After two titanic semis we have an all North American final tomorrow!
August 15, 2025 by Sean Colfer in Recap
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The World Games will conclude tomorrow, with today’s games setting up an epic final. The consolation brackets were not streamed1 but Colombia weathered a late comeback from China to win 13-10 and Australia defeated Japan by the same scoreline. Both consolation games will be rematches tomorrow, with Colombia and Japan seemingly holding the advantage. In the medal bracket, Canada’s controlled the game against Germany to win 13-9, while USA fought off France in the second half to win by the same scoreline.
Canadian Offense Sparkles Again
The matchup between Canada and Germany seemed perfectly set up to deliver a close, exciting semifinal. Germany had pushed the USA hard, losing on universe point, and Canada was undefeated. The Canadian offense had yielded on three breaks on seven turns in the pool and looked like the best unit at the event.
The Germans started with an aggressive turnover from Levke Walczak, but managed to get the disc back and hold. They were less fortunate shortly afterwards, conceding a break following a point with several turns and a goal that was called back for a travel2. The break put them down 3-2, and their defense was struggling to get opportunities to level the contest. They had one at 4-4 when Mika Kuruhashi turned on a difficult reset, but excellent defense caused Walczak to throw a high-stall turn and Malik Auger-Semmar continued his excellent World Games with another goal.
Charlotte Schall turned a high-stall throw on the next possession, allowing Gagan Chatha to find Mark Lloyd for another break, and the teams traded to half to give Canada a two-break 7-5 lead.
The second half was extremely clean with incredibly high intensity from both teams. At 10-7, Germany’s David Metzger tried to fire an inside flick to Nico Muller that he couldn’t quite hang on to, and Lloyd found fellow captain Molly Wedge for another break to go up 11-7. A Lauren Kimura drop gave Germany a chance to take its first break, but Nici Prien rushed a deep shot and Thomas Edmonds found Quinn Snider for the hold.
The final point showed that the Canadian offense is at a point where even when things don’t work, they work. Auger-Semmar forced a throw to Kuruhashi at the front of the end zone after a remarkably patient build up. It popped up under pressure, Kuruhashi couldn’t corral it and it deflected into the end zone. Edmonds, seemingly out of nowhere, flew towards the disc and snatched it millimeters from the grass, sending Canada to only its second World Games final with the 13-9 win.
Edmonds has been an absolute rock for Canada in Chengdu as a central handler and has only turned once all tournament. Sarah Jacobsohn was the star downfield here, constantly winning their matchup on offense and providing energy on defense. Brittney Dos Santos, injured yesterday and unavailable for the rest of the tournament, was emotional after the game along with her teammates, who wore her number on their arms. Could Canada be the team of destiny?
USA Returns to the Final
The USA had not been perfect in the lead into the bracket, with the offense not clicking to close to the same level as its defense. Early on, the offensive struggles looked like a thing of the past. Two clean holds and a clean break after a drop from Paul Benvegnen had them 3-2 up. Carolyn Finney threw a huck straight to Leo Stanguennec, but hard work by Grant Lindsley got the disc back3 and Raphy Hayes found Henry Ing with a flick bomb.
A Stanguennec drop gave the USA its second break to go up 6-4. The game then got messier, with every other point before half featuring multiple turns. Finney threw another ill-advised huck, France threw some risky throws too, and both Chloe Ollivier and Sacha Poite-Sokolsky got blocks on throws that were a little too casual from the US. France managed to snatch a break back via Chloe Ollivier within the chaos but still went into half down one break at 7-6.
The US took that break back on its first defensive point of the second half. A huck turn by Elliot Bonnet allowed Lindsley to find Michael Ing. They took another immediately afterwards as another huck turn, this time by Benvegnen, allowed Finney to find Helton. The Americans led 10-6 and France’s prospects looked dim.
France’s next offensive point, after a four-minute water break due to the heat, seemed to spark them. A desperate huck by Chloe Vallet hung in the air, looking for Bonnet. Marques Brownlee and Michael Ing also converged on the disc and Brownlee got there first to knock it away. All he did, though, was knock it right into the arms of Chloe Ollivier, who had trailed the play and caught the quick-reaction goal. Her teammates flooded the field and hugged her as tightly as she clap caught the rebound.
Hayes dropped a simple catch on the next point, and Bonnet found Blanc. Then Brownlee threw too far in front of Claire Trop, and Ancelin found Ollivier. Then Groom threw too far in front of Helton, and all of a sudden it was 10-9 and France had the disc to level it up. Alas, Ollivier missed Vallet and gave the US the disc back. A flick huck from Hayes was toed in wonderfully by Dawn Culton just outside the end zone, and she hung it up for Henry Ing to catch another score despite the desperate pressure of Bornot, gamely trying despite giving up about a foot to Ing.
France looked spent. The American defense had pushed the French hard all game, making them take more resets and cut two or three times more every point to score. The hard work told, and the US broke twice to take victory through Brownlee and Henry Ing. The younger Ing had four goals and an assist in the game, benefitting several times from the superiority of the American deep game. Ollivier played outstanding defense and scored three goals while Bonnet threw four assists and scored a goal, too. In the end, the US defense was enough to seal a huge win and send them back to the final.
Tomorrow’s Action
The USA will play Canada in the final for the first time since 2001, when Canada won its only World Games gold. That game will be at 5:30 AM ET. Germany will play France in the bronze game at 3:30 AM, with both countries seeking their first medal at these games.
For those readers concerned about the fantasy implications of this, film of the game does exist and stats will be taken from that. ↩
Jakob Dieckmann threw an open side flick huck, but he clearly took a couple of hop steps to his right before releasing the throw. ↩
Benvegnen retracted a foul call on Lindsley’s box out in the end zone. ↩
