Accessible World

Accessible World News Wire, Indianapolis, Indiana USA

Greetings Everyone,

The Road to Beijing takes us to Birmingham Alabama, where from Thursday, four of the top ladies teams will do battle in their last meeting before the Paralympics in September.

The USA ladies, buoyant after their victory in Sweden in the Malmo Lady InterCup, entertain Canada, Japan, and Denmark, in what is sure to be a tremendous tournament.

The Audio Network (in association with out friends at accesibleworld.org) will be bringing you all the action live and as it happens from the Lakeshore Foundation Arena in Birmingham. The first game begins at 9:30am local time (10:30am for East Coast USA, 7:30am for West Coast, 4:30pm for Scandinavia). Here is the link to the website where you can listen live!

http://sports.pressakey.net/igc2008

Here is the full schedule in local time

Thursday 10 July
09:30am Japan v USA
10:30am Denmark v Canada
2:00pm USA v Denmark
3:00pm Japan v Canada

Hi all,
Well, the first day of round robin play has been completed, with some very interesting games indeed!

Here is the link to the page where you can listen to each game again, and find out when to listen tomorrow.

http://sports.pressakey.net/igc2008

Come along tomorrow, or Saturday and Sunday, and enjoy some of the finest goalball action!

Bill Teale

Friday 11 July
09:30am Japan v Denmark
10:30am Canada v USA
2:00pm USA v Japan
3:00pm Denmark v Canada

Hi all,

Day two of the round robin action in Birmingham Alabama delivered another four games of high quality drama and entertainment, with the USA bouncing back from the disappointment of the heavy defeat against Denmark at the end of the first day to defeat both Japan and the old enemy Canada. The Canadian ladies earlier in the day had defeated the Danes in a rematch of their day one encounter that had ended 0-0, and the poor Japanese team are still waiting to score their first goal!

The Japanese team are so much fun, and are a real credit to their nation as ambassadors, and they have a solid defense (much like the Chinese defense), but they lack the firepower offensively. They actually did have two opportunities to score from highball penalties against Denmark, but both deliveries went wide of the mark.

We are really rooting for the Japanese to break their scoreless streak, and tomorrow we will be doing everything we can to will them on during the live broadcast tomorrow, come along and listen in and cheer with me!

The show tomorrow will also be educational and spiritual in our Saturday fun day.

Learning to count

When the Japanese team have the ball, the two players not holding the ball begin to count in Japanese from 1 to 10 in order to avoid a 10 second time penalty, and it works, because they have not conceded a time penalty all tournament! So, I managed to get the Japanese ladies around the microphone this evening, and I have a recording of them counting up to nine, so we will all be learning how to count in Japanese in the morning!

Yes, we would normally count to ten, but as the recording will prove, the Japanese ladies got to nine, and somebody cut in to tell them to get rid of the ball!

Also, we will be letting you know how the Japanese intend to celebrate when they do score their first goal, and we will be coaching you on exactly what to cry out with them as and when it happens!

Reading the teams fortunes

In our bid to forecast what will happen in the Beijing Paralympic tournament, I have been scientifically researching the spiritual side of Chinese life in an effort to forecast the outcome of what looks to be one of the most open Paralympic tournaments ever.

I looked into the realms of Chinese astrology, but all I could find out was that I was, according to my birth date, an "unpredictable dog". Undeterred, I looked into the ancient art of Fung Shui, but apparently I would need to move the entire building six inches to the left to find out anything worthwhile. Confucius left me confused, I Ching didn't make me sing, but then I found it - I found the perfect way to determine and predict the futures of the four teams bound for Beijing, the ancient Chinese art of the fortune cookie!

Yes, before the games in the morning, we will be asking the coaches to select from the bag a fresh fortune cookie, from which we will determine their fate in China in September. Tomorrow should give us a deep spiritual insight into the competition 55 days away.

Oh, and when we have done that, for people listening live, we can also select a fortune cookie for you too, so come along, enjoy some fantastic goalball entertainment on the court, and enjoy a great show off the court too!

Times

We begin from 09:00 local time tomorrow, which is 10:00 Eastern Time, and 08:00 Pacific Time. That's 4pm in Norway, 3pm in western Europe, and 11am in Japan.

I hope you can join us for the fun!

Saturday 12 July
09:30am Denmark v USA
10:30am Japan v Canada
2:00pm Japan v Denmark
3:00pm USA v Canada

Hi all,

After three days of round robin competition, the finals day is upon us, and the semi-finals are as follows.

Semi-Final Line Up

At 09:30 (local time) the host nation USA will take on Canada in the first semi-final. Their two meetings in the round robin were tight and tense encounters, with the USA winning the first game 2-1, and the second game between them ending up a thrilling 0-0 tie. Canada needed to win that game to end as top seeds, but both defenses were unbreakable.

Following that, the Danish ladies take on the Japanese. Japan has played 120 minutes of round robin play, and has failed to score at all. But they have a great defense, and the other three teams, with all their powerful throwing, have found it difficult to score heavily against them. In fact, in the last meeting between the two teams yesterday, Denmark only managed the one goal, scored by the tournament top goalscorer Lykke Vedsted. If the Japanese can keep a tight defense, and finally get some offensive action going, this game could be close!

Times

That's the morning action, and following that, the bronze and gold medal games will be held at 2:00pm and 3:00pm local time respectively. All times are local to Birmingham, Alabama. That means if you are on the east coast of USA/Canada you would add one hour, and for the west coast take two hours off. In Europe I believe it is mid afternoon when the action starts, and much respect goes out the Japanese supporters, who have been listening live to the action way into the early hours of the morning!

Your choice for MVP

Today you will be able to vote for your MVP , favorite team, and most memorable moment of the competition. There will be no prizes awarded, but the results will be made public to the teams, who I know appreciate your support so much!

I will also post the results online too, and I hope that everybody who has listened to at least some of the coverage will post their opinions! Here is the address.

http://sports.pressakey.net/igc2008/choice.php

See you in the auditorium!

Bill.

Sunday 13 July - Finals Day
09:30am- SEMI 1
10:30am- SEMI 2
2:00pm- BRONZE MEDAL GAME
3:00pm- GOLD MEDAL GAME