July 17, 2006 - The World Championship of Lacrosse is currently being played in London, Ontario and players from Major League Lacrosse have been making their mark. The undefeated US National Team, which has won the last six championships, is made up of mostly MLL players. Midfielder Jay Jalbert of the Long Island Lizards made perhaps the loudest noise on July 16th, when he scored the game-winning goal with just three seconds left against the rival Canadian National Team.
The US had handled its competition in the Championships much more easily until that point. Team USA defeated Australia 20-8 in their opener, with San Francisco attackman Ryan Powell leading the way with seven points on two goals and five assists. In that same game, attackman Brendan Mundorf, an early Cascade Rookie of the Year candidate scored two goals for the Australians.
Team USA’s strong defense was outstanding against Team England, limiting them to just five goals, none of which came in the second half. The defense is led by two of the best MLL goalies, Trevor Tierney (Denver) and Chris Garrity (Boston). The rest of the defense is made up of the MLL’s best as well, including all three members of the Long Island Lizards’ starting defense including, John Gagliardi, Pat McCabe and Nicky Polanco. Other defensemen include Christian Cook (Baltimore), Ryan Curtis (Boston), Todd Rassas (Chicago) and Kyle Sweeney (Philadelphia). Powell and attackman Scott Urick of the New Jersey Pride combined for 11 goals against England.
Everything seemed to be going well for the United States until they went to the brink with the Canadian National Team. The US has not lost a World Championship Game since 1978, so any loss in these games would be a big deal. In the 13-12 Team USA victory over Canada, Jalbert led the way with a hat trick and attackman Joe Walters (Rochester) and midfielder Kyle Harrison (New Jersey) both notched two goals and added assists.
The Canadian Team also relied heavily on MLL talent in their match-up with the United States, as attackman Jeff Zywicki (Denver) scored five goals, attackman John Grant (Rochester) scored four goals and added two assists and midfielder Geoff Snider (Denver) won 21-27 face-offs in the biggest game of the Tournament thus far.
Like Mundorf of the Australian Team, other countries besides the Big 2 (US and Canada) are relying on MLL talent for victories. The Iroquois National Team has gotten strong contribution from Boston Cannons’ rookie midfielder Brett Bucktooth, who has scored five goals and notched three assists.
Goalie Matt Russell of the Baltimore Bayhawks, another rookie has been strong in goal for the Scottish National team, saving 75% of the shots he faced and holding a 7.38 goals against average. In Scotland’s 13-12 overtime victory overtime victory over Italy, Russell made 26 saves. Against Wales, Russell held the opponent to just three goals and made 19 saves as Scotland won 7-3.
The World Championships will continue through next weekend, so MLL teams will have to rely on other players for victories while some of their stars play for their country.
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 3:15 pm