USA Netball hopes to shock ‘bigger’ netballing countries
Published:Sunday | October 16, 2022 | 12:11 AMOrane Buchanan - Staff Reporter
NOT FAZED by a low world ranking (37), Trinidad and Tobago-born Greyson-Superville, head coach of team USA, strongly believes that her charges will create noise at the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifiers set to tip off in Kingston, Jamaica today at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
Eight countries are expected to lock horns, vying for two spots on offer to the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.
“Preparations have been going extremely well. Team USA has been hosting their training camps, as well as zoom sessions for the last year, so I think, we’re as ready as can be,” said Greyson-Superville.
One area of concern for Team USA heading into the tournament will be their match-readiness, as their last International assignment came in 2018.
With the four-year barren run, Greyson-Superville is in a wait-and-see situation to view how her group performs when the tournament begins.
“That’s a perfect scenario there. We really don’t know how we will stand up to the other teams around the region, because we haven’t played internationally (since 2018), but based on the players that we have now, compared to what we had in 2018, we have a much younger group of players. So, I expect more agility, speed and when it comes to fitness, I think we have that,” said Greyson-Superville.
The nine-team tournament will see a total of 36 matches played across seven days. This, according to Greyson-Superville, could play into the hands of Team USA as their squad is stacked with young players.
“We have about three veterans, while the majority of the players we have are between the ages of 20 and 30, so it’s a combination of youth and experience, which I think will work for us throughout this tournament,” she added.
No stranger to the competitive nature of tournaments like these, Greyson-Superville said the strategy she will deploy is defensive, which she hopes will combat the attacking nature of other teams.
“We’re going to be playing and focusing on the defensive strategy, because I think that’s where we’ll be seeing a lot of strengths coming out of the other countries, in their attacking, so we will definitely have to focus on our defence.
“Not saying the other playing areas are not as important, but I think defending will be a lot more crucial in this tournament,” Greyson-Superville added.