2014 World Championships Lacrosse

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:49 pm

Thursday night kicks off the World Lacrosse Championships being held in Denver. There are going to be a ton of average and below average games between some strange locations for lacrosse, but the game kicks off with a preview of the likely championship. After the opening ceremonies you have USA v. Canada (Game is on ESPN2---lots of coverage on ESPNU and ESPN3). USA are the defending champs, but Canada won 8 years ago and a tune up event in Denver last year. The US is weak at the faceoff X and one of Canada's stars (John Grant Jr.) is not allowed to play after failing a drug test (he applied for a waiver but was denied...it is a slightly complicated thing from a ACL repair gone bad due to infection).

However as much as they are the favorites, the Iroquois are bringing their best team ever (they could not travel 4 years ago to England due to a passport fiasco). The Thompsons from Albany are great and fun to watch. Likewise the Aussies are going to have a good team.

This is the largest world championship ever...lots of new teams (grouped into divisions which allow teams to be promoted up for the next world championships and play across divisions during playoffs for final seeding).

Blue Division
Australia
Canada
England
Iroquois
Japan
United States

Green Division
China
Italy
Netherlands
Norway

Grey Division
Costa Rica
Czech Republic
Poland 
Turkey

Orange Division
Israel
Republic of Korea
Slovakia
Sweden

Plum Division
Argentina
New Zealand
Russia 
Wales

Red Division
Austria
Belgium
Germany
Hong Kong

Turquoise Division
Colombia
Finland
Mexico
Spain

White Division
Latvia
Scotland
Switzerland
Thailand

Yellow Division
Bermuda 
France
Ireland
Uganda

Post by **Shirley** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:06 pm

Wow. I had no idea that many countries fielded teams. How many of those "foreign" players are actually Americans and Canadians?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 7:05 am

I'll take "things that aren't real" for $1000 alex.

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 7:15 am

New Zealand vs Wales

No matter who wins, the sheep lose.

So I was able to find enough of an explanation to learn that the top four teams from the Blue Division go through. Do they then get a bye, with the winners of the other groups playing a round to get the field down to a total of 8 teams?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 7:16 am

Will Bermuda-Uganda be televised? I would actually check that out for 3 seconds.

Post by **Shirley** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:33 am

A quick perusal of random countries' websites (Uganda, HK, Slovakia, etc) shows that these are actually real, with mostly (or entirely) local players. I assume that in most cases, it's a very small pool of players, but they do all appear to have actual playing leagues and they select their World teams from those leagues.

Pretty cool stuff. Lacrosse is a very fun game to play, so it's great to see it spread.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:41 am

The lesser teams usually have a few americans with heritage. For example, Russia has one guy from the outdoor pro league and one guy who used to play at RIT and the rest are mostly guys on the Moscow Club lacrosse team. Israel is a combination of guys from Israel and Jewish college players. Uganda is all local (for a really great story read about Fields Of Growth). Germany has built a decent lacrosse team of locals by getting ex-US players to come coach (many of the soccer clubs that you know have lacrosse teams...example Eintracht Frankfurt (Jermaine Jones' old club). Bermuda is all local (but not very good).

Here is the espn schedule
Thu, July 10 • 9 p.m. • Canada vs. USA • ESPN2

Fri, July 11 • 10 a.m. • Netherlands vs. China • ESPN3

Fri, July 11 • 1 p.m. • Scotland vs. Thailand • ESPN3

Fri, July 11 • 4 p.m. • Germany vs. Belgium • ESPN3

Fri, July 11 • 7 p.m. • Australia vs. Japan • ESPN3

Fri, July 11 • 10 p.m. • England vs. Iroquois • ESPN3

Sat, July 12 • 10 a.m. • Korea vs. Sweden • ESPN3

Sat, July 12 • 1 p.m. • France vs. Ireland • ESPN3

Sat, July 12 • 4 p.m. • Japan vs. Iroquois • ESPN3

Sat, July 12 • 7 p.m. • Australia vs. USA • ESPNU

Sat, July 12 • 10 p.m. • Canada vs. England • ESPN3

Sun, July 13 • 10 a.m. • Wales vs. New Zealand • ESPN3

Sun, July 13 • 1 p.m. • Germany vs. Hong Kong • ESPN3

Sun, July 13 • 4 p.m. • England vs. Australia • ESPN3

Sun, July 13 • 7 p.m. • Japan vs. USA • ESPNU

Sun, July 13 • 10 p.m. • Iroquois vs. Canada • ESPNU

Mon, July 14 • 10 a.m. • White #1 vs. Turquoise #1 • ESPN3

Mon, July 14 • 1 p.m. • Red #1 vs. Grey #1 • ESPN3

Mon, July 14 • 4 p.m. • Japan vs. Canada • ESPN3

Mon, July 14 • 7 p.m. • England vs. USA • ESPNU

Mon, July 14 • 10 p.m. • Iroquois vs. Australia • ESPN3

Tue, July 15 • 10 a.m. • Elimination Game • ESPN3

Tue, July 15 • 1 p.m. • Elimination Game • ESPN3

Tue, July 15 • 4 p.m. • Japan vs. England • ESPN3

Tue, July 15 • 7 p.m. • Iroquois vs. USA • ESPNU

Tue, July 15 • 10 p.m. • Canada vs. Australia • ESPN3

Wed, July 16 • 10 a.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Wed, July 16 • 2 p.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Wed, July 16 • 6 p.m. • Quarterfinals #1 • ESPN3

