July 2, 2008
Lacrosse Magazine Online's Clare Lochary blogs live from the 2008 International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) Under-19 World Championships in Coquitlam, British Columbia.
Thursday, July 10, 4:45 p.m.: The Language of Lacrosse
I've been in Canada for almost a week now and with all the tournament-related stuff, I've been on an American news blackout, so until today I didn't hear the brouhaha surrounding Sen. Barack Obama's comments about how Americans kids should learn Spanish and strive to be bilingual. I know the issue is incredibly complex, involving national identity, immigration, education, political pandering (and a few more sinister things), but speaking from an international tournament in a country with two official languages, I will say that I think bilingualism is a wonderful thing. Besides loving the game, a lot of the German kids play lacrosse for the chance to practice their English. The Iroquois enter the field doing an indigenous chant, a reminder of the unique and holy roots of the sport.
Language and communication are essential to spreading new ideas. No one in Brazil or Belgium or Tanzania or Thailand is going to spontaneously learn about lacrosse, or figure out how to play it well. Someone (you?) will have to go there and teach them.
If Iliad Rodriguez has his way, the next team to enter the ILF fray will be from a Spanish-speaking nation. Rodriguez, a Californian of Mexican descent, is the U.S. Director of Mexico Lacrosse. The men's elite team played its first scrimmage on June 28 against a San Jose area club, and will try to qualify for the 2010 ILF World Lacrosse Championship in Manchester, England. The team mainly consists of Americans with dual citizenship or Mexican parents or grandparents, but they are hoping to get more true-blue Mexicans on the roster, too. Best of luck making it to Manchester, Iliad! And that's not just because you gave me a free Mexico Lacrosse t-shirt*.
It's currently halftime of the U.S.-England game. The Americans have a comfortable 11-3 lead, although English goalie Ant Hayes (who was injured in the Iroquois game and didn't play in England's 24-4 loss to the U.S.) has 11 first-half saves. While I'm pulling for a U.S. gold, I am sorry to see the last stand of the English fans, who are the wittiest in the tournament. Their songs and chants and good humor have me looking forward to Manchester already.
(*I totally accept bribes, if anyone wants to give me stuff)
Wednesday, July 9, 11:49 p.m.: Ich Bin ein Laxer
Germany came to the 2008 ILF Under-19 World Championship with a goal: to win one single game. This U19 tournament is only the second one for the Germans, and they didn't win any games in Towson in 2003. So they arrived in Coquitlam with the idea that any win would make history. Now they are 6-1, with the most recent win coming against Blue Division opponent Japan, a 12-11 OT victory. I can't get a straight answer out of ILF types on whether or not this means that Germany will definitely replace Japan in the Blue Division in 2012, but clearly German lacrosse is improving by leaps and bounds.
"We felt like we could win this game. It's been a Cinderalla story for sure. Germany's never won a game at the U19 level. From the get go, the boys played beyond our wildest expectations," said head coach John Pirie, an American who also coaches at the Governor's Academy (Mass.).
"My boys have the opportunity every time they step on the field to make history. Today they made history again."
Lorenz "Lolo" Lehmhaus got the game winner on a putback on Japan goalie Takeshi Minowa's save. The Japanese got four good looks at the cage in the second overtime, but couldn't make it fall (two hit the pipe).
"The attack was just awesome, this moment," said Lehmhaus. "They were just hunting the ball and chasing it and I had the opportunity to just get the ball and sink it. It was the greatest opportunity in German lacrosse for the U19. We played a thrilling game and here we are."
(Conversely, Japan was absolutely wrecked following the loss. I watch a lot of lacrosse games and see a lot of tough endings and therefore have a low tolerance for postgame histronics, but watching the Japanese players react to the loss to a Red Division team was tough. Their eyes were streaming, their lips trembling and hands shaking. Representing their country meant a lot to them, and they felt they hadn't done it well. But as the German team engaged in some well-deserved somersaults and national anthem singing, the Japanese players gathered themselves in a line before their fans, before their sobs had even subsided, and gracefully expressed their thanks with a traditional bow. That is sportsmanship that any player on any team should try and emulate.)
Lolo picked up lacrosse from his sister, who first played the game in the Netherlands. He was a competitive tennis player who got burnt out and was looking for a new sport. Three years later, he got to wear his country's colors and lead Germany to victory."It's a lifetime experience. When do you get a chance to compete in a world championship?" he asked. "I took probably like a 100 pictures of [my uniform]. I can't believe it, I'm playing for my country."
