London, U.K. (June 25, 2016) – Well that was fun. After seven days of play against dozens of countries in way too many types of weather, the United States has emerged undefeated, sweeping all five competition divisions. The men’s and women’s masters teams earned their gold medals yesterday, while the men’s, mixed and women’s teams all played their championship games today.
The mixed final was the first of the three, and it went about as well as the U.S. could have hoped. They got their first break to go up 2-1, their first of four straight scores. They took half at 8-3 and rolled to a 15-6 victory. As it has been all week, the finals win was a full-team victory. Everyone worked hard on defense and played smart on offense. Twelve different people scored in the game, and the assists came from 11 different people. You really can’t spread the disc around much more than that. On the flip side, Tom Rogacki kept Australia alive, contributing on five of their six goals. No one was surprised about him being the go-to guy, so the U.S. worked to contain him by rotating Mac Taylor, Simon Higgins and Jack Hatchett as his defenders, all of them doing a great job to limit his influence. Likewise, U.S. women like Becca Miller played strong defensively against Dani Alexander, Australia’s biggest female threat. In the end, the U.S. mixed team was just a great team. Even with all the individual all-stars on the roster, they became a great team, and that carried them to gold in London.
The women’s final was up second. The U.S. faced Colombia who, like all the finals challengers today, we had faced earlier in the week. The U.S. jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the rain kicked in again. The breeze made the slippery disc even tougher to handle, which influenced some turns for both teams. Both teams alternated between zone and person defenses, hoping to slow down the high-powered offenses. Colombia is fast, and they aren’t afraid to take chances – both similar to characteristics of the U.S. offense. But today, the U.S. was more accurate and more patient, waiting for the right look to take their shots. Katy Craley and Georiga Bosscher both particularly stuck out today, Craley for her defense and ability to take over the middle of the field when cutting, and Bosscher for her incredible vision. She has been long known for her big playmaking ability, but this week, and today in particular, it has been her throws and ability to see cuts forming downfield that set her apart. Bosscher and Anna Nazarov finished WUGC tied for the lead in assists on the women’s team with 14 each. Colombia certainly had moments, and as has been noted elsewhere, they are an extremely young team. They have incredible potential for the future, but the U.S. ran away with the game today, winning gold 15-7.
The men’s championship game was the last of the day – the U.S. taking on Japan. In their earlier meeting, the U.S. won 15-12, but had been up big before allowing Japan to make a late run. Also of note, Japan’s best player – Masahiro Matsuno – didn’t play. So there was still some mystery heading into this afternoon’s game. The first few points were incredibly fast, smooth holds for both offenses. The first turn of the game came on a throw from Japan into the end zone. Dylan Freechild got up to make a great play on the disc, which popped into the air. Help D from Matt Rehder finished the job, and the U.S. got their first break. They got another on the next point after a poach block from Alan Kolick. The U.S. took those breaks to half, up 8-6. They got one more break in the second half, and it was enough. This was a great game across the board – big plays, smooth offense, intense defense, exciting individual match ups and great team play. Watching the quick U.S. men who are so good at handler coverage (Ryan Farrell, Russell Wynne, Dylan Freechild) try to contain the Japanese stars (Masahiro Matsuno, Taiyo Arakawa, Mizuho Tanaka), keeping an eye on how the American big men (Nick Stuart, Matt Rehder, Beau Kittredge) kept up with their much smaller opponents on defense and then exploited the size differences on offense – there was so much to take in. And again today, Joel Schlachet was huge for the U.S. He tallied an incredible six goals in the championship game, out running and out reading his defenders all over the place. To close it out, Jimmy Mickle found Cassidy Rasmussen on an easy throw into the end zone. U.S.A. wins 15-11 in a game that will be talked about for years.
Aside from the already astounding statistics about the U.S. sweeping WUGC, winning five gold medals, and going undefeated to put together a 45-0 record, possibly even more impressive is that in all five championship finals, the U.S. gave up exactly three breaks, and they all came in the women’s masters final, two in the first half and one in the second. That has to be an almost unprecedented efficiency rate, particularly against really quality teams.
The U.S. teams head home with five gold medals, a ton of wins and even more great moments they’ll remember forever. That’s what Worlds is about.
Saturday Results
Mixed def. Australia 15-6
Women def. Colombia 15-7
Men def. Japan 15-11