And then there were 4

Yesterday I headed over to the stadium to watch the first round of bracket play. The quarter final match ups were Canada/Finland, USA/Colombia, Australia/GB, and Japan/Sweden.

Canada vs Finland

This game went as expected. Each team came out firing with lots of hucks and also a lot of turnovers. Finland has a few big deep guys, not unlike most teams, and sent them deep often. They converted early but it wouldn't last. Canada has several tall defenders, like Eric St-Amant and Morgan and despite connecting a few times deep, the Maple Leafs simply figured them out and shut down their deep game.

They had some success working the disc underneath but without the level of throwing ability that teams like USA and Canada, they struggled with consistency and Canada turned a 9-6 lead at half into a 17-7 slaughter.

As for the Canucks, I've come to realize that they really play a very different game than I expected. They are a team that has talent across the board. Each player is fast and has ups and plays shut down D. No one is really an "O-line" or "D-line" player and folks like MG, Hassell, Oscar, and Lugsdin can all be part of suffocating D or amazingly fluid offense. One player I've been watching a lot is Scotty Nicholls, #19. He is so damn fast and can get the disc at will. Canada seems to have a lot of tall power cutters like Savage or CJ Hammer, but they also have squirrley little buggers like Scotty and he really did a great job of setting up strikes.

Mike Grant is having a phenomenal tournament leading his team with 30 fantasy points. His flick is so textbook and his accuracy across the field is deadly. He also is fantastic in the air and can snatch most floaters. Lugsdin, despite not playing against Japan, was back for Finland. He, like Savage, are some of the older Canadian players but they both cut deep all the time. Lugsdin cuts so well and despite his 6'5" size he really moves like he's 5'8".

USA vs Colombia

This game was really exciting. Both teams have a lot of flare and fire and it came out on the field. Like most international contests have been so far, games were close early but the better team had more weapons. Colombia's athletes are unreal and they can all get up. At one point one of their players got up and over Blaine Robbins who was easily 6 inches taller.

Colombia reminds me a lot of Japan in the sense that their all quick as hell and rely on pin point precesion to score. This proves to be exciting but in the end, all their low percentage layout grabs caught up with them. Team USA rarely had to reel in a hospital pass and caught most of their scores at chest level, wide open. Their O-line is so amazing but one thing that really impresses me is their D-line's offense. When you can put Jeremy Cram and Seth Crockford on your D-line with Biggins tossing log range strikes, you will be successful. Nate Castine is also having a great tournament and I'm sure this youngster is all smiles when he gets off the field after getting a double happiness. Chase is also playing great with an expectedly good defensive game (he had your typical insane layout Ds) as well as nitty gritty every other throw offense.

At one point things did seem to get ugly. USA plays a somewhat physical game, not unlike every other American team, and Colombia is a collection of firey soccer players that get intense and emotions ran high. It seemed like Sockeye has a firm grasp on where the line is drawn between physical and too physical. However, Colombia doesn't have any idea where this line is and they matched tight marks and little bumps with their own brand of physical play. At one point Nord stopped the game mid point to try and settle things down and it looked like it was effective. The game wasn't as good down the stretch because Sockeye really pulled away. It seems like there is a tight window between 8-6ish and 13-8ish that teams aim for. For the first few points things are close, then one team pulls away and then before you know it you're either up or down enough breaks for the winning team to cruise and that's how things went. Team USA is also devastatingly loud. Skip gets his team fired up and when I see them all in unison cheering red, white and blue, I can only imagine how intimidating they can seem.

My hats off to Colombia though. In hanging out with and watching teams from around the world, I've really begun to understand how amazing a program like Sockeye is. They are a system with so many resources and infrastructure that it is no wonder they are so good. Other teams however, struggle to even send their best players. Mexico, South Africa, a lot of these teams have to play with their wealthiest players, not nearly their best. Regardless, Colombia brings it. They play with such intensity and flare and they are skilled as hell. Their poise with the disc is excellent and they seem as prepared as anyone to compete here. Judging from their Juniors, they are only going to get better and I'm excited to see what they do in the coming years.

Japan vs Sweden

I didn't really watch much of this game because I wanted to stay out of the sun but Japan looked razor sharp as usual. They're flicks are fantastic and their hands are amazing the way they can snatch seemingly impossible throws. They also have phenomenal body control and can turn on a dime and layout awkwardly to snatch potential turnovers.

As for Sweeden, the player I've been most impressed with is David Wesley. This guy is probably the shortest guy on a tall Sweeden team but he is so amazingly fast. He is leading his team with 23 goals and I'm amazed at how effective he is at cutting deep. Unlike bigger USA or Canada cutters, his foot speed really is an asset and the separation he can get when the disc goes up is astonishing. Japan had to control the thrower at this point because his cutting ability was more than most of their defenders could handle.

In the end Japan played consistently better which seems to be the determining factor in most of these games. Every team has flare but the teams with the ability to score on single possessions over and over with a barage of weapons usually wins.

Great Britain vs Australia

This was the best game of the day, sorry Dingos. Of any team here at Worlds, I am the most impressed with GB. I would never have pegged them to make semis and they are playing spectacular all around. Their main strengths seem to be their ability in the air and their decision making. They move the disc so patiently and so effectively which is as good an offensive weapon as defensive. When they were on O they were fluid and when the disc went up they had no problem splitting Australia defenders and snatching skies. On defense they also played great vertical D and once they got a turn, that patient offense was back in a flash.

