Another first round game and another 6am wakeup for team USA, made somewhat easier by the sweet sound of “One Direction” coming from Kurt’s room. After making it through the long line for the shuttle at Sakai station, we went through a short but focused warmup on the turf fields of athletes village before heading over to the main stadium for an important matchup against the two-seed in our pool, Germany. We were generally satisfied with our level of play on the first day of games, with good defensive intensity and offensive efficiency, but we knew we would need to continue to rise each day of the tournament. We also welcomed Nick Chapman, with hand in (soft) cast, who arrived in Japan last night.
Team USA vs Germany, 17-8, stats
We had been anticipating a good game here against a team we expected to see deep in the tournament – and with our friends and family watching back home on NexGen, we were fired up to play. Coach Dutchy ran through the defensive plan for the game – tight man to man coverage, forcing our matchups under, flashing flat to stop hucks in flow and then clamping down on the short game. Germany came out strong and struck deep, with our offense quickly answering in kind. We traded to 4-4, with the Germans creating lots of space on O and playing intense defense with intelligent poaching, generating the first two turns of the game against our offense but ultimately failing to convert – Highlights included Josh Wiseman with a nice sky grab on a floaty huck. Our defense finally started forcing turns and grabbed three breaks, including one off a great deep layout d by Kurt Gibson. A brief lull and some softer marks saw us trading out to half, 9-6.
After refocusing at half, our O punched it in to put our D line back on the field. In the play of the game, Russell Wynne sparked a 5 break run with an explosive open-side layout point block on a huck from Germany’s quick handler, and we soon closed it out, 17-8.
At the spirit circle, Kurt was honored as MVP with a big bag of Haribo gummy bears, while we selected Philip Haas #8 (who we’ll see again with nexgen), Ali #23, Hans #13, #42, and #29 for recognition. This was the German’s first loss of the season, but there’s no doubt they’ll come back strong for the rest of the tournament.
Team USA vs Singapore, 17-2, stats
After a 4 hour bye spent eating, cooling off, testing our guts throws, and watching the USA women, we returned to the practice field to warm up for our afternoon game with Singapore. Our morning game was calm, but the afternoons here at J-Green have been consistently windy and we looked forward to the opportunity to practice our offense in tough conditions like we might see later in the tournament. A young and athletic team (and current frontrunner for best jerseys), Singapore came out with an energetic zone defense and were happy to bid. The first few points were messy on both sides, with several back and forth turns, point blocks and questionable deep shots. Duchy took advantage of an early Singapore timeout to settle down our offense and remind us to play our normal game even in the wind, trusting our throwers and swinging to attack the break side. We cleaned it up and took half 9-0.
In the second half, USA picked up a few more breaks until Singapore struck deep with a beautiful forehand in the wind for a goal. Our “princess” was again called into action, but for the first time this tournament, she would not be having her way, as our o-line turned it over on a floaty throw and allowed Singapore to work it up the field and convert for the break on a nice hustle play by a Singaporean player on a sailing throw. The o-line converted their next opportunity and our defense finished off the game, 17-2, but both teams celebrated together – us, the win, and Singapore, doing what no other team had yet managed in breaking our offensive line, and deservedly so. Kurt was again chosen as MVP, and Adam “Chicken” Simon called out the thrower and reciever of singapore’s great deep goal as our MVPs. We were also honored to receive a commemorative medallion from the Singapore team – Thank you again for this gift!
We cooled down as Beau, Kurt and Mac Taylor posed for photos, then headed over to catch the end of the Japan – GB game. With only a late afternoon game tomorrow the team is enjoying the evening with dinner in downtown Osaka and karaoke to follow. On to power pools…
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