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Wednesday, 19 July 2006 |
A DAY OFF - By Rasmus Bonde Stouby
Today was our day off. I was not the only one who chose to get out of bed late. Last
night was beer (not too many) and dancing with Canadian girls (not enough), today is
relaxing with the best imaginable lacrosse match: USA vs. Canada. The fact that
we're in Canada only makes that game more exciting.
Before we went to the field though, we had lunch in the players dinning hall. While
we sat there stuffing our faces with chicken and burgers and brownies and fruit,
team USA walked in. Mickey Powell sat down by himself at the end of a table, ready
to enjoy his lunch (two bowls of fruit loops and a glass of water), when a horde (a
horde!) of Asians lined up for autographs and handshakes. He took it amazingly well.
Polite and courteous. If that had been me I would had stood up right there and
said:
"I love to be an ambassador and all, but come on guys: MY FRUITLOOPS ARE GETTING
SOGGY!"
Ok, maybe i wouldn't have, because that right there is the downside to stardom. No
crunchy fruit loops for you if you eat them in public. There is a set timeframe on
a meal like that and you are just obsessed with the thought of the cereal sucking up
all too much milk while this guy you don't even know is talking and you have to
smile...
The most important Yellow Division news of the day is Finland proved
their great form by taking down Latvia. That brings them to 3-0. You
would think that this puts extra pressure on us to win our match
against Latvia tomorrow, but the strategists on the team says it
doesn't. If we lose and then beat Finland Wednesday we'll both be 3-1,
but we win the head-to-head. Which means? We play Canada at the big
stadium in front of the cameras.
But, alas, it is a long way to Tipperary!
The
second most important news in the division of course is that I and Tony
Vita have been noted for a goal each on 2006worldlacrosse.com. I am
amazing, but unless I did it in my sleep I haven't scored any goals.
Tony Vita isn't even here. He is in New York or some other place.
In the division that people actually care about, USA beat Canada in a
tremendous game (btw: coming from a third world lacrosse country, I
still think every high-level game I watch is tremendous).
I was
on the sidelines with the photographers, literally right next to the
USA goal. One of them aired his dilemma of choosing which end of the
field to be on after Doyle put in the 12-12 equalizer with 1:37 left to
go. He chose to stand in the middle. Had he stayed where I was, he
would have been able to document when John Grant Jr. put Canada ahead
(seemingly) with 17 seconds left. None of the others near the field saw
Junior in that crease until after the goal. I'd like to confirm that,
but I didn't see it that well. What I did see, is that Nicky Polanco
was wearing fabulous knee-high socks (just like the Bermudans on
opening night), and he had tape all around both his cleats. I suspect
they ran out of laces in camp USA.
But the goal was not
acknowledged and had that photographer been at the other end of the
field he would have seen USA put in a goal with only a couple of
seconds on the board. But then somebody said: "They're going to wave it
off!" And our dreams of overtime quickly resurfaced. So we waited for
what seemed forever and... it's good!
This of course means
that Canada will play against either Finland or Denmark in the next
round, which is something I am absolutely certain was the first thing
they talked about in the locker rooms.
I am also convinced
that coach Frank Nielsen (Frank is Danish, and actually eligible to
play for Denmark. For unknown reasons he chose to coach Canada
instead.. go figure), he will be there to scout out the Denmark-Finland
match.
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