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San Francisco CalHeat wins 2009 California Cup against a very competitive and international field of teams

Mon, 03/02/2009 - 16:36 — smayer73

009The CalHeat San Francisco Bay Area Team Handball Club wins the 2009 California Cup against a very competitive and international field of teams, such as Los Angeles, Santa Clarita, Seattle, Vancouver (Canada) and Kagura (Japan).

 

 

 

Final Standing:

Pos. Team Name W L T GS GA Pts
1. San Francisco CalHeat 4 0 0 120 85 8
2. Vancouver B.C TH 3 1 0 97 86 6
3. Kagura (Japan) 2 2 0 100 105 4
4. TH Santa Clarita 1 3 0 83 89 2
5. Los Angeles TH 1 2 0 66 76 2
6. Seattle Speed 0 3 0 48 73 0

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Final Game Results:

Group A:

TH Santa Clarita - Seattle Speed 20:12 (12:7)

San Francisco CalHeat - Seatte Speed 33:19 (18:6)

San Francisco CalHeat- TH Santa Clarita 28:19 (14:12)

Group B:                                                                                                                                 Vancouver B.C. TH

Vancouver B.C. TH - Kagura (Japan) 24:18 (14:8)004

Los Angeles TH - Vancouver B.C. TH 20:30 (8:14)

Kagura (Japan) - Los Angeles TH 29:26 (11:14)

Seminfinals:

TH Santa Clarita - Vancouver B.C. TH 15:19 (7:7)

San Francisco CalHeat - Kagura (Japan) 26:23 (15:14)                                                                                                                                                      Kagura (Japan)       5th and 6th Placement Match:Picture 005

Los Angeles TH - Seattle Speed 20:17 (10:8)

Bronze Medal Game:

TH Santa Clarita - Kagura (Japan) 29:30 (14:12)

Gold Medal Game:

San Francisco CalHeat - Vancouver B.C. TH 33:24 (17:13)                                                                                                                                                  TH Santa Clarita