Pirie has gotten e-mails from all over Germany, from friends and well-wishers who are crowding around German computer screens wearing red, gold and black and cheering on the team.
I asked Pirie if he had any tips for coaches trying to develop teams in foreign countries. He advised a more drawn-out selection process than developed countries like the U.S. and Canada use, in order to expose players to high-level competition and coaching as much as possible. (Pirie worked with a group of 60 kids for the better part of the past year before paring it down to the 23-man roster in Coquitlam.) He's also working hard to build a feeder system for the U19 team, so little kids will grow up wanting to play for Germany in 2012, 2016 and beyond.
For now, Germany must face its next opponent, Australia. Tomorrow's medal contention games will be two rematches, U.S.-England and Canada-Iroquois. Mental toughness could be a factor in the latter. The Iroquois hung with both Canada and the U.S. for a half, but couldn't go the distance either time. Canada blew a seven-point lead against the U.S. Both teams have talent - but who can execute?
Tuesday, July 8, 11:00 a.m.: Wales Watching
Today is an off day for the team, so here's an update on Wales, who you'll recall lost two heart-breakers that will keep them out of medal contention.
Standing in line at the (much-maligned) cafeteria at Simon Fraser University where all the teams except the Iroquois are staying, I spoke to Welsh assistant coach Will Barrett about the team's two close losses. He said he thought that after those two games, the players would know what to do that the next time they got in a close spot.
He was right. While the U.S. rolled to an easy 24-4 win over England on the main field yesterday, the Battle of the Celts raged on the East Turf. Scotland led Wales, 5-3, at halftime, but the Welsh surged back on Tom Ridings' two fourth-quarter goals. Goalie Chris Ockelton made two man-down saves in the final minute. He couldn't quite contain the second stop, and it rolled over the line. But the referee ruled that the ball crossed the line after the whistle, and Wales won, 9-8.
"The coaches are fine, but the players, you know, it's all needles. The Scottish guys will be so sore - so sore. You've got to feel for those guys," said Welsh head coach Ray Harry, of the Scotland-Wales rivalry.
It was the most exciting finish I've seen since...well, the day before when the U.S. won in overtime. The Welsh was on the sideline for that one, having sprinted to the main turn immediately after beating Finland 13-6.
"The Canada-U.S. game yesterday was an absolutely fantastic experience game. It's incredible to be so close to the best players. It's a fantastic experience," said Riddings.
Ridings also had some insight on the appeal of lacrosse.
"I like the violence of it, I suppose. It's a good way of controlling your aggression," he said. "It's a game where you don't have to be a certain build to play or you don't have to have one particular skill. You get people that are 6'2", 200 pounds and then you get someone like me who's not as tall and not as thick [5'11", 160] but who can still equally score as many goals. I think it's absolutely fantastic. And I like the social side of it."
Most developing teams come to ILF events to learn more than they do to win. But winning is nice too.
Welsh team manager Mike Evans had this to add about the victory over Scotland: "Tell them that the defense was like the Welsh Guard at Rorke's bloody Drift. That's how good they were."
For people who aren't fans of military history or Michael Caine, click on the links to understand exactly how button-bursting proud Evans was.
Sunday, July 6, 6:13 p.m.: U.S. 16, Canada 15 OT
It began and ended with James Green.
The middie gave the U.S. its first lead of the day at 1-0, and then its second and final one with a goal at 1:06 in the first overtime period to lift the Americans to a 16-15 victory. It was the first OT game ever for the U19 team, which is now 33-0 in international competition.
After all that drama, the game ended on a really pedestrian foul. With about 30 seconds to play in the second OT period, Kevin Crowley took a high shot that Adam Ghitelman (he stayed in the whole game) saved high. It bounced off his stick and out of bounds. Possession went to Canada's Mark Cockerton. Cockerton stood at the sideline around GLE about to give the Canadians their last chance to keep alive a historic upset. Suddenly the refs blew the whistle and awarded the ball to the U.S. team. Cockerton had stepped out.
With 14 seconds left to play, Coach Apel called a time out. Gave the ball to Rhamel Bratton, who held onto under triple pressure to preserve the win.
Sunday, July 6, 5:53 p.m.: End of Regulation: Canada 15, U.S. 15
Apologies to Celine Dion. I could use the soothing sounds of Canadian adult contemporary after this heart attack of a game.
Canada built a 14-7 lead in the third quarter. The U.S. looked like it was on the ropes, but then came a 8-1 fourth quarter. Team captain Craig Dowd (5g) got the equalizer with 26 seconds to play.