Wed, July 16 • 9 p.m. • Quarterfinals #2 • ESPN3

Thu, July 17 • 10 a.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Thu, July 17 • 1 p.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Thu, July 17 • 4 p.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Thu, July 17 • 6:30 p.m. • Semifinals #1 • ESPNU

Thu, July 17 • 9:30 p.m. • Semifinals #2 • ESPNU

Fri, July 18 • 10 a.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Fri, July 18 • 1 p.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Fri, July 18 • 4 p.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Fri, July 18 • 7 p.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Fri, July 18 • 10 p.m. • Consolation Round • ESPN3

Sat, July 19 • 1 p.m. • Fifth-Place Game • ESPN3

Sat, July 19 • 4 p.m. • Third-Place Game • ESPN3

Sat, July 19 • 9 p.m. • Championship Game • ESPNU

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:44 am

CONCACAF only got six spots, the fuck?

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:56 am

4 years from now the games are Manchester. I went to the games in 1994 in Manchester (played at the Bury Football Club). In 2010 they were played at University of Manchester (which will host in 2018 as well). It is a fun event. Lots of youth and old man tournaments surround the event and the social aspects are great. The international rules slow the game down a bit more than the college game and the officiating (from non-US/Canadians) is below average.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 10:59 am

So, just to clarify... Is everything a pretty massive promotion/relegation battle here? Are those divisions ranked best to worst?

(I'd want no part of being in the plum division. gross.)

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:58 am

Sort of
Blue Division (the 6 big boys)
Top 4 teams make the playoffs
Bottom 2 go to consolation bracket

The other divisions (which are grouped for somewhat competitive games in early round) play for a shot at 2 spaces in the championship bracket (i.e. Blue 3 & 4 play the non Blue teams in the first round of the championship round).

Consolation Bracket has Blue 5&6 with teams who lost to the 2 teams joining the championship bracket. Then the winners of the consolation bracket play the losers of the first games of the Championship (this determines who will make up the Big Boy division in 4 years).

It is complicated because the top 6 teams are competitive (Japan, England, US, Canada, Australia, and Iroquois). Germany is right on the edge (in fact they were supposed to be in the Blue division because of the passport fiasco 4 years ago for the Iroquois). Czech's are pretty good and may make a run (they usually finish higher than the US in the Indoor lacrosse World Championships). After that is is fairly even among below average teams. So they are playing for position and ranking in future games, but it is not purely division A-Z model (as it does Germany no good to beat bad bad team). So they balance them so good teams should win the group for the outside but don't just beat up on super minnows.

nonlinear--your former soccer coach had led the South Korea team in past world championships.

vandwagon · Post by **vandwagon** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:20 pm

wlu_lax6 wrote:4 years from now the games are Manchester. I went to the games in 1994 in Manchester (played at the Bury Football Club). In 2010 they were played at University of Manchester (which will host in 2018 as well). It is a fun event. Lots of youth and old man tournaments surround the event and the social aspects are great. The international rules slow the game down a bit more than the college game and the officiating (from non-US/Canadians) is below average.

What are the most significant rule differences? If you don't mind...

Post by **brian** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:25 pm

I'm shocked that Slovakia and Uganda have enough prep schools to churn out a full team.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:51 pm

brian wrote:I'm shocked that Slovakia and Uganda have enough prep schools to churn out a full team.

I know you are joking but seriously worth the look of what a handful of "prep school kids" are doing
http://fieldsofgrowthintl.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fieldsofg ... 6771/show/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fieldsofg ... 8617/show/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:29 pm

Some Rule differences
Some minor stick construction differences (more like High School than Federation)
20 minute running quarters v. 15 minute stop/start in NCAA
OT is not sudden victory
Face off violations different (in NCAA 3 in a half gets you a time serving foul)
Where timeouts can be called
Stalling rules are different (no 30-second timer on)
No release of a penalty after a goal is scored
Advancing the ball from defense to offense does not have a time limit (NCAA you have 30 seconds from possession to get the ball into the offensive box)
smaller substitution box

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:31 pm

Game preview for tonights big game
http://www.laxmagazine.com/internationa ... ces_canada" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 4:51 pm

Are there any stalling rules? Because, by far, my biggest beef with lacrosse is stalling. I'd like to see a shot clock once it's in the box and not wait for the discretion of the ref.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 7:28 pm

Nonlinear FC wrote:Are there any stalling rules? Because, by far, my biggest beef with lacrosse is stalling. I'd like to see a shot clock once it's in the box and not wait for the discretion of the ref.

There are but more like the old college rules. So get it in and keep in but only restricts where you can take the ball.