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                Los Angeles TH                                   Seattle Speed                                    California Smurfs            
The tournament kicked off on Saturday morning with the first group play game of Seattle against Santa Clarita. Both teams started a little bit nervous and therefore were equal in the beginning. However Santa Clarita was able to loosen up first and finished the first half with a 12:7 lead. In the second half Santa Clarita continued to dominate and ended up with a 20:12 victory.
The second game between Kagura and Vancouver went similar. During the first 15 Minutes the game stayed tied. But the substitution of the whole Kagura team at once caused a break in their game and Vancouver was able to open a 14:8 gap at halftime. Kagura tried to rally back, but the gap was just too big to close. In the end Vancouver cruised to an easy 24:18 victory.
The third game of the day finally saw the home team of San Francisco CalHeat taking on Seattle Speed. Seattle needed a win to have a chance to reach the semifinals and CalHeat was looking for a great start into the tournament. The latter become visible very fast. CalHeat was fired up and jumped directly to a 7:0 lead before Seattle could even blink. Therefore it seemed like the game was already decided at halftime with CalHeat leading 18:6. Seattle came back poised during the second half and CalHeat started to become sloppy. This resulted in a pretty evenly matched game during the second half and a final score of 33:19 for CalHeat.
The fourth game featured Los Angeles and Vancouver. From the start Vancouver took control of the game and never gave it up. Los Angeles tried to gain some ground with his young roster but just was not able to penetrate the defense of Vancouver or to stop their offense. Therefore the game was almost settled at halftime with a 14:8 lead for Vancouver. The second half saw most of the same and Vancouver ran away with a 30:20 victory.
The next game between Santa Clarita and San Francisco CalHeat determined the winner of group A. Since both teams won their games against Seattle. From the beginning the teams were very much focused and no team could open a decisive lead. Every score from one team was immediately answered with a goal from the other team. The score settled at 14:12 for CalHeat at halftime. The second half started at first the same way, until CalHeat took more and more control of the game. Santa Clarita strength to keep up with CalHeat grew smaller the longer the game went on and CalHeat pulled away to a 28:19 victory.
The last game on Saturday between Kagura and Los Angeles presented a tense showdown for the last spot in the semifinals. Both teams lost their first game and needed a win to advance. Kagura learned from their mistakes in the first game and Los Angeles was finally able to play out their strengths better. This resulted in a slightly better start for Los Angeles and a 14:11 lead at halftime. However Kagura came back strong at the beginning of the second half and was able to tie the game with their fast paced game. Los Angeles tried to battle back and the game remained tied for some time. But towards the end Los Angeles just couldn’t keep up anymore with Kagura’s high tempo. The victory and the last spot in the semifinals went to Kagura with a final score of 29:26.
The Semifinals on Sunday saw all teams stepping up their game another notch. This resulted in very intense competition and very exciting games.
First up were Santa Clarita and Vancouver. Neither team could gain the upper hand during the first half. Both teams were not willing to surrender even one inch of ground. Therefore the first half ended with a score of 7:7. Nothing changed during the beginning of the second half. Each team was able to react immediately to any score of the other team. Overtime was already looming on the horizon when Vancouver started their last push and Santa Clarita having exhausted all their resources couldn’t answer anymore. Vancouver pulled away and claimed a spot in the final with a 19:15 victory.
The second Semifinal between CalHeat and Kagura didn’t stay behind in terms of excitement and fierce competition. CalHeat who had cruised to fairly easy victories the day before was surprisingly struggling to dominate the game.  Kagura was poised and kept the pace of the game on a very high level. Whenever CalHeat scored or lost the ball, Kagura answered immediately with a fast break. This caused some frustration in CalHeat and led only to a narrow 15:14 lead for CalHeat at halftime. At the beginning of the second half CalHeat seemed to have refocused and was able to open a three goal gap.  However the loss of focus and the still very high tempo of Kagura led to easy turnovers by CalHeat and Kagura remained in striking distance.  Three minutes before the end a missed penalty shot kept Kagura from tying the game. On the other side CalHeat used the opportunity to increase the lead again to two goals.  Kagura tried to rally back, but CalHeat was able to keep the upper hand by slowing down the game and taking the game home with a final score of 26:23.
After the exciting semifinal games the following placement game between Los Angeles and Seattle proofed to be entertaining as well. Both teams were highly motivated to finally land their first win of the tournament. Therefore the score remained close with Los Angeles having a narrow 10:8 lead at halftime.  The beginning of the second half saw pretty much the same. However a few injuries and fatigue on the Seattle side resulted in Los Angeles taking control of the game and getting their first victory with a score of 20:17.
The bronze medal game featured Santa Clarita and Kagura the two losers of the semifinal games. Anybody who expected the teams will take it easy found himself to be hugely mistaken. Both teams had set their eyes on the bronze medal. Kagura got off to the better start and pretty quickly build a two goal lead. Santa Clarita came back towards the end of the first half and turned the two goal deficit into a 14:12 lead at half time. At the beginning of the second half it looked like Kagura started to pay toll to their high tempo in the previous games. Santa Clarita seemed to be in control and kept a continuous two to three goal lead.  But then Kagura called up on their last reserves and increased the pace of the game again. Santa Clarita started to struggle and Kagura tied the game. The last 5 minutes of the game saw a back and forth between the two teams. Kagura had a one goal lead thirty seconds before the end, but Santa Clarita had the ball. However the defense hold and Kagura secured the bronze medal with a narrow 30:29 victory.
The gold medal game, between San Francisco CalHeat and Vancouver B.C., had finally the two best teams of the tournament going against each other and promised to be an exciting game. Both teams had difficult semifinals and were now looking forward to get the Gold. CalHeat tried to learn from their earlier mistakes and started strong. But Vancouver wouldn’t give in and matched CalHeat in any possible way. Half the way through the first half it looked like CalHeat started to struggle. Easy scoring opportunities were missed in the front and fouls in the back lead to two minute suspensions. However being short handed seemed to inspire the CalHeat players again and even though having one player less on the filed a one goal deficit was turned quickly into a two goal lead. After being complete again the two goal lead was further extended into a 17:13 lead at half time. The second half showed CalHeat being mainly in control and keeping a constant 4 to 5 goal lead.  Vancouver tried everything to come back into the game, but CalHeat kept cool and even lifted their game up a notch. Now fatigue started to set in for Vancouver and CalHeat kept extending their lead.  In the end the final score was settled at 33:24 for CalHeat and the celebrations for winning the 2009 California Cup began.

For pictures have a look at our gallery or follow the links below:

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