German chaser behind the hoops, essentially a 4 vs 2 scenario. By dropping so deep, Schulze-Steinen is gifted with almost the entirety of the middle of the pitch to build up speed while driving on the hoops making him much harder to stop even if he gets wrapped up, all 4 quaffle players commit to him before he floats a pass in behind to Piazolo to score who was the only other threat on this play. The next play (44:10) is remarkably similar with Germany also giving up lots of space to new keeper Mat Croft (2) except the difference is that Germany manage to get set up in their defence, when Croft attempts to drive and dish, the hindmost German defenders trust the front two to stop him and under pressure his pass goes straight to the keeper. To make matters worse, cos the UK rush into this offence, there is no one back to stop the counter from Roloff. 'Killing the game' may be a less viable strategy now with the new reset rule being enforced in the rulebook but as this match shows, the lack of beater supports means that the success of snitch on pitch quaffle play lives and dies on a team's ability to calmly organise themselves at boths ends and to properly execute the attacks they commit to which is easier said than done. Had this game gone on longer, Germany were on pace to take this game out of snitch range assuming the UK didn't make any adjustments.
Having talked about execution and decision making in the quaffle game, this is something that's even more important when it comes to the physical challenge that is snitch on pitch beating with the result of the match swinging in the balance. When it comes to SOP beating, taking out the other seeker is paramount to stopping the other team winning while allowing your seeker a window to catch the snitch is your second priority. Both teams' beaters beat out the seekers immediately but then Bill Orridge misses a risky between the legs beat attempt on an unarmed Steuer leaving German seeker Johannes Klein-Peters (31) open to go for the snitch and he almost succeeds. This is a low priority option for Orridge in this scenario with Steuer not being an immediate threat to him or seeker Callum Lake (1) and it asks a lot from beater partner Carina Werner (17) to get across in time to prevent Klein-Peters catching. Both sides cancel each other out well for the next few moments with Germany making the crucial beats on the seeker without control but a big momentum shift happens at 44:29 when Bürgers deflects a beat on him, turning over control. Orridge covers it well with a follow up tackle but Werner then goes for a beat on Steuer to win back control and sacrifices an opportunity on the snitch for seeker Klein-Peters. UK are on the back foot here with a few missed beats in quick succession providing Klein-Peters with multiple chances to catch but credit where credit's due, the UK do pull it out of the bag thanks to an excellently timed beater-seeker move (45:15). Having just come onto the pitch for brother Bill and having to retrieve a bludger from the crowd, Mikey Orridge misses his beat attempt which Werner goes off to collect afterwards leaving Germany with bludger control, seeker in play and no UK bludger in the picture. Crucially, Callum Lake has just subbed back into the game and is going straight for the snitch runner so in order to give him a shot at catching, Orridge does the only thing he can do in this situation and tackles Bürgers just as Lake sprints past, allowing him to end the game in favour of the UK. It's an absolute Hail Mary of a play but the timing of the hit ties in Bürgers long enough so that he can't make a beat on Lake and the UK seeker can then have one clean look at the snitch which he converts. A fine play from the younger Orridge brother and seeker Lake to finish off a fantastic match.
That's it for this game. I realise now that I've written it out that this is quite a long article so if you've reached the end and are reading this, I guess that means you found it interesting enough to get this far so thank you very much. As you can probably tell, I found this game pretty fascinating to watch and while I have been critical at points, I hope I've balanced it out by celebrating the great moments of the game cos there's definitely lots of those and I feel this is valuable game to watch both for entertainment and education.
Until next time.
FP
#TQ
#LiveTheGame
While the world is under Coronavirus lockdown and sadly no quidditch is currently being played, let's revisit one of the games from 2019's European Games in Bamberg, Germany. Honestly, European Games 2019 isn't a tournament I've really given much thought about since it happened. I was away at summer camp in the US at the time, almost entirely unplugged from the outside world so mentally I feel very disconnected from it but I guess now is as good a time as any to dive into some of the game footage available online. Special shout-outs to my friends Amund and James (UK coach for this tournament) for requesting this article, I hope they enjoy it just as much as the rest of you. Remember, if you would like me to do analysis on a specific game, please leave a message in the comment section here or on the facebook page (with a url link to the footage) and I will take it into consideration.
Of the matches I've watched, this is one of the more entertaining ones from EG 2019 with some excellent moments of physical, technical and tactical ability. The UK go into an early 50-0 lead before Germany pull it back into snitch range resulting in a tight scramble at the end with Callum Lake providing the emphatic game ending catch to seal a thriller.
