The second game of the day was against the Irish team. They had come out of a very tough pool that saw them go 0-5 with Columbia and Venezuela advancing to the upper bracket and shaking up the standings. They started the day with beating Netherlands and were very fired up to show that they were better than their record. We were very eager to play some good ultimate and establish our position in the lower bracket.
The game started out by trading points. The D-line was able to get a turn or two, but unable to convert into any points. The O-line was able to match the Irish for the first few points and we quickly found the game at 3-3. The D-line was able to get a turn and moved the disc down the field. James made a huge catch down the line and got slammed by an Irish player. Unfortunately, the Irish were able to reset their defense and able to shut down the dump to Ankur. After that, the Irish quickly started to take a few points advantaged and ran up the score.
Unfortunately, South Africa wasn’t able to recover. The Irish were able to take half at 9-4. The D-line went back out, but wasn’t able to get the disc back. The O-line was able to make some great movement of the field, but once again, the end zone remained elusive. The Irish threw on a junk defense that seemed to frustrate our offense and we then found ourselves down 13-4.
The O-line came back on and rediscovered a little of their magic. Pete ended up throwing a big huck up to Finn who skied an Irish player to come down with it, hit the ground on the way down, to have the disc pop up into the air, flipped around, and complete the catch with the disc landing on his chest. It was a pretty great circus catch.
The D-line was back on the field and Jit, with our 60 seconds between pulls, decided to teach us a clam. Tavish, Ankur, and myself took the handlers, Chris, Jit, and James took the clam, and Mike took the deep. Ankur trapped a handler in the back corner of the end zone, and on stall 9, they managed to hammer out and Mike crashed in to D it. But he wasn’t able to get it, and the Irish were heading to the endzone. But for running a defense that we learned about 15 seconds before the pull, we did a pretty damn good job. Other than not getting the D.
Well, the score tells the rest of the story. After the game, we circled up and gave credit where it was due. The Irish simple outplayed us. We would have loved to play better, but sometimes a bad game just happens. Tomorrow, we are looking to get back to some good, beautiful Ultimate against Germany and the Netherlands. Sorry for the short blog tonight, but we ended up having a great time tonight with the whole team. We'll post about it tomorrow and also about the awesome game we had against Mexico! Just a short post tonight (a little bit tired at the moment), but definitely more to come.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Shut the blog up!
Selected quotes from the past few days, both on field and off.
“Steve, that is such a shit throw. We are fucking better than that.”--A very supportive and positive Ryan. On the other hand, I couldn’t argue with that. My up-wind forehand didn’t even qualify for a swilly throw.
“He’s fuckin’ huge!”--James on marking the Canadians
“There’s something poking into my back”--Jit
“My hands are right here”--Johnny
“She must have a good forehand”--anonymous
"Push Harder"--Chris to Mike
“Steve, that is such a shit throw. We are fucking better than that.”--A very supportive and positive Ryan. On the other hand, I couldn’t argue with that. My up-wind forehand didn’t even qualify for a swilly throw.
“He’s fuckin’ huge!”--James on marking the Canadians
“There’s something poking into my back”--Jit
“My hands are right here”--Johnny
“She must have a good forehand”--anonymous
"Push Harder"--Chris to Mike
La Dolce Vita
So I’m going to get through the bad news right off the bat: We lost. It was pretty disappointing, but I can honestly say that we left everything on the field and played our hearts out. The O-line played fantastically. They attacked the disc, they made huge throws, and amazing catches. This was definitely their game, and it was a beautiful thing to watch.
The D-line started the game off, but the Italians were able to break through our zone. We’ve been playing a very basic 3-3-1, but always pushing to one side and trying to trap on the side line. The cup was composed of Steve (pushing or trying to stop the dump), Chris or Brent playing banana, and Ankur or Tavesh playing upline. Jit usually played hammer stopper with James on one of the wings. The other wing was taken by whoever in the cup needed a break. Mike covered us all and played deep.
The O-line came out and immediately showed us how it was done. They moved the disc down the field with sharp, short, precise passing to about half way and then Pinky broke free and Andre put up a big pass. I have to admit, I thought it was going to be a turn. But Pinky pulled off a twisting, turning layout leaping into the endzone to match the Italians.
