Sydney Uni could not quite hide their stage fright and started nervously into their first Super Globe game against hosts Al Sadd. While they fought back bravely from an early deficit of 1:5 to 5:8, their defence showed too many gaps to keep the pace with the Qataris, who scored regularly while Sydney Uni squandered too many chances against Spanish world champion goalkeeper Jose Hombrados.

With 10:18 at half time, there was little hope of a victory – but as expected the team would not give up and fight until the end. For most parts, the second half was an improvement, but too many errors, some jet lag induced fatigue, and still some gaping holes in defence prevented Sydney Uni from narrowing the result.

There were overall good notes for the goalkeepers on Sydney’s side, good efficiency from the wings, and also the structure in the back line. But overall coach Philipp Enders could not hide some disappointment, promising improvement at the post match press conference: “If we get to play Al Sadd again later in the tournament there will be a very different result”.

 

Sydney Uni played with: Gerstch (6 saves), Pfeiffer (7 saves); Ivankovic, Hert (4), Pasquero (1), Lemann (1), Seemann, Lennstrom (1), Charpentier, Alvim (1), Postbiegel (3), Lasek (2), Scholl (3), Szklarski (2), Llorente (2), Traverso.