Anyway, enough of the waffling, let's get into the article.
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| German keeper Max Erik Schulze-Steinen passes over the hoops during a chaotic passage of play. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography |
Footage can be found here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wu5reYpFZQ&list=PLi3d3UZlhDvpAVZ6pu74aXWO2I5PMNiMl&index=14
Brooms up is at around 12:40. That timestamp and all other timestamps used in this article refer to the YouTube video and not the game time shown in the graphic at the top of the screen.
Stats mentioned are created by yours truly based on the footage available. There may be an element of human error involved.
Final Score: Germany 90°-110* United Kingdom
Goals-
Tom Roloff X3 Tom Stevens X3
Julia Piazolo X2 Seb Waters X2
Sara Kauth Jeniva Chambers
Heinrich Ottensmeier Bex Lowe
Max Erik Schulze-Steinen Ben Malpass
Leander Troll
Assists-
Max Erik Schulze-Steinen X3 Ed Brett
Hanne Große Ben Malpass
Meike Hinz Seb Waters
Giulia Pugnaghi
Cards-
2 (Both Yellows) 2 (Both Yellows)
Turnovers caused by bludger-
1 (Leon Bürgers) 7 (Mikey Orridge X3, Kerry Aziz,
Bill Orridge, Jacopo Sartori, Dan Trick)
Offensive Efficiency-
40.91% (9 goals from 22 possessions) 36.36% (8 goals from 22 possessions)
Cool Britannia
Using the old football cliché, this match was well and truly a tale of two halves. In a 20 minute match, the UK controls roughly the first 10 minutes and Germany controls roughly the second 10 minutes. While there are moments of great defence and individual brilliance from the UK, a lot of the UK's early dominance stems from German mistakes and inaccuracy, particularly on the offensive end.
Germany go against bludger control for much of this opening section of the match and while you don't necessarily need it to score goals in quidditch, what is important is that your beaters are either making a play to regain bludger control or they're committing the opposition defenders long enough for the quaffle players to get a clean scoring opportunity. As the UK set up into a 2-2 zone early on, the German chasers make it clear that they intend to break it through good passing and movement. While this approach suits the German team, because they don't work in time with their beaters engaging the UK beaters first before they attempt to score, some of their attacking play isn't as effective as it could be and ends up being passing for passing's sake. For example, at 16:30 German keeper Max Erik Schulze-Steinen (9) makes a long pass out to the chaser in back left corner of the pitch who under pressure from a blitzing UK defender attempts to drive in on the hoops. With the German beaters yet to attack the UK, Mikey Orridge (15) is able to easily drop into the backfield and make a long range beat while the German chaser is being tackled, accounting for one of his 3 turnovers. The UK rack up 7 turnovers to Germany's 1 during this match which shows how dominant they were both in winning their exchanges and then affecting the quaffle game. We see a similar case at 25:50 where beater Leon Bürgers (1) makes a tap beat to free up space for chaser Leander Troll (7). Before Bürgers can make a play on the UK beaters, Troll runs into the space and throws a long diagonal pass across the hoops towards Julia Piazolo (5) which wildly misses its target. Now, if Troll were more central and this was a shot attempt, it would be a much better use of the space created for him however because it's a pass, UK keeper Alex Macartney (34) is easily able to track and cover any attack from receiver Piazolo. More importantly, because the UK beaters haven't been engaged, it relies on lots of things going right in order to succeed. If this attack from Germany is anything less than a perfect pass with a catch and release at the end of it, it would more than likely have been picked off by the UK beaters. We see this same problem in similar fashion at 24:58 and 28:38 as well, this time with bludger control. In these two offences, we see Germany run a pick and roll play and switch play which are both good variations to their attack however, on both occasions Keeper Heinrich Ottensmeier (12) goes too early before Madline Fischer (77) has thrown her bludger and gets wrapped up in contact. Ottensmeier manages to break the contact on both occasions however he is met equally by UK's armed beater Bill Orridge (5) who is able to split jump dodge Fischer's beats and nullify the attack. Had Ottensmeier waited a moment or so longer to make his drive, even with Orridge winning the exchange, the UK beater would've had to step out to him to make the same play, thus creating a shooting or passing opportunity.