The D-line went back out for a fairly monumental point that involved about three turns. It would have been much shorter if Ankur was able to grab the disk as he was flying down the field for a Callahan. He was so damn close. Unfortunately though, we just could not find the endzone. And I have all the grass burns to prove how hard we tried. Unfortunately, after this, the Italians wet on a little bit of a run before Coach Johnny called a timeout with RSA down 5-1. This gave the O-line time to regroup and focus on the job that you had to do. With a quick connection from Pete to Andre, South Africa was back on the board!
There was no luck on the next point for the D-line as Italy found their way to the endzone again, but the O-line came right back with Pete connecting with Andre again (Get use to it, it will be a common theme--Andre was putting up some great passes and pulling down throws all over the place. Pete showed us all why he was a great player with huge throws from anywhere on the field). Pete stayed on for a D-line point. We managed to get the first turn when Italy threw it away but we ended up turning it over in the endzone. We set the zone again and Pete came up with a big D and a quick push pass leading to the first D-line score and pulling us back a little bit closer. Italy called a timeout, regrouped, and then took half at 9-5.
The O-line started the second half, but wasn’t able to initially find the endzone. A timeout by Coach Johnny allowed everyone to focus on playing great, fun, sexy ultimate. The O-line took the coaches words to heart and played an amazing point. Finn and Andre were cutting like mad in the middle, catching passes underneath constantly. Michael Weston and Pinky made great catches with Italians climbing on their backs. Pete and Ryan and Martin were in complete control in the back. The O-line just eased the disc up the field and Pete snuck it in the endzone with a break force to Pinky.
The D-line definitely came back out the next point to play. Italy was able to move it up, but eventually threw it away. We were definitely ready to take advantage of it and we emulated the O-line with some super smooth Ultimate and move it up the field. Plenty of open cuts and straight passes led to a quick score by Mike H from Jit. We stayed on for another point, but we weren’t able to turn the Italians back. The Italians then went on another run to find us down 12-7. But we weren’t finished yet!
The O-line rediscovered their magic and Andre found Finn on a great scoring play just pass a diving Italian player. Johnny kept the O-line on for another one and they were able to get a turn with some great D by Andre. They moved the disc slowly down the field and then stalled out near the endzone. And then the play of the game happened.
Martin Whiting managed to reach into his bag of trips and sneak away from his defender into the back of the endzone. He is a wily, old player and he definitely fooled his younger defender by slipping away and settling into the far back corner. Pete Rive through up a huge, bending blade just beyond the reach of Martin’s defender and Martin made the catch look easy like a Sunday morning. Martin is actually our new deep receiver.
The D-line was so fired up by Martin’s catch that we ran down there and threw on a super hot cup. Jit followed a crasher into the cup and picked the disk out of the air. A super short pass led to another SA score and brought us to 12-10 and scared the Italians enough to call another time out.
Italy roared back and scored the next two points, which was followed by another great O point. We traded points again with another hot O-line point and then came up to game point and our backs against the wall. The D-line was able to squeeze in one more point with Ankur and Jit starting to click. Overheard from the field from Ankur, “Oh, now I know how you are going to cut.” It only took five days.
But Italy was able to score the final point and take the game. They definitely deserved the game, and it was a hard, physical game. There were a lot of foul calls on both side, but many of them were non-contested. The circle at the end was great; and although we were definitely disappointed with the loss, we were very happy with how we played.
The D-line started the game off, but the Italians were able to break through our zone. We’ve been playing a very basic 3-3-1, but always pushing to one side and trying to trap on the side line. The cup was composed of Steve (pushing or trying to stop the dump), Chris or Brent playing banana, and Ankur or Tavesh playing upline. Jit usually played hammer stopper with James on one of the wings. The other wing was taken by whoever in the cup needed a break. Mike covered us all and played deep.
The O-line came out and immediately showed us how it was done. They moved the disc down the field with sharp, short, precise passing to about half way and then Pinky broke free and Andre put up a big pass. I have to admit, I thought it was going to be a turn. But Pinky pulled off a twisting, turning layout leaping into the endzone to match the Italians.
The D-line went back out for a fairly monumental point that involved about three turns. It would have been much shorter if Ankur was able to grab the disk as he was flying down the field for a Callahan. He was so damn close. Unfortunately though, we just could not find the endzone. And I have all the grass burns to prove how hard we tried. Unfortunately, after this, the Italians wet on a little bit of a run before Coach Johnny called a timeout with RSA down 5-1. This gave the O-line time to regroup and focus on the job that you had to do. With a quick connection from Pete to Andre, South Africa was back on the board!
