Great Britain playing Australia in the Open division was in the end another game about the ability to score upwind. Great Britain took an early lead off of an upwind huck, but could not preserve it until halftime. Down 8-6 Australia ran off a string of 3 points to take half 9-8. Great Britain battled back, getting one upwind point in the second half, carrying that lead all the way to 14-13. Despite the Aussies having chances to get it back on the upwind, the Great Britain offense held for the 16-14 victory.
Canada and USA have quite the Ultimate history: those who were at WUGC 2008 in Vancouver will remember the gold medal game where the Canadians took down the Americans. However, the rivalry doesn’t end there, as both club teams that lay the basis for these nationals teams, Furious George for Canada and Revolver for USA, are regional rivals within the U.S. club series. Both squads are already familiar with each other, which sets up for a great match-up. Although many expected this to the be the finals, one of these teams will be out of contention early. Team USA is still undefeated going into this semifinal, while Canada has one loss to Japan in power pools. Expect a physical, gritty defensive game; both teams have the ability to score quickly and will likely do so with little to no wind in the forecast.
Sweden upsets Japan in a shocker: All it took was a little change in the weather and Sweden has found themselves in the semifinals of the open division. Utilizing the right strategy and executing in the wind, they stole a win from favorite Japan. With the wind blowing at 30-45 kph, Sweden employed a tall zone from the get go, making it incredibly difficult for Japan to move it upwind. On the downwind points they relied on hucking from any position on the field didn’t waste any time looking for the underneath cuts and finding main target Sebastian Sporrong, who led the way with 3 assists and 5 goals. Sweden found ways to score over the smaller Japanese upwind with 50-50s and other varieties of floaty passes, building a 9-6 halftime lead and never looking back. They also had their hands on two more discs in the upwind end zone, but couldn’t reel those in. Sweden will go on to face Great Britain in the semi-finals.
Mixed: USA, Canada, Australia, and Japan advance to the semifinals. The winner of USA vs. Canada and Australia vs. Japan will advance to the finals.
Women’s: Japan’s victory over Canada gives them Colombia in the 1 vs. 4 seed semifinal, while Canada will have to go through 3-seed USA to advance to the finals.
Masters: After intentionally throwing the first game against team USA in order to play them again in the semis, Canada won the game that mattered, beating the Americans 17-12.
Newsletter organized by Skyd Magazine. Check out skydmagazine.com for more coverage.