2023 CCM Thailand Cup Bangkok, Thailand
(January 27-29, 2023)
Recap by Coach Ludovic:
The 3rd overseas tournament this season is the CCM Thailand Cup in Bangkok. On the 1st day of the tournament, our HK Selects U8 team started with a great 12-1 victory against the Taipei Tigers team. Then continued with another 9-4 victory against the Singapore Ice Dragons Team. Following the trend of winning, our U8 HK Selects achieved their 3rd win with a score of 9-1 against the local team of the Bangkok Warriors on the 2nd day. With another solid performance in the semi-final, our U8 HK Selects team made another 10-1 win against Taipei Tigers Team and proceeded to the final of the tournament. On the third and last day of the tournament, it was a very early morning game that our HK Selects U8 team played against the Bangkok Warriors Team again. It was the game that dominated from start to finish our HK Selects U8 finished as the CHAMPION of the CCM Thailand Cup. This team had made huge progress compared to the previous tournaments that they had played, with much more passing, better positioning, and a better fighting spirit.
The U10 division was of 6 teams in total and the top 3 ranking teams will proceed to the Division 1 Final where the rest 3 teams will be in Division 2 Final. First of all, our HK Selects U10 White Team was a young team which was made up of mostly first-year U10 players and a few U8 play-up players. They had continued their progress in this tournament. The team played average in the Bangkok Ice Naka Tournament and average in the Bangkok Beach Bash Tournament in December 2022, but of course, they could do better. To start this tournament, their first challenge was Team Taipei. Although our team was defeated with a tight score of 2 to 1, it was a very good experience for them to play with such a decent team. The next game coming up was against our HK Selects U10 Blue Team. Despite the 5-0 loss, a great game and a lot to build on. No other team had done better than our U10 White Team against our U10 Blue Team. On Day 2 of the tournament, our U10 White Team dominated the Singapore team 8-1 with a solid game. Game 4 was on the last day of the tournament against the Bangkok Warriors Blue Team, who was the strongest local team in this tournament. Our U10 White Team started with a 2-goal lead at the beginning but lost with a very tight score at the end. To finish this tournament, the last game was against the Bangkok Warriors White Team, and our U10 White Team closed this game with a very good victory. Without giving any chance to their opponent, we finished the Champion of Division 2 in the U10 Division over the Singapore Ice Dragons Team and Bangkok Warriors White Team. It was a very good tournament with good opposition for this team.
Our HK Selects U10 Blue Team started the Bangkok CCM Thailand Cup with a landslide victory of 26-0 against the Singapore Ice Dragons Team and 6-0 against our HK Selects U10 White Team. Continued on Day 2, a 24-0 victory against the Bangkok Warriors White Team, and a 9-1 victory against the Taipei Team after. How could we start this tournament better, 4 games, took only one goal and score 65 goals!!!!!! On the last day of the tournament, game 5 is of no stress and our U10 Blue Team got the first goal in just a few minutes against the Bangkok Warriors Blue Team. Thereafter, a small lack of success in front of the opposing net, the score was frozen for a moment and installed a little stress on the bench. But our U10 Blue Team kept working hard and the work got the payoff. They continued to score again and took a sufficient lead to dominate the final game, which lead our team to win the game. Our HK Selects U10 Blue Team eventually won the Champion of Division 1 over the Taipei Team and Bangkok Warrior Blue Team in this tournament. Although we had made progress, we should continue to work, to manage our final game better, and not panic or stress.
Recap by Coach Matti:
Our HK Selects U12 team was well prepared mentally and physically for the first tournament in Asia since 2020. Excited, a little nervous but very hard-working, well-playing team went through round robins with a clean sheet winning all three games. (Bangkok Warriors Blue Team, Taipei Silver Monsters Team, Bangkok Warriors White Team). The semi-final against Bangkok Warriors White Team was a great preparation to work with our forecheck and defend well with five players. A clean win and final against Bangkok Warriors Blue await. In the final game, we controlled the game forechecking hard giving not much to the opponent. Our team defended well in the last 5 minutes pushed by the Warriors Blue Team and a very well-deserved gold medal was on the books! The team looked like a team, played like a team and won like a team. Very well done U12 HK Selects!
Our young U15 HK Selects Team got into a real challenge in their first overseas tournament after a few years. Teams from Taipei and Thailand made sure the competition will be challenging from the first game. Our team got in with a slow start but managed to improve performance during the tournament. Lots were left to improve for coming tournaments on being consistent with our speed and puck movements. Teams in this age category are fast and strong, we learned a lesson on keeping our game simple and effective through better forecheck and quicker passing. We are excited to play internationally again, challenge ourselves and get better to bring home better results soon. Learning continues and we will be better prepared for the next challenge.
