Five Things Team USA Needs to Beat Canada
by Matt DaSilva | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Live Game Blog
|
|
A pedestrian performance from goalkeeper Brian Dougherty won't do Saturday, writes LMO's Matt DaSilva. Team USA needs Doc on top of his game. © John Strohsacker/LaxPhotos.com |
MANCHESTER, England -- Let’s not kid
anyone. US Lacrosse does not take losing lightly.
Immediately following the U.S. national team’s 15-10 loss to
Canada in the gold medal match of the 2006 world championships, the
organization overhauled its selection process, hired a no-nonsense
head coach and required more commitment from its athletes.
The result of those four years will bear out today at 4 p.m. local
(11 a.m. Eastern) when Team USA, the underdog, meets Canada in the
Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship final
at the University of Manchester. The game will be broadcast live on
ESPNU.
The U.S. leads the all-time series 13-3, but those three losses
have stung like heck. Two of them have come in Manchester. The most
recent loss, a 10-9 defeat exactly a week ago in the round robin,
was Team USA’s first in preliminary play. The first loss in
the series was in 1978, when Canada stunned the U.S., 17-16, in
overtime in the final here.
On Friday, Canada invoked the ghosts of ’78. The team
visited Edgeley Park in Stockport just outside greater Manchester,
the site of its miraculous win 32 years ago. Head coach Dave
Huntley, a player on that team that defeated the U.S. in the final
after getting lambasted 28-4 in the preliminaries, went so far as
to wish for rain Saturday. “I hope there’s a
deluge,” he said, citing that it rained during the ’78
final.
Team USA, on the other hand, superstitiously avoided the memory of
that game, taking its team picture about 100 yards away from where
the 1978 team once stood on campus here. When Kevin Cassese, Ryan
Powell and Chris Schiller unknowingly sauntered to that spot and
put on sunglasses for some goofier photos, head coach Mike Pressler
told them the significance of where they stood. They left
immediately.
Here are five things the U.S. needs to do to beat Canada:
1. Push the tempo. Team USA was timid in its
round-robin loss to the Canadians, too often settling for
six-on-six sets rather than fast breaks. A higher scoring game
bodes better for the U.S., given its depth and speed advantages
over Canada. “We played a little bit tight last time, so
we’ve got to just let the horses go right from the opening
whistle and get up and down the field,” Powell said.
“We’re good at running and gunning. That’s what
we need to do. I think we tried to slow the ball down a little bit
too much the first time we played them. So we’re going to be
looking to transition and get up and down the field.” Both
teams are dangerous off the quick endline restart.
2. Limit Canada’s second-chance
opportunities. The U.S. defense actually did a good job
against Canada in the round robin. But the Canadians’ will
power around the cage won out in the fourth quarter. “We need
to pick up loose balls. If we get the ball to the ground -- whether
it’s a save, a rebound, a forced turnover or an unforced
turnover --we need to be coming up with those 50-50 balls,”
said Team USA defenseman Ryan McClay. “The first time we did
not. If we give them multiple opportunities on a possession,
that’s when they’re going to hurt us.”
3. Take high-percentage shots. Playing a fast
tempo does not mean wailing away from 20 yards out (Pressler called
those “turnover shots”), but rather making an extra
pass or pulling out for a dodge and dump on the crease. Team USA
needs a better shooting performance than its 9-for-37 showing last
week. Canadian goalie Chris Sanderson joked afterward that
“luckily, these chubby little legs got in the way of a lot of
shots.” Team USA had more success shooting high on Sanderson
than it did shooting low. Either way, assistant coach Joe Alberici
said, “We need to make him a goalie.”
4. Get strong performances from Alex Smith and Brian
Dougherty. Faceoffs and goalie play can be such strengths
up the middle for the U.S. if these two get hot. Neither has played
his best at these world games. Doc has been pedestrian, but loves
this big stage. Especially if Team USA forces an up-tempo game, it
will need Doc making a few point-blank stops on the defensive end.
Smith has traditionally had Geoff Snider’s number, but the
reigning world championships MVP had a monster semifinal against
Australia.
5. Communicate better on defense. The Americans
were so focused on John Grant Jr. and Zack Greer, they let guys
like midfielder Rhys Duch beat them. And when Grant got hot in the
fourth quarter, the slides were too slow. “They’re real
crafty off ball, so we have to be on the same page moving
together,” McClay said. “I think we did a good job last
time on the defensive end, but it could be better."
Perhaps Schiller put Saturday’s challenge best when he said,
“We had a miscue in every facet of the game last time. So
we’ve got little things that we’re going to try to
correct tomorrow. It all happens in execution of the game on
Saturday. You can throw everything out the window when our two
teams play.”