The talk I heard at my NCAA training camp was that shot clocks will be talked about for this cycle of rule changes (NCAA has gone to rule changes every other year in sports to decrease churn). Their are real problems with shot clocks. In the NCAA they want all divisions playing the same rule. Many d3 schools and some d1 schools can't afford shot clocks/have no electricity at the field locations (and poor high schools that choose to play NCAA rules). Also coaches are worried about negative tactics. Defenses will switch to pack it in zones....so you need to add a 2-point line or some other way for the offense to take advantage of parking the bus. In other times is creates bad pick up lacrosse

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 6:30 am

10-7 US of A. Canada went up 3-0 before a run by the US. Really good defense by both teams. Good goal-tending from US's Schwartzman and great goal-tending by Canada's Ward.

Post by **Sabo** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:17 am

Anyone else see this?

I don't think the person running Warrior's Twitter feed will remain employed for much longer. Pretty idiotic thing to say when you're representing a company.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:27 am

This is not new behavior form Warrior. The only difference is this is Warrior is now owned by New Balance (New Balance also owns Brine). Back in 2004, one of the big lacrosse sites wrote a long piece on this: http://www.e-lacrosse.com/2004/spin/snorrior.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This one, which caused a african-american, professional lacrosse player to publicly go against the company

or this one taking a shot at a kid playing baseball

or this one

or the name of their colors (remember selling this to kids)

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:33 am

I lol'd in real life at the last one.

It looks like a mock ad from GTA.

Post by **Shirley** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:39 am

Interesting article. Is Warrior still considered inferior product?

When buying stuff for my kids, the variety of brands and products is overwhelming. There's no easy way to know what's good or fairly priced. It almost makes me miss the days of two brands - STX and Brine.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:01 am

Shirley wrote:Interesting article. Is Warrior still considered inferior product?

When buying stuff for my kids, the variety of brands and products is overwhelming. There's no easy way to know what's good or fairly priced. It almost makes me miss the days of two brands - STX and Brine.

Well the article is not completely unbiased. The author was very close with the Powell brothers and I believe the Powells got in a tiff with Warrior causing Warrior to both drop them as endorsers and sue them for breach of contract. I can't speak for equipment but I think it used to be STX as the big winner. Now Brine and Maverik seem to be the top brands but STX, Warrior, and UA are doing well. So is Nike (But that is really just STX). I hear the Thompson's company is producing a nice stick too.

The interesting thing is a few companies have tried to compete by producing a really nice set of gear at a slightly lower price point and have not been able to survive. Adidas, Easton, and Reebok all tried this strategy and just exited. They had nice products but the prestige of the high priced product made it hard to sell in all markets.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 6:44 am

So USA v. Canada for the Gold
Aussies v. Iroquois for 3rd (Iroquois were up 3-0 and 4-1 before the Canadians went on a run last night).

With the other teams
Scotland beat Japan for 6th place and a spot with the big boys in the next World Championship (Japan has been in the top group since they joined the world championships).
Uganda got 2 wins in the tournament...not too bad
Israel almost beat the Aussies for a trip to the semis but lost and then took an OT defeat to England and will play for 7th
Last place goes to Costa Rica after losing to Colombia.

Today are most of the final placement games
Mexico Bermuda 8:00 AM MDT
Field 10 - 23rd place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Turkey Hong Kong 8:30 AM MDT
Field 8 - 21st place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Slovakia Norway 9:00 AM MDT
Field 6 - 25th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Belgium Austria 9:30 AM MDT
Field 2 - 27th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Thailand Spain 10:00 AM MDT
Field 1 - 29th place @ Commerce City, Colo.
France Russia 10:00 AM MDT
Field 5 - 31st place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Finland Czech Republic 11:00 AM MDT
Field 10 - 13th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Poland Latvia 11:30 AM MDT
Field 8 - 19th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
China Uganda 12:30 PM MDT
Field 2 - 33rd place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Argentina Korea 12:30 PM MDT
Field 6 - 35th place place @ Commerce City, Colo.
Sweden New Zealand 2:00 PM MDT
Field 10 - 11th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Italy Wales 2:30 PM MDT
Field 8 - 17th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Israel Japan 4:00 PM MDT
Field 8 - 7th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Netherlands Switzerland 5:00 PM MDT
Field 10 - 15th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Germany Ireland 8:00 PM MDT
Field 10 - 9th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Sat. 19 Scotland England 11:00 AM MDT
Field 10 - 5th place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Australia Iroquois Nationals 2:00 PM MDT
Field 10 - 3rd place game @ Commerce City, Colo.
Canada United States

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 7:07 am

Canada wins 8-5 and it was a bigger difference until the US made a late run. Canada just held the ball for minutes at a time and their goalie stood on their head. Canada has a fun tradition. One of their former goalies (and UVA grad), Chris Sanderson, passed away from a brain tumor several years ago (play in the 2010 world championship after his tumor came back and was named all world). Well the MVP wears his denim jacket. So there is a great picture of Canada's goalie wearing this denim jacket getting his medal.

The Swamp

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