Recently I was approached by Scottish Hockey to shoot a team of Scotland at an EuroHockey Championship II in Prague. The first two teams will be promoted to Championship in 2017 so the stakes were quite high. The challenge for them was not only to beat the opponents, but also the extreme hot weather and for me personally D1 highway from Brno to Prague 5 times a week with lot of constructions happening during holiday period on the road.
Scotland lost the first match against Poland 2-1 and came strong in next one against Croatia 6-0.
The most extreme weather was on Wednesday 22nd, when Scotland played against Ukraine the most crucial match. A win will move them to semifinals, a loose to losers matches. It was tropical sunny day without a cloud and temperatures around 40 °C! Luckily for Scotland they played in white jerseys :) and with strong finish they beat Ukraine 6-3.
The team was ready to take on the Austria on Friday semifinal match and secure the promotion post. Unfortunately the match ended 1-1 and it was time for shootout, where Scotland lost 3-1 and had to play for 3rd place on Sunday, which they secured later on with a win against Czech Republic 5-1.
Though the promotion to EU championship didn't happen, with 3rd place and the tournament top scorer Alan Forsyth and MVP Kenny Bain, Scotland remains strong for the next to come and I wish them good luck in the future.
All images from EuroHockey Championship II are available on World Sports Images.
