After our victory against RobôCIn last night, we play today in the Lower Final against ZJUNlict from China. This team has already met us once in the group stage, where we lost 0:1. So we expect an exciting match today as well. This time, however, we are playing 11 vs. 11 robots and not 8 vs. 8 like in the group stage. The game starts at 10:30 AM after the Lower Final of Division B.

The final day in Division A of the SSL is streamed again by Roboteam Twente. The numerous other finals of the other leagues can be watched on the RoboCup Live Channel.

First Half:

5:00 Smooth play in the first minute. ZJUNlict’s dominance is evident again, but so far our robots are very good at fending off all attacks.

4:00 We fumble a ball placement, but ZJUNlict sometimes fails at it too. Therefore, both teams are alternating kick-offs in our half of the field. So far, both teams are driving very carefully and there are few fouls. However, with rising temperatures and decreasing controller quality, this tends to get a bit worse for our robots. ZJUNlict is already taking their second timeout and has used up a lot of their timeout time.

3:00 Apparently, they are not yet satisfied with their strategy. Dangerous situation for us, but our robot does not shoot because there is no gap. That could have almost been the first goal. Shot from ZJUNlict, but our goalkeeper makes a perfect save.

2:00 We have accumulated 3 fouls and have to take out a robot. Corners are alternating in our half again. Despite their extremely strong dribbler, ZJUNlict has not been able to dominate us in duels so far. ZJUNlict challenges a corner that was awarded to us. Rightly so, as we were actually last to touch the ball.

1:00 No progress in our ball placement. Thus, we give the corner in our half to ZJUNlict. That is potentially dangerous. Fortunately, ZJUNlict’s robot fumbles the kick-off and we get another chance. So far, a balanced game. Timeout for ZJUNlict. Apparently, their strategy is causing problems again. ZJUNlict’s robots are moving again and the game continues. Tumult in front of our goal. Pass combination from ZJUNlict and a shot into our goal. But apparently, the shot was too fast. The score remains 0:0. Only 10 seconds left in the first half. But we give the corner to ZJUNlict. The field in front of our goal is damaged, but the referee decides to repair it at halftime.

Halftime

Both teams are working on the robots. We need to cool down our robots again and ZJUNlict is changing their batteries. The referees are trying to fix the field with some staples in the carpet, but the carpet has already suffered a lot from the numerous games.

Second Half

We take a short timeout as one of our radio modules seems to be having problems.

5:00 Kickoff for us. But our robot doesn’t shoot properly. Apparently, one of our robots is still having problems. We seem unable to perform ball placement from the goal. This has already happened twice in this game. ZJUNlict gets a yellow card for too many collisions. Apparently, one robot is not visible because it is stuck in a shadow. While solving the vision problems, our robots are slowly turning on the field as they have a position control implemented that still has a slight drift. TC/OC is brought to the vision computer, maybe it will continue soon. The referees are trying to remove the shadows from the field by shifting the screens for the game state. The game continues. Strong duel in the midfield, but we manage to prevent the ball from being shot at our goal.

4:00 We fail at ball placement. Thus, kick-off for ZJUNlict. Our robots are very confused by ZJUNlict’s strong dribbling. But it is also outstandingly good. Maybe we will achieve that in the coming years as well. Many passes in our half.

3:00 Two robots collide, resulting in yellow cards for both teams and both teams’ robots substitute themselves.

2:00 Neither team can make real progress and it is a constant back and forth duel. Unfortunately, we still lack a bit of precision, especially in handling the ball, and we often miss dangerous chances. Good pass combination from ZJUNlict. Shot at our goal and … converted. ZJUNlict takes the lead 1:0.

1:00 We take a short timeout. Apparently, we have significantly adjusted our strategy to be more aggressive. Our robots are now much stronger in the midfield and on ZJUNlict’s side. Unfortunately, we still lack precision in these last situations and we do not convert the shots. One last corner from ZJUNlict. But there was a referee’s error and the corner should have gone to us. In this faulty play, you can still see a brilliant save from our goalkeeper. He would have saved everything anyway.

We lose this game 0:1. Thus, we are out of the tournament. Nevertheless, we are happy about our third place, which would have been completely unthinkable with the quality of our play and robots two months ago.

The final ZJUNlict vs. TIGERs Mannheim takes place at 1:00 PM. Before that, there is the Division B final immediately following.