According to international rules, we'll play two four-minute periods and then sudden death. No face off due to a Candian unsportsmanlike penalty on Dowd's goal. (Brock Sorenson threw his stick)
Sunday, July 6, 4:49 p.m.: Halftime report: Canada 5, U.S. 4
The U.S. has its first trailing score of the tournament against Canada at halftime. It has been a see-saw match with no team leading by more than one. James Green notched the first goal of the game, on a right-handed outside laser shot. Canada's Robbie Campbell beat both Max Schmidt and Tim Donovan to get a one-on-one with Ghitelman to tie it. It's been like that all day, back and forth, up and down.
U.S. shooting could stand to tighten up (4 for 23), especially on EMO (0 for 4). A lot of the shots are going just wide, but Canadian goalie Remington Steele (yes, really) has 10 saves.
American goalie Adam Ghitelman is having a great day, with 10 saves. Ghitelman and Tyler Fiorito have been splitting time 50-50, but if it were my call I'd leave Ghitelman in. He's hot.
Sunday, July 6, 3:30 p.m.: Highlights from Japan; Psychological Warfare from Canada
A blow-out game is usually pretty boring to watch, but yesterday's shut-out of Japan was surprisingly tense. 27-1 or 27-2 isn't nearly as interesting, so watching the Americans try to preserve a perfect defensive day was in its way as exciting to watch as a nail-biter.
It was also compelling to watch the Japanese team battled on during overwhelming odds. One of the game's most exciting moments came when goalie Kosuke Nakai and midfielder Jun Motoshita made four saves in less than a minute.
In the third quarter, when the Americans had a 20-0 lead, American goalie Tyler Fiorito picked up a ground ball and cleared to longpole CJ Costabile, who fed attacker Jack McBride on the crease. Nakai made a point-blank stop on McBride's turn-and-shoot that bounced away from the cage towards the sideline. Nakai raced McBride to the ball, but lost out as McBride got the pick-up and fed Matt MacKrides with Nakai out of position. Motoshita came to the rescue and dashed in front of the shot, blocking it with his head.
"The score was not good, so we just had a feeling that we have to stop one point, one point, one point," said Motoshita. "After he had a great stop, I just couldn't let one more in. He was out of the crease, so I just got back and I felt like I could stop it with my body. I wasn't looking so it was kind of a miracle."
The head save wasn't even the end of the sequence. McBride got the rebound off of Motoshita's head stop and fired a second shot, which Nakai saved. McBride nabbed the rebound again and took another doorstep shot. Nakai made another save, and the ball popped out of bounds, finally ending the play.
The fans, American and Japanese alike, burst into applause.
"Every game is fun," said Nakai, by way of Motoshita (whose English is flawless).
"It was a very good experience to play against such a great team. There were lots of shots I couldn't even experience in Japan."
The U.S.-Japan game was more about comraderie than competition, but that won't be the case in today's game against Canada. The teams are warming up as I type. Throughout the weekend, the venue has been playing a typical sports-arena mix of songs between games. But suddenly the music has taken a distinctly...Canadian turn. Feist, Barenaked Ladies, and now Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway." Subtle. All I know is that if they play Celine Dion, I'm walking out.
OK, now they are playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit." American, and appropriate to a U19 event. I'll stay and let you know what happens.
Saturday, July 5, 1:41 p.m.: Got the Blues
In the Blue Division, it's shaping up to be a North American smack down between the US and Canada.
In the U.S. team's meeting room, the coaches have posted an article from a local paper for motivation. In it, Canadian midfielder Kevin Crowley had this to say about Canada's strategy: "We'll try and counter what the U.S. likes to do. The Americans have a very mechanical game."
Mechanical is a bit harsh, but the U.S. attack is certainly more deliberate than the run-and-gun style of the Canadians. While the Americans were a bit slow out of the gate against the Iroquois and the Aussies, their historic shut-out of the Japanese was built on a fast-paced offense. Canada has its own fun little shut-out stat, too: 12-0 in the first quarter after two games.
American defender Bray Malphrus isn't worried about that, though. He has watched his teammates shake off their individual styles (or rather, the styles that their college/high school coaches drilled into their heads for 11 months) and meld into what U19 head coach Chuck Apel wants them to be.
"To come here and unlearn everything, it's kind of hard. You have to drop what you know and trust someone else's system. I think we had some issues with that but now we've bought into what Coach Apel wants us to do," said Malphrus. "It took us doing it our own way, and messing up, to really learn that we had to do what he wanted us to do."
