Revolution's not the only Colombian team worth paying to.
July 15, 2018 by Daniel Prentice in News, Recap with 0 comments
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With so few top teams playing each other, there weren’t many meaningful story lines to emerge from Women’s competition on Sunday. The top eight seeds all went 2-0 and had a total goal difference of nearly 15, on average. The top eight weren’t all completely untested, however. HUCK (JPN) barely survived a double game point scare against Traffic (CAN), Molly Brown (USA) faced a halftime deficit against Ellipsis (AUS), and Brute Squad (USA) and Ozone (USA) both played in closer than expected games. But, in truth, none of the medal contenders were really ever that worried through their two opening games.
The biggest story from the day was the unlikely 0-2 start for Traffic. They were the highest seed (11th) to go winless on the day.1 While their loss to HUCK wasn’t an upset by seed, their 14-12 loss to AeroSoul (COL) in their opening game certainly was. The 0-2 won’t end their tournament, but for a team that would have had hopes making a deep run in the bracket, it was a disastrous start for the Vancouver club. They have two very winnable games on Monday against Sirens (CHN) and SYC (GBR), but now there’s a very real pressure to win those games that wouldn’t have been as high had their Sunday gone more to plan.
Of course, there is the flip side of Traffic’s bad start, and that’s AeroSoul’s strong one. AeroSoul proved there’s not just one Colombian team to pay attention to with their Sunday results. The win over Traffic was obviously their biggest result of the day, but they upset 19th seed SYC to end the day as well. Natalia Gomez (nine goals, one assists) and Yina Mendoza (four goals, 10 assists) both had big days and led the way in the team’s winning efforts.
Brilliance (RUS) also put together a surprising 2-0 day with dominant wins over YAKA (FRA) and Fusion (CAN). Brilliance’s success was built on an even reliance across their roster, as only three of their 21 players registered neither a goal nor an assist. Olga Podolskaia and Aleksandra Pustovaya, though, did lead the way by each posting a combined nine goals and assists. Many of the Russian team’s players were members of the Russian team that won gold at the World Championships of Beach Ultimate in 2017, and it seems as though they have their sights set on another stunning medal. They’ve yet to play the the top seed in their pool, Brute Squad, but if their Sunday performance is any indication, it’s not a game Brute should take lightly.
YAKA (FRA), the 15 seed, also went 0-2 ↩
