After a long morning sleeping, eating, getting ready to go, watching the Fury women take on Japan, killing time, and eagerly awaiting the chance to take on GB in the final – we finally hit the warm-up field and the team vibe is a very focused excitement. This is a world championship final, in front of a big crowd and a live audience on NGN – overall we know this is a great opportunity for us to showcase our team and to avenge the last two WFDF finals for the USA.
Finals: Great Britain, 17-5 (stats)
Finals finally start and we are ready. GB is not, possibly jitters from this being their first final or a bit of a tricky wind that came up late in the warm-up, either way they give us 3 easy breaks in the first three points, starting off with several first pass drops or throw-aways. We punch in all three before GB finally get on the board. The wind has shifted to be relatively up-wind/down-wind, and we trade a few down-winders before a great huck catch by Zach Travis triggers the defense – the D gets on a roll and we never look back. The game features a difficult and changing wind causing lots of unforced turnovers, but the USA continues to punch in goals after multiple turnover points while the GB squad struggles to get consistent offense. Ryo throws two monster upwind flick hucks, Martin catches three deep goals, and Robbie leads us with steady handler movement and all-around dominance over the field. The game concludes with a 7 point run for the USA and a nifty footwork goal by Beau Kittredge to bring home the first WFDF Open Gold medals in 12 years. We congratulate GB for their impressive run to the finals, and we know that this experience will make them stronger in tournaments to come. After a closing ceremony and frantic jersey swapping/ photograph taking, we start our trip home with a raucous bus and subsequent train car ride featuring singing, dancing, and other spectacles. We skip the express and take the slow train home, with a dance party train car to ourselves, not minding that the ride will last a while. We are happy, after a tough tournament and surviving difficult tests from Australia and Canada, we’ve played well on the big finals stage and triumphantly achieved our goal. Congratulations and thanks to Kurt for joining us from Houston and being such a great teammate in the short season we had, to Bart who we’ll miss dearly in the coming club season, to the parents and fans that came all the way to Japan to support us, and to the Revolver founders and alumni whose support and direction we wouldn’t be the same without. Now we head home to the U.S. via various routes and stops, reveling all the while in this:
USA, WORLD CHAMPIONS!
