USA vs Russia, NYAC and France

Well it wasn't a very successful week and a half of wrestling. It started off with our dual vs Russia. The Russian I wrestled wasn't bad but wasn't great. I couldn't seem to get my offense working. I thought I controlled the ties but made some mistakes that cost me the win. He was stronger than I anticipated and but still I didn't force my attacks like I should. I'll post all my matches from my trip so I won't go into to much detail on them but I'll give you my thoughts. I didn't win my match but USA did win the dual. It was nice to wrestle in Jersey again in front of a home crowd. I just wish my match turned out a little different.

Then from NJ we went to NY to get ready for the NYAC tournament. I had 3 matches and in the finals I met up with the Russian again. My first match was against a Canadian and I came out strong and dominated 2 periods for the win. In the match I hurt my rib that has been aggravating me and I also pulled something in my back. It wasn't really how I wanted to go into my next couple of matches. My next match was against American Israel Silva which I won in 2 periods as well. Going into the finals I knew what I needed to do differently from the other night but, unfortunately, the result was the same. I gave up a first period takedown that I'm still kicking myself in the butt for. I never get dragged out of a front headlock but this time I did. Second period went no score and was forced to the clinch with him winning the toss again. He was able to finish the clinch position for the win.

A couple of days later we headed to France to compete. I tried to stay off the mats as much as possible to try and recover. We hit the sauna a couple of times and I was ready to go for the weekend. I only had 1 match because of the new rules (which I hate). If you lose your first match, the person you lose to must make it to the finals or you are done. My first and only match was against France's #1 guy. I got off to a slow start making a couple of mistakes that once again cost me the match. I took some shots that I should have finished but didn't. My opponent lost in the semifinals so I was out of the competition. At least now I know my areas that I need to work on if I want to make the Olympic Team in 08. Sorry I'm not getting into too much details about my trip but I'm still exhausted and I need to get ready to head out to the OTC on Thursday for training camp. I'll post the matches so you can take a look. Thanks for all the support and keep checking out the site for updates.