Glenelg Korfball Club

Well tomorrow (Friday) sees the opening of the 2009 World Games. Ticket sales to all Korfball matches have exceeded expectation with Internet tickets sold out to all matches!! (50% of tickets were available via the Internet, the other 50% will be sold at the door).
To my knowledge, even International Tournaments hosted in Holland are poorly attended for non-Dutch team matches, so quite possibly this could be the most strongly supported International Korfball event ever!

Match Times:
Australia will play at 3:15pm Adelaide time every day of the tournament except Tuesday (assuming they don't cause a ruckus and upset a few teams!)
Friday - Australia : Czech Republic
Saturday - Australia : Russia
Sunday - Australia : Netherlands
Monday - Cross-pool matches
Tuesday - Finals

Expectations:
International expectation is that Australia will be comprehensively beaten in every match of this tournament. However, there is at least a glimmer of hope in those of us who have been watching the International scene for years. In the 2007 World Championships, Australia pushed England to two 1 goal margin losses, this year, they have the advantage of playing competitive Korfball using a shot clock, something the English have not incorporated into their domestic competition. The shot clock has seen a marked jump in goals scored in the SA State League, Will that jump carry through to International performances? The Australian Team for this tournament is also one of the strongest teams (on paper) that we've sent away for a number of years. And finally, it's an Australian Team painted as an underdog!! They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I expect the team to rattle a few International cages..

In the Pool matches, the opening game of the tournament against Czech is a "must-win" for Australia. The Czech team was once talked up to be competitors to Belgium, but have since fallen away from that high standard. The Czechs will come into the match confident of an easy win, giving the Australians an opportunity to shock their opponents with a better than expected performance.
In Saturday's match, they have a tough ask. On Monday 13th, Belgium, Russia, and China played some friendlies in Shaoxing, China (venue for the 2011 Open World Championships) as a pre-tournament warm-up. Both Belgium and Russia easily accounted for China, but the match between them was a close one with Belgium breaking a deadlock with only 2 minutes remaining to win by two goals. From this result, we can deduce that Russia continues to field a strong, competitive team. one that will be very difficult to beat.
Finally, the Dutch match is always a learning experience... no more needs to be said on that matter!

In the Cross-pools, Australia would hope to face off against Great Britain. Portugal has always been a bogey team and it is expected that Belgium and Chinese Taipei will battle it out for top place in the Pool, a bit of a grudge match after the 2007 World Championships where Chinese Taipei made history to be the first team to knock the Belgians out of the top 2.

Video/Streaming:
Unfortunately for those of us not in Taiwan, there will be no or limited streaming video of the events. PayTV channel Eurosport 2 has picked up the International broadcast rights from the International World Games Association (IWGA) but are only showing the Semi Finals and Finals on Monday and Tuesday. Video can be streamed here after paying a Euro$4.95 subscription and (by the looks of it) duping your IP address to look like you're in Europe as the streaming service denies connections to Australian IP's.. (If that's all gobbeldygook to you, it's either because I used the wrong terminology, or more likely because, like me, you really have no idea what I'm talking about!!) Suffice to say it's unlikely that anyone in Australia will be watching streamed video.. With a huge amount of luck, Foxtel subscribers may be able to catch a glimpse of video on Eurosport News.

Keeping up to date:
For Korfball fanatics or friends of players keen to stay up to date with match progress, live stats will be available from the IKF at worldkorfball.org.
Korfball.com Forums will be another place where people can grab, share and discuss news of the World Games. It's UK-centric, but that just makes it more fun, ribbing the Poms.
Finally, the Korfball SA and club sites (the one you're reading now) will be kept as up-to-date as possible with as much media and news as I can find.