A thrilling end to a fascinating day in Birmingham thanks to (probably) the four best women's teams at the tournament!
July 23, 2024 by Benjamin Rees in Recap with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 World Junior Ultimate Championships is presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.
When teams pulled back the curtains this morning to the sights and sounds of heavy rain, they could have been forgiven for treating it as a bad omen for a tough day of play. Instead, by the time the games got underway this morning the sun was streaming through the clouds to provide the background to another fascinating day in England’s West Midlands. As the intensity ramps up with teams needing vital victories to progress, who was able to live up to expectations and keep their championship dreams alive?
Open Division
The initial pool play phase is still going on but wraps up tomorrow. France and USA continued their winning streaks in Pool A, with France besting Great Britain 15-10 and Colombia 15-5 to move to the top of the pool. The Americans beat Switzerland 15-6 in their only game of the day, and they face Colombia in the morning, where a win would set up a mouthwatering encounter between them and France to see who tops the pool. Great Britain bounced back from their morning loss to triumph 15-8 over Singapore to give themselves the inside on third place; Switzerland’s 15-8 win over Australia means that beating Singapore in the morning would guarantee them fourth at worst.
Pool B also has two undefeated titans at the top in Canada and Italy. While Italy’s progress today was relatively serene with 15-5 and 15-2 wins over China and Ireland respectively, the Canadians were pushed in a pair of 15-12 victories over Germany and New Zealand. If you want to watch a guaranteed banger at any point in this tournament, find out where the Katipō are playing and head over, as they churn out classic after classic. Sadly they continue to come out on the wrong side of those contests, as they also went down 15-13 in a barnburner against Belgium in the morning. They will likely be on the outside looking in to the quarter-finals, which feels harsh on a team that has consistently delivered entertaining games and could knock off a number of those teams on their day. Germany, Belgium, and Japan will scrap for the remaining places tomorrow; Japan play both of their quarter-final rivals and have their fate in their own hands.
Mixed Division
Power Pool play started today, with the top two finishers in each pool earning themselves byes into the quarter-finals. Singapore are in the driving seat in Pool E, having overcome Italy 11-9 in the morning and following that up with an impressive 12-5 win over Colombia after lunch, continuing to bear the fruits of their almost archetypal small-scale offense – against the Italians they hucked it, at most, three times all game, which is highly unusual at any age group but especially at U20 where most players love airing it out. Italy then stumbled against Austria who triumphed 15-9. Tomorrow morning’s games pit Singapore against Austria and Italy against Colombia – an Austrian victory would see them top the pool on head-to-head, but if Singapore can hold them off then the result in the other game becomes all the more important, with Italy having a chance at the bye if they can win and emerge top of a three-way tie, while a Colombian success should see them nab a free pass to quarters instead.
Pool F is much more straightforward. Canada and USA both had big wins over the Netherlands and Poland, securing themselves the afternoon off. They’ll play tomorrow to decide the pool winner in a potential preview of Saturday’s final1. The game between Poland and the Netherlands will sort the seedings at the bottom of the pool to determine who each will face in the crossover rounds in the afternoon.
Women’s Division
The power pool places have been decided, with the last remaining place still in the balance seized confidently by Japan by virtue of a 15-8 victory over New Zealand. In what was an even game to start, a Japan team that has shown remarkable growth over the past few days and is really beginning to knit everything together ran away with things in the second half. They progress from Pool B alongside France and Canada who produced a remarkable game to close out proceedings for the day.
The French had barely been flustered in their previous four matches, but Canada exploded out of the traps with an intensity that caught their opponents off-guard, and at the point France took a timeout to steady themselves they were already 4-0 in arrears and conceded another break out of the timeout. Many would have wilted under the pressure, but France are evidently made of sterner stuff, and began to claw away at the deficit as Canada went into the interval with an 8-5 advantage.
The second half could not have been more different from the first, with swarming French defenders not allowing Canada room to even breathe, winning the second stanza 10-1 en route to a 15-9 final score that made France’s victory seem a lot more rudimentary than it actually was. “It was difficult to play with serenity, Canada’s defense is so good,” reflected French coach Christophe Delpeche, who noted that in order to help players settle they broke the game down to minimize the scale of the deficit. “We play point after point, a ‘Universe’ attitude.” It’s a philosophy that might prove fruitful at the business end of the week.
Canada assistant coach Victoria Lam acknowledged the head of steam their opponents were able to generate, remarking that Ultimate is “a huge game of momentum swings, and I think we could have maybe called another timeout to try and settle, the mentality of just resetting.” They were however able to take positives from the performance, especially considering the reduced training time they were able to have pre-tournament compared to their European counterparts. “We definitely have to use the beginning of the tournament to build so we definitely have many steps that we can kick into, and are excited for the rest of the tournament.” If whatever is left serves up a rematch of this one, every spectator will be just as excited.
USA began their day in Pool A by confidently dispatching a spirited Great Britain side 15-1, generating lots of positive momentum going into their final pool match against Italy, who had a strong victory in the morning as well as they saw off Germany 15-7.
When the two undefeated sides clashed in the afternoon there was much intrigue about how each side would manage apparently stiffer opposition. The game started with both sides trading holds until 4-3, at which point USA managed to work in the game’s first two breaks to earn a 6-3 advantage, at which point both teams began the back-and forth once again, trading to send the Americans into the break looking good value for the 8-5 scoreline. Italy roared back when the second half began, putting USA under pressure for the first time all tournament. They extended points with crafty zone defenses, and showed great hands and composure under pressure as they fought their way back to level proceedings at 10s. When the Americans threw a scoring shot behind Caroleen DeWolf, Italy picked up with a chance to take their first lead of the contest, but Sofia Albani’s possession saving layout attempt was in vain, and the US punched it in after the turn for a lead they would never relinquish.
When the Italians surrendered a break on the following point it felt like the opportunity for the enormous upset might have passed them by, and their fears were confirmed in devastating fashion. ZsaZsa Gelfand produced a powerhouse pull that pinned Italy at the back line of their own endzone, and the first pass floated into the hands of Opal Burress to provide a dagger of a Callahan from which the Italians could not recover, with USA running out 15-10 winners. On a team studded with stars2, captain Chloe Hakimi provided a virtuoso performance with two goals, four assists and two blocks to go with just a solitary turnover.
The importance of the victory and the manner in which it occurred was not lost on head coach DeAnna Ball. “I think it was a great challenge for us given where we’d been in our earlier games. I think we needed it, we needed to see where we were stacking up against the other teams right now. It was a good time for it.”
Italy coach Gaia Pancotti was of a similar mindset as well, noting “it was super exciting because we tried to keep the intensity high and I think we proved [ourselves] to the USA”, although she did add, somewhat jokingly, “we hope now we don’t face the USA in the semifinal,” sensible sentiments that many in the grounds selfishly do not share. I, along with the overwhelming majority in attendance, would happily watch these two superb teams match up again, and again, and again3. The way both are playing, there’s a decent possibility we might get the chance to.
Tomorrow marks the halfway point of a WJUC that has absolutely flown by. With the top Women’s teams squaring up in the power pool, Mixed beginning bracket play, and an Open division that has qualification permutations that would knock Nate Silver for six, Wednesday promises to be the most madcap day yet. I can’t wait.
