Worlds Day 5 - Who is Sexy... Wayne Gretzky

Pool play ended today for us as the Jr. Open team played both France and Columbia. The challenge for us was to beat Columbia by at least 4 to assure that we would get the bye into the semifinals. Of course, we couldn't discount France on our way to playing Columbia.

Pictured Above: An attempted hand block by the Irish on the Netherlands. The Netherland jerseys are quite popular with the Canadian Jr. Open.

In our game against France, we came out with strong Canadian defense that pushed the french team into a bunch of errors. They were definitely not prepared for our physical style and commented on it in the circle. I've been debating with the guys whether we should have dropped our aggression to their level, or expected them to pick up their aggression to ours. A question for both teams to debate. Regardless, we won the game convincingly and looked towards Columbia.

Pictured Above: Australia and USA in pursuit of a huck in the showcase game.

The pressure was on the guys to perform, and our D showed their metal once again by digging Columbia into a 4-0 deficit. From there, things kept on rolling to a 9-2 half. We never looked back, and other than some great back and forth points we found ourselves with a score that will likely guarantee the bye we were looking for. That and our team is hitting on all cylinders with some great adjustments and team step ups.

Pictured Above: Two french players practice their fencing skills in between games.

As for the rest of the tournament, I was stuck out at the satellite fields for the day. I caught some of the Netherlands vs. Ireland Open, Mexico vs. South Africa Open, and Dominican Republic vs. Germany Open. All three games were lower bracket games, but still enjoyable with lots of bids.

Pictured Above: The domino spike made by the Dominican's after their point.

After waiting for buses, I got back to the fields to catch the showcase game featuring the USA and Australia Open. We came into the game when they werre trading points, but after a few errors by the Australians the game opened up, and USA walked away with the win. Canada Open took Japan in power pools, meaning that it's quite possible that we'll see the USA vs. Canada matchup. On the other hand, playoff games are a different beast than round robin.

Pictured Above: A Mexican thrower coking his flick.

Finally, on my way back from the game, I caught some exhibition guts. I really enjoyed watching the game. It was Japan vs. a mixed International team, and these guys were throwing the disc hard (as expected) at each other. It looked like lots of fun, and the Japanese were making the game exciting by whooping it up for every exciting play they made. Maybe I've found something new to play, and we got a guts disc in the tournament bags.

PJ