There was no luck on the next point for the D-line as Italy found their way to the endzone again, but the O-line came right back with Pete connecting with Andre again (Get use to it, it will be a common theme--Andre was putting up some great passes and pulling down throws all over the place. Pete showed us all why he was a great player with huge throws from anywhere on the field). Pete stayed on for a D-line point. We managed to get the first turn when Italy threw it away but we ended up turning it over in the endzone. We set the zone again and Pete came up with a big D and a quick push pass leading to the first D-line score and pulling us back a little bit closer. Italy called a timeout, regrouped, and then took half at 9-5.
The O-line started the second half, but wasn’t able to initially find the endzone. A timeout by Coach Johnny allowed everyone to focus on playing great, fun, sexy ultimate. The O-line took the coaches words to heart and played an amazing point. Finn and Andre were cutting like mad in the middle, catching passes underneath constantly. Michael Weston and Pinky made great catches with Italians climbing on their backs. Pete and Ryan and Martin were in complete control in the back. The O-line just eased the disc up the field and Pete snuck it in the endzone with a break force to Pinky.
The D-line definitely came back out the next point to play. Italy was able to move it up, but eventually threw it away. We were definitely ready to take advantage of it and we emulated the O-line with some super smooth Ultimate and move it up the field. Plenty of open cuts and straight passes led to a quick score by Mike H from Jit. We stayed on for another point, but we weren’t able to turn the Italians back. The Italians then went on another run to find us down 12-7. But we weren’t finished yet!
The O-line rediscovered their magic and Andre found Finn on a great scoring play just pass a diving Italian player. Johnny kept the O-line on for another one and they were able to get a turn with some great D by Andre. They moved the disc slowly down the field and then stalled out near the endzone. And then the play of the game happened.
Martin Whiting managed to reach into his bag of trips and sneak away from his defender into the back of the endzone. He is a wily, old player and he definitely fooled his younger defender by slipping away and settling into the far back corner. Pete Rive through up a huge, bending blade just beyond the reach of Martin’s defender and Martin made the catch look easy like a Sunday morning. Martin is actually our new deep receiver.
The D-line was so fired up by Martin’s catch that we ran down there and threw on a super hot cup. Jit followed a crasher into the cup and picked the disk out of the air. A super short pass led to another SA score and brought us to 12-10 and scared the Italians enough to call another time out.
Italy roared back and scored the next two points, which was followed by another great O point. We traded points again with another hot O-line point and then came up to game point and our backs against the wall. The D-line was able to squeeze in one more point with Ankur and Jit starting to click. Overheard from the field from Ankur, “Oh, now I know how you are going to cut.” It only took five days.
But Italy was able to score the final point and take the game. They definitely deserved the game, and it was a hard, physical game. There were a lot of foul calls on both side, but many of them were non-contested. The circle at the end was great; and although we were definitely disappointed with the loss, we were very happy with how we played.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Images from Day 3
Strategy Session
Darren 'Pinky' Rennie stands his ground against the Swedes
Captain Andre
Mike Weston
After a strenuous game against the Swedes, Coach John refused to move for the line marking guys, forcing them to draw around him
Finn tackles the Layout Slippery SlideSwedish Fish
Tomorrow, we have a really important game against Italy.
Seriously though, we had some really positive things happen in the Sweden game. We were able to move the disc a lot, make great cuts, throw a lot of breaks, and we layed out all over the pitch. Sweden just made us pay for any small mistake we made. They had some amazing points (highlighted by Finn and a Swedish player both making a huge, huge ten meter long layouts for the disc which was just inches out of Finn's reach). It was a good game to have, we are still learning constantly, and I think we will be ready to take on Italy. I'm looking forward to a really, really good game against Italy. I have no doubt that everyone is going to give it there all and play the best they can.
We're going to take it easy tonight, hang out as a team, and just enjoy the great group of guys that are here. Tomorrow, we have a big game against Italy.
