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Friday, 04 August 2006 |
The last match - By Rasmus Bonde Stouby
On this last day of lacrosse things were more casual than usual. The repetitive rituals of getting ready before the match a bit more sloppy than earlier. A few people had light hangovers.
We normally meet in the lobby at the dorm 2hrs before the match for a strategic briefing. Today that was done with a few short sentences at the field. The basic message was to go have as much fun as we can, before we fall over from exhaustion.
After the briefing we take the bus to the North London Athletic Fields and assemble by the five trees supplying a bit of shade in the heart of area. The Danish Forest, as we ruthlessly adopted it. Those of us who needs ankles, thighs, thumbs, toes and who knows what else taped, now go have that taken care of.
The average age on team Denmark is fairly old. We have three players younger than 27. As a result Chris Kurry's job (our highly esteemed athletic trainer) has gotten increasingly more demanding over the grueling course of the tournament. As one of the event staffers in the medical tent commented:
"You better be paying this guy a million dollars the way you are slaving him."
After ten games in twelve days (including two scrimmages), half the guys now need to be taped up to look like a team of Michelin men.
Back at the forest we put on our equipment. The atmosphere is usually relaxed but if you're smart you get into your gear fast and then chill out, so that you're ready when D-coach Dave (bad cop) all of a sudden yells "Be ready in two minutes!" (this is for some reason always followed by disgruntled remarks that this message is coming out of the blue). Then we walk to the field of combat together, arriving as a team.
All of this was bypassed today.
Instead we went straight to the two columns half field warm up run, the 15 minutes of line drills (Tiny warms up with goalie coach Hugh Barber, but not today) and then the stretching conducted by Chris Kurry (today it was done by a team captain). Then a few more line drills before we line up to sing a slightly out of key version of the Danish national anthem. It might not sound great, but it is always lengthy and sung with heart, louder than our voices can carry the tune. Nevertheless, the lyrical description of my homelands seas and forests and the mentioning of our ancestral heathen gods always sound beautiful in my ears.
Once again we were slaughtered. Chances are I'm slightly colored by my personal aspirations, but today was one of the best games of our tournament. I was run till the point where I had to substitute myself to catch my breath. All of us sideline angels saw plenty of action. One of Coach Cone's (good cop) doctrines is to count your personal plusses and minuses, and come out of the game with a surplus. My account was in severe deficit from off sides, slashing, dropping the ball, etc.
With seven minutes left of the game, Denmark was down 16-0. An egg was a terrifyingly realistic outcome, when I, yours truly, ran a cut from the right side of the field. The stick was in my left (outside) hand and Dane Hansen threw a perfect pass straight to the bottom of my mesh. I remember thinking, "Shit, I caught it! Shoot!" The ball bounced off the ground to the top of the net. Happiness!!! The goal was scored with the stick my highly esteemed co-worker, Neal Goldman, gave me before the tournament. He used it while playing for the Baltimore Bayhawks and naturally the supreme lacrosse karma within it, carry great promises of glory. I cheered my lungs out. Coach Cone's reaction was to drop his shorts down around the ankles.
Despite the massive defeat, our goalie Kristian Tiny, labeled the match as a step forward. He felt that we kept our composure, kept playing lacrosse and stayed positive throughout. At no point did we give up, though we could have perhaps played a bit harder.
When our last match of the tournament was over (we finished 16th -our goal was 15th) we sat down in a circle around a cooler of beer. The only way to acquire a beer was to stand up and tell everyone your favorite moment of the tournament.
"Some of us are old dogs in lacrosse. It’s been refreshing to kind of relearn the game with you guys," said Eric Jorgensen (defense and midfield). Others talked about this tournament being the peak of our lacrosse careers, the amazing lacrosse games we've watched at the TD Waterhouse stadium, the game against the Koreans. One recalled a couple of late hits on the Fins, as his favorite moment.
Matt Cone took the word as the last to speak. In 2003 him and his wife decided that their lives were too boring, so they sold off everything, took the two kids out of school and bought a RV in Europe. Their 18-month journey started in Denmark where they met Golle from the National Team. Matt started coaching the men’s team and his wife coached the women’s. Now, 3 years later, after the last world cup game he said:
"My grandfather taught me to view my life as a book. I have some incredible chapters in it already and this is now one of them. If you are a good author you don't overwrite each chapter, but know when to start a new one. I coached my last game as a lacrosse coach today, and I want you to know that it is an honor to have been a part of the Danish National Team."
After that everyone got teary eyed and emotional. At that moment I think we all felt like we had just taken part in something unique. Something special that can never be repeated. We were the Danish National Lacrosse Team 2006. We popped the cherry for Denmark's world cup participation. We are the founders and the foundation of Danish Lacrosse in the future.
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