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| Chaser Giulia Pugnaghi on offence vs the UK. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography |
There are certainly moments where Germany make the right plays however it's purely a case of accuracy in terms of why they don't finish in a goal. At 20:39, although the German beaters lose the exchange, Schulze-Steinen realises all 3 bludgers are on the ground and goes for the drive, draws 2 defenders before passing to Giulia Pugnaghi (25), Pugnaghi's pass/shot attempt loops to Rosa Kuhn (11) but by the time Kuhn sends a return pass to Schulze-Steinen, the UK beaters are back in play and force a turnover and fast break goal. Germany definitely could've scored on this play however because their beaters lost out in the beater battle, they only have a small window of opportunity to do it in which means everything they do needed to be accurate. Similarly at 23:33 when Germany have a power play for Ben Malpass (20)' yellow card, they decide they want to score in a 3 vs 3 scenario rather than waiting to attack with more numbers and using their extra player advantage. On both occasions in which Troll passes in this play, he's made the right choice to do so but his execution lets him down as the UK scramble defence does just enough to contest each time in a situation where they really should've lost.
While I've mostly focused on Germany's errors, there are also some excellent pieces of play from the UK that help them establish their lead. In Germany's first proper half court offence at 15:08, while we can't see the first section of it due to the camera angle, we see the UK beaters are able to clear out a German beater and two chasers quite easily, with Bürgers still armed and protecting the quaffle they hold their defensive shape into the next phase of the German offence. When the ball ends up in the hands of Hanne Große (55) in the centre of the pitch, point chaser Jeniva Chambers (21) steps away and instead follows the run of Schulze-Steinen. Isolated and with no defence immediately in front of her, the UK invites Große to take a shot against UK keeper Seb Waters (10) and an armed Dan Trick (3), knowing that this is a weakness in hers and Germany's game. Under pressure, Große instead looks to pass instead but the UK zone coverage is able to stifle the play and force a turnover, overall great recognition to exploit a weakness in their opponent. At 16:55 we see some great offensive play from the UK too. The German defence starts this play in a similar 2-2 zone but following the initial failed drive and dish attempt from Waters, Malpass ends up with the ball and Pugnaghi marks Waters out of the play. Noticing this, Malpass waits for Mikey Orridge to make his attack before beating point chaser Max Martens (89) 1-on-1, forcing Schulze-Steinen to step up from his hoops. Having committed Schulze-Steinen, Malpass shifts the ball to Chambers cutting in on the hoops to score. The timing on the drive allows the UK beaters to keep Germany's armed beater Paul Fander (22) out of the play and also, because Malpass attacks the right side where Schulze-Steinen is covering two hoops, it gives Chambers two options to score in. You could argue that the UK even left some scores off the board in these opening 10 minutes with some missed opportunities on the counter in part thanks to some excellent transition defence and tackling from the Germans as well as the UK quaffle carrier being isolated in the contact. We also see some intelligent game management from the UK when running down the clock on Malpass' card at 24:12. We see Bill Orridge protect keeper Macartney with the UK's only bludger, Kerry Aziz (89) pressures Bürgers back before Bill makes a beat attempt on him. This is really smart play from the UK cos in this window where Germany have a power play, they want to be trying to force a turnover so they can score and make the most of their player advantage. However, the pressure from Orridge and Aziz deters Bürgers from pressing the quaffle (something he's very good at) and instead this role falls to his partner Lena Steuer (17) who seems less confident to do so. While the UK don't score off this play or get bludger control back, they manage to get Malpass back in the game without conceding a goal and thus achieve what they set out to do.
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| Jeniva Chambers scoring against Germany. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography |
The Comeback Kids
Now let's look at the second half of the game where we see a resurgence from Germany.