Seriously though, we had some really positive things happen in the Sweden game. We were able to move the disc a lot, make great cuts, throw a lot of breaks, and we layed out all over the pitch. Sweden just made us pay for any small mistake we made. They had some amazing points (highlighted by Finn and a Swedish player both making a huge, huge ten meter long layouts for the disc which was just inches out of Finn's reach). It was a good game to have, we are still learning constantly, and I think we will be ready to take on Italy. I'm looking forward to a really, really good game against Italy. I have no doubt that everyone is going to give it there all and play the best they can.
We're going to take it easy tonight, hang out as a team, and just enjoy the great group of guys that are here. Tomorrow, we have a big game against Italy.
Don't taco the disc
After Ryan taco a disc, Tavish tried to fix (aka 'steal') the disc on the sideline.
Ryan and Andre, impatient for a game disc, asked "Tavish, why are you standing there, where is the disc?"
Tavish's reply "I'm not a fucking official."
And all of Canada burst out laughing.
Ryan and Andre, impatient for a game disc, asked "Tavish, why are you standing there, where is the disc?"
Tavish's reply "I'm not a fucking official."
And all of Canada burst out laughing.
Oh Canada
I'm blaming the jet lag. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Because despite some great offense, some wonderful passing, we just couldn't find the endzone. The important lesson we learned in the first half though was that despite the score, we could definitely run with Canada. We could get open, we could make break passes, and our hozo offense was working. So the first half blanking was a little embarrassing, but it was filled with missed opportunites. Pinky had an amazing layout that he just missed by inches. Finn through an awesome break that was fumbled in the endzone. And I almost slipped a break around that my marker just got a finger on and Mike was able to pick up. Too many missed opportunities, but still a promising start to the day.
But we were able to regroup at halftime. We slowed down and took some deep breaths. And we decided to keep playing as hard as we could. We still gave up a few more to Canada before we finally broke through. The O-line did an amazing job of working it down the field with great swings and tight cuts from the stack. Finally, Pete found Andre in the endzone to open up the floodgates. It may habe been 12-1, but we were finally on the board and new we could play against them. The D-line couldn't turn back Canada on the next point, but the O-line came right back out firing on all cylanders. Jit through up a nice hammer to Pete and Canada had a massive D on it, but Pinky was in the perfect place to pick it up off the ground. Canada had two quick points and then it was the D lines turn to get on the board. Ryan made a great break throw to Mike who then led an open side cutting Tavish for another South African score. Canada scored again and we put out a hot line of Andre, Pete, Ryan, James, Finn, Mike H., and myself. This was an intense point with several turns on both sides. Harbor had some awesome D's against some of the top Canadian players and then we were able to finally move it down the field. Pete found James in the endzone for the fourth South African score.
Canada closed out the game on the next point, but we definitely played a great second half against them. We definitely had some great D's and awesome O. The team is coming together well with some beautiful O and lots of intense D. Next up, is another tough game against Sweden, and then the big day tomorrow!
But a big up to Bridget (Sweat Chilli) and the Canadian mixed team. They came back against Japan from 15-11 down to win 17-16 ! How aboot that, eh?
But we were able to regroup at halftime. We slowed down and took some deep breaths. And we decided to keep playing as hard as we could. We still gave up a few more to Canada before we finally broke through. The O-line did an amazing job of working it down the field with great swings and tight cuts from the stack. Finally, Pete found Andre in the endzone to open up the floodgates. It may habe been 12-1, but we were finally on the board and new we could play against them. The D-line couldn't turn back Canada on the next point, but the O-line came right back out firing on all cylanders. Jit through up a nice hammer to Pete and Canada had a massive D on it, but Pinky was in the perfect place to pick it up off the ground. Canada had two quick points and then it was the D lines turn to get on the board. Ryan made a great break throw to Mike who then led an open side cutting Tavish for another South African score. Canada scored again and we put out a hot line of Andre, Pete, Ryan, James, Finn, Mike H., and myself. This was an intense point with several turns on both sides. Harbor had some awesome D's against some of the top Canadian players and then we were able to finally move it down the field. Pete found James in the endzone for the fourth South African score.
Canada closed out the game on the next point, but we definitely played a great second half against them. We definitely had some great D's and awesome O. The team is coming together well with some beautiful O and lots of intense D. Next up, is another tough game against Sweden, and then the big day tomorrow!
But a big up to Bridget (Sweat Chilli) and the Canadian mixed team. They came back against Japan from 15-11 down to win 17-16 ! How aboot that, eh?
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