Sierre 2, Riva 0. This past week we had our first two games of the second round of playoffs, and we walked away empty handed. Sierre is the number 2 team in our conference, we beat them once to kick them out of the Swiss Cup, but since then they have had the last laugh.
Our first game was this past Wednesday at their place and since it was a week day, the game didn’t start until 8:30pm. The end result was a deficit of 22pts. The 4 hour bus ride home was quite quiet and a little less cheerful than the last bus ride with Marco. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we practiced and prepared for our next encounter with Sierre which took place on Sunday. Sunday’s game was a home game, starting at 4pm. The game started out rough for Riva and by the time the first 10 minute quarter was complete the score board read, Riva 10, Sierre 25. We trailed by as many as 23 points during the game, but inched our way back during the 4th quarter and found ourselves within 11pts, however, it was too little too late. So, we travel again to Sierre this upcoming Saturday for what could be our last game of the season.
Basketball games in Europe, from what I’ve learned, are never complete though, without their fair share of drama. Our former Coach, Fabio, used to tell me that “That’s just the way we Italians are,” this comment was always in reference to his verbal and physically dramatic outbursts during the game or when showing his dislike for the opposing coach. I never felt that these childish antics were justified, but in Sunday’s game, I had no problem with what Aldo decided to do.
One of Sierre’s players had been playing dirty all game, intentionally throwing elbows, reaching, slapping and Aldo had had about enough. 2 minutes after he voiced his opinion to the referee, this particular player took-out my 17 year old teammate with an elbow to the jaw. My teammate was taken straight from the gym to the hospital. Well, naturally the foul was called on my teammate and the Sierre player went to the line. While she was at the free-throw line, Aldo decided to take advantage of the silent gym and gave her a piece of his mind. From what I understood, he gave her a thorough verbal lashing with several choice words and told her that if she were to play like that during a men’s game she wouldn’t be able to finish the game since someone would’ve knocked her out by then. Well, this lovely speech did not go over well with the Sierre coach or the referees. In short, the 10 of us out on the court waited for 5 minutes or so for things to cool down before resuming the game. I guess Italian isn't always used for sweet little nothings and love songs, but for bursts of emotional frustration as well. The good news is that my teammate did not brake her jaw but has an extremely bad contusion.
The 2nd and final good piece of news from this game was that my Special Needs basketball team came out to show their support. There were about 20 of them, all dressed in the same orange zip-ups. During warmups and during the game I could hear them cheering my name, they even made me a sign! After the game my team joined them on the court for a group photo.
The day before our game, I had the pleasure of attending one of their games. I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend one of their games because they only have games once every several months. Seeing them in action during a game was quite different compared to seeing them in practice. On game day they have their game faces on and they are ready to compete. All of the jokes and silly shinnanigans are left behind and in their places stand serious basketball players! I really enjoyed seeing this transformation.
And that’s all for this past week, oh and April Fools day, they kind of celebrate it here but I didn’t hear of anybody getting tricked. There was an article in the paper about a bear wondering around some town, bla bla bla and that was pretty much all I heard about for the day.
Hope the week has started off well for everyone, I’m sure all the UNC fans are happy;)
Love,
Leslie
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