They finally get on the score board at 10:58 game time thanks to a well-timed offence on a power play culminating in a great off-load from Große to Troll who cuts in superbly from behind the hoops to finish. From then on, Germany score on every single half court offence and fail to score just once on a fast break in the next 10 minutes. So, what prompted this purple patch? While you could see glimpses of Germany's ability to play a passing game in the first half, more often than not they were attacking against bludger control however, during this second half of the game they have a lot more of it which allows them to produce some of the best half court offence I've ever seen. With control, Germany send one of their beaters directly behind the hoops, not really with the intention of actually making any beats but to protect their chasers in the backfield and give them more freedom for passing and movement. We see this at 32:08 where Germany freely move the quaffle around back to front, the quick ball movement causing the UK to shift out of their defensive shape. Because Germany haven't attempted any mid/long range shots all game, Waters cheats the defensive system by hedging towards Große in the back right corner, leaving the hoops wide open which Ottensmeier takes advantage of with an easy floated shot through the top hoop. At 34:35 we then see a beautiful half court offence and arguably the best goal of the match. The quaffle is worked around to the backfield once more but this time Fander throws his bludger all the way back towards the German half and goes after UK's armed beater Mikey Orridge, positioning himself directly behind him so that when Bürgers beats Orridge he is ready to try and pick up the UK's only bludger on defence and subtly block off Orridge's path back to the hoops to tap in. As Fander makes his attack, Tom Roloff (45) sets a pick on Waters to free up a shot/pass from Sarah Kauth (8), Schulze-Steinen receives it then sends a pass back over the hoops to Roloff who rolls to his left and finishes through the medium hoop. A 6 pass offence with beaters and chasers working in sync throughout and finishing with an alley oop at the end with the German's securing bludger control for their next defensive set thanks to Fander's throw back. The half court offence at 35:48 isn't quite as clean as the previous one but again shows how destructive Germany can be in this setting even when things don't go quite right for them. Using the same beater setup, UK armed beater Jacopo Sartori (99) looks unsure of where the attack is going to come from. As soon as Mikey Orridge moves away, Fander uses this uncertainty to attack from the front, creating a no bludger situation. Schulze-Steinen times his drive well, draws two defenders and dishes to Roloff who is running a line to the small hoop. While both Waters and Asia Mikolajczak (14) read Roloff's run and Orridge gets back into the play to beat him, Roloff is still able to get the ball to Pugnaghi who finds Kauth for the finish, doing well to step in on the angle to score through the top hoop.
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| Chaser Tom Roloff finishing off a German offence with an alley oop. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography |
One of the reoccurring themes in this game is that when one team exploits a weakness in the other, we see the in-game intelligence of the other team as they adapt and make amends almost immediately afterwards, notably without the use of timeouts which surprises me as both teams could have definitely used with one when their opponent was going on their scoring run.
At 31:30 we see Germany pull off a classic example of the Bonn defence*. In this setup with bludger control, the defensive team aims to get the quaffle out of the hands of the team's primary ball carrier (Seb Waters in this case), the chasers then cover all passing options while the beaters press to the new ball carrier (Malpass) with the resulting pressure forcing them to either get beat or make a mistake and allow the defensive team to regain the quaffle. This is something that Rheinos Bonn had a lot of success with against London QC at EQC Division 1 2019 and having rolled it out mid-game like this, it proves to be pretty effective. In response, on the very next UK offence at 32:30, we see the UK counter this defensive system. Waters provides a well-placed pass to Malpass who shakes the mark of Roloff then once he's caught it he backs off so that Trick can beat Roloff out. He passes back to Waters who's protected from Bürgers by an unarmed Mikey Orridge, the UK beaters make a play on Bürgers which gives Waters enough of an opportunity to sink a mid-range shot on the medium hoop.
*= I'm not sure what the official name for this defence is but seeing as I believe Rheinos Bonn were the team that pioneered it, I'm gonna call it the Bonn defence.
The UK mix it up again at 34:00 in which (as the commentators point out) secondary ball carrier Malpass starts with quaffle with an unarmed Trick in front him and Waters supporting laterally behind an armed Mikey Orridge. We then see Orridge clear out Roloff who's attempting to mark Waters, allowing for Malpass to shift the quaffle to Waters for another shot on the medium hoop but on this occasion Schulze-Steinen reads it easily having been caught out by it previously, a read he also makes at 36:30.
