This year's Penang Wave Challenge consist of 4 games; Floorball, Ultimate Frisbee, Captain Ball & Skittle Ball (only introduced this year). After a long week of Floorball Experience with various clubs & the state teams, Nomad FC is left with 6 players to participate in the Floorball games of Penang Wave Challenge. Perfect!
Upon arrival at Balik Pulau Stadium, it was great to see so many participants in their various teams performing group warm-ups, stretching, briefing, etc. It's hard to imagine the amount of effort the organizers has put into this event. Over 600 participants this year from the previous year's 300 over. Totally Awesome!!
As the Wave Challenge kicks off with an opening prayer, the atmosphere charged up as the games begun!
There are 19 teams in 6 grouping for the Floorball Men's Category alone:-
Group AA1 Firebrands i2
A2 Saintz FC
A3 Impact
A4 Frontliners Juniors
Group BB1 Innebandy Warriors
B2 Ztec 42
B3 Torch Bearers
Group CC1 Frontliners 300
C2 Kaki Perempuan
C3 Ztec 43
Group DD1 Innebandy Giants
D2 Kaki Ayam
D3 Contact Army
Group EE1 Firebrands i
E2 Green Rush FC
E3 NomadsGroup FF1 Firebrands i3
F2 Frontliners Spartans
F3 Salibandy
Our first game defeat to team 'Firebrands i' (0-2) became our rude awakening to the reality of the competitiveness of Wave Challenge. This ain't the friendlies anymore, if we loose another game, we can be sure we'll be packing our bags early. As we struggled to re-organize our playing to suit the 8 minutes game, we went into the 2nd game against team 'Green Rush FC' (1-0) with humility and renewed zealousness; and it pays off this time.
Barely making it through the preliminary round, our 3rd match proves to be the hardest of them all, team 'Ztec 43'. Bitter memory of our landslide defeat to team Ztec earlier in the week warns us of the coming onslaught. Fighting muscle to muscle, bone to bone, teeth to teeth; Nomads made me proud by drawing the game to a 1-1 score. Whether we make it to the semi-finals is now determined in our next game against team 'Saintz FC'.
If we win 1-0, we'll fail to make it into the semi-finals; if we win 2-0, a penalty shoot-out against team 'Ztec 43' will be the judge; if we win 3-0, we'll automatically make it into the semi-finals. With unspoken agreement, the whole team gave full pressure to 'Saintz FC' during the 4th game resulting in a 4-1 score. The joy of making it into the Semi-Finals was such a great relief!
Our 5th game against team 'Kaki Ayam' is termed as the 'Heart Stopping Game'. With a 1-1 draw at the end of the 8th minute, a penalty shoot-out is unavoidable. Each team will take the penalty shot 3 times to determine the winning team. If its still a draw, the penalty shot will go into sudden-death.
With both teams only scoring 1 out of 3 tries, we went into Penalty Shoot-Out Sudden Death. The atmosphere is electrifying! Nomads took the first shot and missed. 'Kaki Ayam' took their first shot and missed. Nomads took our 2nd shot and scored!. 'Kaki Ayam' took their 2nd shot and missed!
We went crazy!! Woooo Hooooo~~!!!! WE'RE IN THE FINALS!!!!
It almost didn't matter anymore who we're playing in the finals, as we walked into the court with smiles across our faces. The thought of a guaranteed medal is already beyond our expectations. None the less, the team we're meeting is Salibandy, a team not from Penang but from KL. Interesting..... Observing the way they played against Kaki Perempuan convinced me they're gonna be a tough team to play.
Knowing this will be our last game in Penang, we ran like there's no tomorrow. With speed to our advantage, we managed to keep the pressure on them throughout most of the game, which resulted in a 2-0 score. What better way to end the Wave Challenge from a 0-2 defeat in the first game? Again Nomad suprises me. ;)
Referee: "Your opponent's ball." *Pointing at the other direction*
2 goalies and 1 goal post?!?!? NOT FAIR! Hmmp!
And the highlight of this post...
That's all for now folks.