Defender Peter Fallon had a similar perspective on acclimation. International rules allow for a deeper pocket than the NCAA, so trying to play takeaway defense is less rewarding.
"We just want to play the body, play position," said Fallon.
The Canadians have been mixing it up at the X, while the U.S. has relied heavily on Matt Dolente (with occasional appearances by Nick Elsmo and longpole CJ Costabile).
Saturday, July 5, 7:23 a.m.: Seeing Red
The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. Unfortunately for Wales, their team has become more familiar with the latter. In a tournament full of lopsided scores (through 11 games, the average margin of victory is 10.55), the Welshmen have lost two squeakers in the Red Division, which consists of teams from countries where lacrosse is a developing sport.
First came Team Germany, a 7-5 loss. Then there was Bermuda. Wales could not restrain Matt Restaino, who scored four goals, including one in the final two minutes to lift Bermuda to a 6-5 win. Restaino currently leads all Red Division players with 8 total points. (That reminds me - if you're looking at raw stats, the statisticians are being extremely stingy about tabulating assists. Rest assured, they are happening.) Like many of his Team Bermuda teammates, Restaino picked up the game at an East Coast prep school (Lawrenceville) and brought it back to his home country. Restaino will play his college ball at Cornell.
In any case, Wales (0-2) has tumbled to the bottom of the Red Division. To add insult to injury, Germany and Bermuda are tied for first at 2-0. Wales just needs to work on its EMO (0-for-9 against Bermuda), and the team will surely do better in today's game against Korea.
Meanwhile, Germany and Bermuda will meet at 10:45 am to decide who will dominate the Red Division. The top two teams in Red Division will advance to the play-in game against Blue Division teams in the medal round.
Regardless of the outcome of that game, the Bermudans win the ILF's unofficial Best Dressed award. They came to opening ceremonies in red Bermuda shorts, knee socks, less like the average American laxer (Balti, popped polo shirt, khakis) if they'd been wearing dresses. Apparently Bermuda shorts are standard business wear on "the Rock." (Second runner up: Scotland. Kilts.)
Off to the stadium to watch the U.S. take on Japan.
Friday, July 4, 2:16 p.m.: A Foreign Fourth
Greetings from Canada, and the 2008 ILF Boys U19 Championship! And Happy Independence Day! Even though we're less than an hour from the U.S. border, there's obviously no evidence of the holiday here. No sunny barbeques for the U.S. squad - they're going to early morning practices in the rain, eating dorm food and concentrating on the gold. They're off to a good start with a 20-15 win over a tenacious Iroquois team in their first game.
For an even more unlikely way to spend the Fourth of July, talk to Zac Guy, Matt Lord and Jordan Levack. This trio of Americans will don the English national team uniform today when the Brits take on Team Canada. But they aren't the Benedict Arnolds of lacrosse - they're just half-English guys who wanted to participate in the international game.
"We haven't really thought about [the Fourth] that much. We're pretty focused on what happens here," said Lord, an attacker for Wittenberg University (Div. III).
Defenseman (or as its spelled on the English roster, defenceman) Jordan Levack was more sentimental about the holiday.
"It's the first time I won't be seeing fireworks on the Fourth of July," said Levack, who was born in England but raised in California after his parents' divorce.
Levack's dad flew in from the U.K. for the tournament to see his son play lacrosse for the first time. He was both proud and confused, having never seen the game before.
He's not the only one feeling a little befuddled. The English team - along with everyone else - is taking some time to adjust to the international rules.
"The whole rule about when a flag's thrown, you can't go behind the goal twice, I didn't know about that," said Guy.
There's also no time limit on clears, so strategic keepers can knock the wind out of an attack trying to ride for a minute or more. Still, it can lead to some exciting moments, like when English goalie Anthony Hayes scored the opening goal of a 24-5 thrashing of Japan.
It was one of many light-hearted moments for the English. Guy, Levack and Lord concur that the best part of playing for England is the other guys on the team and listening to the constant barrage of England's trademark humor. (Such as when three obvious impostors declared themselves to be Guy, Levack and Lord to an inquiring reporter.)
Quick wits aside, the English will play a slow-down game today against the run-and-gun Canadians, who shellacked the Aussies, 25-7, last night. I watched less than half of that match-up. Jet lag caught up to me, so I left when it was 10-0 in the second quarter. Hofstra standout Jayson Card had a hat trick while I was watching, and another one after I left. He tied Matt Cockerton (6g) to lead the Canucks.
Now I'm off to watch the Americans face the battered Aussies.
