Semifinals brought the matchup we had been looking forward to since last October – Team Canada, two-time reigning WUGC world champions. With a large Furious George contingent (along with GOAT players and others making it through tryouts) featuring some well known faces, we had no doubts about what we were going up against. There was some strategizing to be done and matchups to be set, but for the most part we were focused on our mental and emotional preparations ahead of the semi.
Team USA vs. Canada, 17-16 (stats)
Like several of our earlier games, we started off a little soft against TC. Our D was unable to get more than a hand on the disc against their O line over their first few points. Meanwhile, the Canadians capitalized quickly on two turns from Adam “Chicken” Simon, one off a big open side foot block by Andy Collins, to grab an early lead.
At 7-5 Canada, however, suffocating pressure on their handlers from Mark Sherwood, Tom James, and Sam Kanner started to pay off, forcing turns and tight throws. Martin Cochran got a nice layout D under and a missed huck from Oscar Pottinger led to two USA breaks and brought us back on serve. Our offense really started to click here, with a great Cahill-Wiseman deep shot to tie it at 7. We couldn’t punch in the break for half, but at 8-8 Robbie Cahill gave a lesson in boxing out with a great catch on a blading huck, and we took half a few throws later.
We knew it wasn’t enough – we were back to even but had much more work to do. Out of half we kept up the pressure, shutting down their cutters and working hard to break up their handler motion. Short field turns led to two more breaks and some momentum for Team USA.
On an unfortunate note, a full-speed collision between Zach Travis and Brendan Wong after the pull at 9-8 knocked the Canadian cutter out for the remainder of the game. Two shots from Cahill to Kittredge got us two more O points and set us up to get a third break and the 15-12 lead. After a Canada timeout, the D line worked a long point with chances for both teams, but a deep D by John Hassell got the disc back and the Canadians finally got the goal.
Team Canada was down late, but far from out of it. Coming back down in their zone, USA was able to gain yardage but not finish off their points – an end zone turf and a mis-timed jump on an upline cut to the end zone and Canada was able to strike deep for two quick goals and bring it to 15-14. Our offense finally punched it in to come within one goal of finals but our defense failed to finish it off – leaving us with two chances to win on offense. Again we worked it patiently to twenty yards out, but a dump miscommunication led to yet another quick deep strike for a Canada break. Double game point – seven on the line, everyone else pacing the sidelines with nerves on edge. Again we marched it up the field, and again our O was held up just outside the goal. A discussion over a contested stall/fast count was tense, but good spirit prevailed, and Beau worked the throw and go dump swing with Cahill for the clinching goal.
Like our game against the Aussies, this was a well fought game that lived up to our highest expectations for world-class play We were somewhat drained after the tight finish that perhaps we thought we were going to avoid, but still happy to celebrate our berth in the finals:
Great Britain, tomorrow, 11pm PST. Big thanks to all our supporters and fans, both local and online – see you there!
San Francisco Bay Area Ultimate