Assertive counterattacks and brilliant play in the deep space powered France to their first ever World Games medal.
August 18, 2025 by Edward Stephens in Analysis, Recap
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Europe’s best teams met on Saturday with a medal on the line. Both Germany and France had smashed expectations — not only the raw results, but also in the way that they had played for four days — to reach the game. France came away with the 13-11 win largely by challenging Germany aggressively with their throws (much in the way that Germany had been challenging every opponent they had faced), especially after turnovers, and otherwise exhibiting extreme focus and patience in the backfield as they sniffed out Germany’s poach sets.
Germany had reached the bronze game on the strength of their defensive playmaking and all-gas throwing after turnovers — especially from the likes of Conrad Schlör, Levke Walczak, and Paul Herkens — as well as through an offense that capitalized on handler Nico Müller’s omnipresent threat as a thrower on offense when he had even a hint of an open canvas in front of him. France began the game defensively by taking care not to let Müller get so much as a sniff of a big throwing window, herding the German offense toward the backhand sideline to force more a more strained (though ultimately successful) score. They would continue to restrict Müller’s options for the remainder of the game, and, save for a single point, he never became much of an danger. The German offense remained somewhat effective in the hands of Ava Mueller, David Metzger, and Charlotte Schall, but the quick strike confidence that had served them so well in pool play was largely absent.
Germany’s second hold came as Schlör turned a jabstep in the lane into a graceful dash to the endzone, towing a gaggle of hopeless French defenders behind him like the ends of a royal cape. The deep ball from Metzger was both exactly where it needed to be and a rare moment of dominance for an offense that spent most of the game in various stages of discomfort.
Slowing down an offense is one thing, but keeping the ferocious German defense from earning breaks is quite another. Paul Benvegnen, continuing his fine work as the maestro of the French offense, opened the scoring with a visionary floaty backhand where only Léo Stanguennec could pull it down. That first hold was clean, but on their second possession an full-field Benvegnen shot caught too much of a tailwind and sailed beyond the (considerable) catching range of star Elliot Bonnet. Would they be able to contain Germany’s signature lightning strike counter? As it turned out, they were lucky: Schlör, the leader of so many of those strikes, was not on the field for that point, and Germany gave the disc back in a few passes without a shot on goal.
One part of Germany’s defensive plan was already clear by that point. They did everything they could to flood the throwing lanes with extra bodies, which in practice usually meant a defender peeling away from one of the FMP handlers and taking up a position in the lane. More often than not, the poached player was Salomé Raulet. The fact that the defense chose to leave her open so often meant that she would have a much larger impact on this game than in the previous four. Here’s an example of what Germany did with regularity throughout the game:
Raulet’s steady hand — she often had to make the fulcrum throw on field-switching swing plays while keeping an eye out for German flash poaches — in these situations made it, in the end, a bad gamble for Germany. They would not earn their turnovers by funneling touches to less tested members of the backfield.
France’s stinginess with letting the the German offense see big spaces paid off in the game’s fifth point. They pushed Müller to the sideline, put on a flat mark to limit his hucking options, and stuck two defenders in the near space. Müller tried to put a touch forehand to an awkward space, and Simon Ruelle (who was locked in on defense all game) sailed in to take advantage of the slight misjudgment of weight. The French did not stop to gather themselves before pushing to the endzone, they just went full-speed before the Germans could set up a scheme. How German of them.
Germany brought the game back on serve following tremendous layout block from Herkens, who had Bonnet’s undercut measured to the inch, but the French would once again leap ahead by bullying a turnover on the backhand side of the field. In a rare mistake, perhaps in response to seeing a poach running to block off the wider part of the throwing lane toward the center of the field, Schlör elected to try a short barbecue backhand instead of a throw from higher up or farther away from his body, and Stanguennec point-blocked it. Again the French prioritized getting the disc moving before setting up an offense, and again the Germany defense had trouble coordinating themselves. By the time they were in their places, Gaël Ancelin had the disc centered just outside of the attacking endzone. He fell over to break the mark for a score:
While the throw itself was remarkable, the trust the French put into Ancelin to run the D-line offense was fairly standard for this World Games side. He has been a constant force behind the disc during their medal run, with the license to control the pace, stretch the field, or take risks as he has seen fit. Certainly Ancelin threw plenty of misses as part of that gargantuan effort, but the errors are nothing compared to the temerity and unflappability of his presence. Handing the D-line offense over to him allowed the entire team to borrow from his immense stores of experience and self-belief.
Playing with the lead, France had a couple of breakdowns on defense — two points in a row of allowing a German huck score within three throws was not the game plan — but made up for it with continued disciplined play on offense. Raulet’s swing passes, despite Germany forcing longer, more fraught flight paths, were even better at the beginning of the second half than they had been in the first. She drove the offense to two consecutive clean holds to open the second period. When France finally turned it, it was on a possession where she had left the handler space. Sacha Poitte-Sokolsky, perhaps having grown used to the free reset that had been available for so much of the game, tried a casual dump pass for a marked MMP who was cutting to clear the space. Germany jumped all over the turnover and tied the game in their typical fashion: in the blink of an eye and punctuated with an away pass.
The pivotal moment came one point later. France had made steady progress to just inside half-field when Bonnet, disc in hand, rather than play for the open side, shimmied to move his mark out of inside flick space. The throw was a dud. It OI hooked well out of reach of everyone, giving Germany the disc with a chance to take a late lead. The French O-line defense, like their D-line had been doing, funneled Germany toward the backhand sideline and set up a flat mark on Hartley Greenwald. Deep shots to anywhere but the far forehand side of the field can be tricky in those situations; Greenwald targeted a forehand to Walczak dead center near the back line, and it carried too far. Setting up that high-difficulty scenario early in the game had discouraged Germany from attacking from the huck, and now, late in the game, the defensive look worked for the opposite reason: it had tempted the tricky shot. The second possession saw France get right again. They worked the swings (particularly through Raulet at the start of the drive) and evaded the poaches until Raulet, stepping wide, found a free cutter on the breakside and plenty of space in which to settle a backhand.
Despite the failed break attempt, Germany looked comfortable as they advanced on their next point. It felt like a matter of only a few more passes before they would even the game at 10 goals apiece. Then something strange happened: Ancelin started waving his hands above his head, and play stopped. Someone had realized mid-point that Germany were playing with an extra player on the field. Take a count from this clip from the pull:
That meant a re-pull. They started the point over, and Germany made a throwing error. Ancelin picked up the disc and, doing his best impression of Schlör, lanced the break in a single throw, a booming back corner forehand for Ruelle. Jakob Dieckmann, it appeared, had not had time to set up a position before the disc was careening to the back corner.
France would have one more offensive possession. Again, Germany left Raulet open and dared her to misfire on a swing pass in a big moment. Again, Raulet proved up to the task at hand. In a show of either extreme trust or extreme fatigue — or, most likely, a strong mixed draught of both — Bonnet, the recipient of that swing, launched a 50-50 deep ball for Poitte-Sokolsky, and Poitte-Sokolsky rewarded his trust with the catch of the game. No analysis can do it justice, so here it is for you to admire:
The French stayed true to their defensive priority on the following point, not allowing Müller a clean look at a huck. The comparatively less consistent — that’s not a knock, because there probably isn’t anybody in this big, blue world as consistent as Müller — Dieckmann took the shot, and he missed. France would not need to find a way to score against the formidable German defense again. The D-line, as they had all tournament, cast their lot with Ancelin. He propelled them as far as the attacking brick before shaking free on an upline and putting the final stamp on both the break chance and their well-deserved bronze, an in-motion backhand to Chloé Ollivier.