Australia played well but it seems like their depth on the offensive front hurt them. They have talent all around with guys like Pottsy and Brett moving the disc effectively on offense but they use Mike Neild a lot. He is an amazing highlight reel in the air and I would imagine the bulk of his 9 assists come from short passes when he gets a huge sky on the goal line. However, with such a visible offensive target, seeting up a defensive counter strategy at half time was really easy for GB and they took the Dingos to school. However, I will say that top to bottom Australia was an exciting team to watch and their unity despite their pick up nature was really awesome to witness.

However, as I mentioned before, Great Britain's consistency was spectacular. They just didn't give it back and Australia did. They earned break after break and once it was 14-10, the game was fairly out of reach. After choking against Japan, I'm sure these flat ballers want to see every point/game through to completion and they did just that.

Jersey Exchange

After getting some food, Alex and I headed over to the jersey exchange and this was an experience. I have never been to one of these and I was fairly nervous. You walk around with all your stuff and you try and pass it off for someone elses. Without money as an intermediate, it gets hard to know when you're going to be successful in a trade and when you're not. What sucks for me is that I'm a big guy and I like to trade with specific people and that gets hard when they are smaller than you. For me, the meaning behind the jersey is much more important than what it looks like and who you trade with is equally important because I will think of them everytime I put the jersey over my head and I would want them to do the same.

There was a kid on the Mexican team, Chamo, who is a man beast and considering my love for the little guys, I wanted to trade with him. I coughed up my dark Colt 45 jersey which seems to be a decent jersey. One kid was wearing one during the Japan/USA game a few days ago and I was so stunned I had to go up and talk to the kid that was wearing one of my team's threads. Anyway, Chamo hooked me up with a sweet blue mexican jersey and I'm digging it.

Another jersey that I brought with me that I wanted to get rid of was my "15 in the Bucket" jersey. This was the team that pulled the hooray play on disc 3 and despite the exposure I really didn't like it because it was black and it was too small on me. Everytime I wear it I hope someone recognizes it but up until this week it had never happened. Anyway, one of the mexican guys recognized my face from my disc 3 interview with Rob and I was blown away. Finally, I got what I was hoping for and I gave the jersey to the kid to take back to Mexico and show his friends the jersey that they'd all seen on an ultivillage DVD. I didn't want anything back because I was twice his size, but the jersey would fit him great and I hope he enjoys it. (I know this sounds crazy egotistical on my part, but I love this kind of shit)

Towards the end, I was happy with my trades but I still wanted to get rid of my Red UCSD '04 jersey. It was nice and made by underarmour but I don't like red because my hair is red. Anyway, I wandered over to the South Africa guys to shoot the shit and they were trying to get me to buy an SA jersey for 20 bucks. I didn't think it would fit but it did, and so I took it. However, I really like this whole trade thing and I wanted to give my new "brews" something to take back of mine. I plopped down my stash and asked my new buddy "Pinky" to pick his favorite. He asked which one I liked the best and as he was looking through he stopped at the red one with a very pleasing (for me), "ooh, I like this one". I wanted him to take it so I told him that it was the jersey from my captain year at UCSD (which it was) and he quickly took it off my hands. Sweeeet

Hitting the Town

Considering there is a party tonight and tomorrow at UBC campus and we still hadn't hit the bars in downtown, Alex and I went out into the city. We took the bus which was surprisingly effective (socal folks hate public transportation) and proceeded to walk up and down Granville St poking our heads in and seeing what was up. One thing worth mentioning was that as we got off the bus and started our journey, we came across two women, one of which started booting vigorously at like 9pm. 9pm?!?

We set the over/under at 3 bars and we totally over shot it. We started with a yaeger bomb and beer and then we went over to antoher bar for a car bomb and a pitcher of Hef (legit micro-brew). We met a few locals who seemed nice enough. A pair of ladies at the second bar were bar tenders and had a million drink ideas and were big whiskey drinkers which is always weird to hear out of a chick's mouth.

As the booze began to hit us we had up and down success with the bars. Some were off the hook an others were ehh. We had to pay a cover twice which sucked because one of the places was dead but you wouldn't know it until you got inside. We ended up at this poppin place however and Al and I hit the dance floor. We had hit enough sauce to keep the good times rolling and after about 2am I was getting tired. We hopped in a cab and went back to the dorms.

Closing Thoughts

We're gonna catch some semis action as well as some Masters and Juniors finals. It's been hard to catch games and write so sorry to folks that want more womens or mixed exposure. I'm doing my best and considering I'm not getting paid, I'm just going to go over to what interests me. I'm looking forward to another Japan/USA game. A lot of folks have been hoping that Japan was holding back in the first game, but I have my doubts. Had they been holding back, I don't think their rotation would be as tight. Who knows though?

I'm also stoked to see the Brits play my boys. I was really anticipating a Canada/Australia semi but it's always nice to see upsets. The one thing I find funny is that Canada will have to trade their white and reds for GB's white and reds as opposed to the yellow and green. Oh well.

stay tuned folks, we're coming down the stretch now.

just my thoughts

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