Blacksmiths Fall Short of Victory against Namur Knights

Luxembourg men's lacrosse team the Blacksmiths have lost against the Namur Knights in their first league appearance.

Despite progress in the league, the Luxembourg Blacksmiths fell short of a victory in the second half of Sunday's match in Namur against local rivals the Namur Knights. 

The Blacksmiths brought in coach Henning Schmidt again as well as fresh talent from the youth programme to compete in this game. After a successful start Coach Bruce Casagrande with Luxembourg Lacrosse in February, the team struggled to find a comparably sized roster because of several unavailabilities due to academic and family commitments.

With a total of eleven players, the Blacksmiths took the lead in the first half with Henning Schmidt and Pit Bingen contributing a total of five goals, but were unable to shake Namur and ultimately ended half-time with a 7-5 defeat. The Blacksmiths then lost their substitute player to a injury, leaving them with a team of ten. The second half saw several penalties for the Blacksmiths and less concentrated offense possessions, resulting in Namur ending with a final 12-5.

Commenting on the match result, Coach Schmidt said it was "a glass half-full, glass half-empty" situation, adding that the Blacksmiths "exceeded expectations in all but the third quarter where Namur nailed the door shut. Well done to them for good adjustments to our defense and some good tweaks on their defense. In any case, a big thanks to our fans who braved some rather unpleasant weather conditions on the sidelines and made this an entirely worthwhile effort".

The Blacksmiths train three times per week and the national team recently began their preparations for the European Championships 2020 in Wroclaw, Poland.