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| UK keeper Seb Waters looks to make a throw while being faced by on-rushing German beater Leon Bürgers Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography |
127 Seconds
Thanks to the German's comeback in the second half of the match, the UK lead by only 70-50 at the end of the seeker floor (42:04) and while they do end up winning this game, their overall snitch on pitch play is not something they'll be particularly proud of. One of the hallmarks of the UK team that won the previous European Games in 2017 was their domination of snitch on pitch, popularising the idea of the beater 'bubble' around the snitch protecting their seeker and preventing the opposing seeker from catching while 'killing the game' with the quaffle, prioritising quaffle retention and only taking high percentage scoring opportunities. These ideas sought to give order to the most chaotic period of a quidditch match as the gameplay pretty much splits in two and the 2017 team had great success with them. However, in this game, their quaffle players get outscored 40-10 in 2 minutes and while starting with bludger control, they do allow Germany plenty of alone time with the snitch. The Germans were rampant in the quaffle game in the 8 minutes prior to snitch on pitch and with the beaters focused on snitch and out of the picture, this advantage is further consolidated. Having struggled to score in the last 8 minutes, the panic sets in for the UK quaffle players. Following Germany's first SOP goal from Piazolo, Macartney (43:35) looks to counter but play is stopped for a brooms down. I feel Macartney is unfortunate here because with momentum it's quite likely he'd have scored but the stoppage slows him down and throws him off. As a left hander, he wants to step inside the defender to score but when play restarts he doesn't draw the defender to a side before doing so and ends up running straight into them and getting tackled. Speaking of momentum, on the very next play at 43:50, the UK defence fails to get set in time for Germany's attack. All 4 quaffle players have dropped back to around their hoops with Bex Lowe (13) being the frontmost player a couple of metres outside the keeper zone and Tom Stevens (59) and Chambers with only one German chaser behind the hoops, essentially a 4 vs 2 scenario. By dropping so deep, Schulze-Steinen is gifted with almost the entirety of the middle of the pitch to build up speed while driving on the hoops making him much harder to stop even if he gets wrapped up, all 4 quaffle players commit to him before he floats a pass in behind to Piazolo to score who was the only other threat on this play. The next play (44:10) is remarkably similar with Germany also giving up lots of space to new keeper Mat Croft (2) except the difference is that Germany manage to get set up in their defence, when Croft attempts to drive and dish, the hindmost German defenders trust the front two to stop him and under pressure his pass goes straight to the keeper. To make matters worse, cos the UK rush into this offence, there is no one back to stop the counter from Roloff. 'Killing the game' may be a less viable strategy now with the new reset rule being enforced in the rulebook but as this match shows, the lack of beater supports means that the success of snitch on pitch quaffle play lives and dies on a team's ability to calmly organise themselves at boths ends and to properly execute the attacks they commit to which is easier said than done. Had this game gone on longer, Germany were on pace to take this game out of snitch range assuming the UK didn't make any adjustments.
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| Paul Fander reaches new heights in an attempt to beat out UK seeker Callum Lake. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography |
Having talked about execution and decision making in the quaffle game, this is something that's even more important when it comes to the physical challenge that is snitch on pitch beating with the result of the match swinging in the balance. When it comes to SOP beating, taking out the other seeker is paramount to stopping the other team winning while allowing your seeker a window to catch the snitch is your second priority. Both teams' beaters beat out the seekers immediately but then Bill Orridge misses a risky between the legs beat attempt on an unarmed Steuer leaving German seeker Johannes Klein-Peters (31) open to go for the snitch and he almost succeeds. This is a low priority option for Orridge in this scenario with Steuer not being an immediate threat to him or seeker Callum Lake (1) and it asks a lot from beater partner Carina Werner (17) to get across in time to prevent Klein-Peters catching. Both sides cancel each other out well for the next few moments with Germany making the crucial beats on the seeker without control but a big momentum shift happens at 44:29 when Bürgers deflects a beat on him, turning over control. Orridge covers it well with a follow up tackle but Werner then goes for a beat on Steuer to win back control and sacrifices an opportunity on the snitch for seeker Klein-Peters. UK are on the back foot here with a few missed beats in quick succession providing Klein-Peters with multiple chances to catch but credit where credit's due, the UK do pull it out of the bag thanks to an excellently timed beater-seeker move (45:15). Having just come onto the pitch for brother Bill and having to retrieve a bludger from the crowd, Mikey Orridge misses his beat attempt which Werner goes off to collect afterwards leaving Germany with bludger control, seeker in play and no UK bludger in the picture. Crucially, Callum Lake has just subbed back into the game and is going straight for the snitch runner so in order to give him a shot at catching, Orridge does the only thing he can do in this situation and tackles Bürgers just as Lake sprints past, allowing him to end the game in favour of the UK. It's an absolute Hail Mary of a play but the timing of the hit ties in Bürgers long enough so that he can't make a beat on Lake and the UK seeker can then have one clean look at the snitch which he converts. A fine play from the younger Orridge brother and seeker Lake to finish off a fantastic match.
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| Seeker Callum Lake sprints past opponent Johannes Klein-Peters and grabs victory for the UK. Photo Credit- Ajantha Abey Quidditch Photography |
That's it for this game. I realise now that I've written it out that this is quite a long article so if you've reached the end and are reading this, I guess that means you found it interesting enough to get this far so thank you very much. As you can probably tell, I found this game pretty fascinating to watch and while I have been critical at points, I hope I've balanced it out by celebrating the great moments of the game cos there's definitely lots of those and I feel this is valuable game to watch both for entertainment and education.
Until next time.
FP
#TQ
#LiveTheGame
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