Congratulations to Furious George- Open Champions 2007.
Let me state the obvious- It's a crying shame that the most anticipated game in the last 4 years in this great nation was met with a downpour.
I saw a post on the Vancouver forum before Nationals. A poster (people are not required to use real names on the site) boldly stated:
Open: The question is ‘Will Open be a 1 or 2 team race’. GOAT comes to FB and beats Furious George twice. But FG was at the start of their season, they are un-interested due to the rain, injured and don’t care. Still GOAT is not the typical ‘other’ Canadian OPEN team of the last 7 years, and even if FG does win, will it be 15-2 or 15-13?
This, in the face of two GOAT victories over Furious at Flowerbowl and
a tourney victory at the tough Boston Invite, was a shocking statement. Based on no statistical fact, and clearly a case of a sport fans who makes a bold prediction (or $hit talks), remembering only those that are right, and never getting more right than wrong to be pure chance.The poster predicted the final winner correctly. However, it was not as easy a road to the finals as "My Two Cents" simplified it to be.
After disposing of Nads (North Bay) quite easily (Furious stopped the Beast Scott Stinson, who had an amazing tourney up until that point), The Monkey escaped a semi final matchup with Invictus by a score of 15-10. Andrew Lugsdin speech was a great one, and it showed that no one took the tough Calgary team for granted. Furious was now ready for their toughest Canadian matchup.
GOAT had a great tourney. They, like the Monkey, rolled teams throughout the tournament. They even had a bench clearing brawl and fistfight with Invictus during Friday play to keep things lively. After beating Mangina, GOAT beat last year's silver medalists Mephisto 15-6 to advance to the finals. With so many great players, height, speed, and tournament success againsts FG and US teams this year, GOAT was sure this year would be different.
It wasn't.
16-8 final, Furious George.
Like many fans, I could only stand the downpour until half. I saw GOAT take the 3-2 lead, lead by the strong play of Jon Hassell. I saw both teams make errors that were uncharacteristic. I saw some players step up, while others performed below expectations. 9-4 at the half, and the home town crowd had a very sombre mood for their GOAT at that point.
Can't wait to see the entire game, and provide my thoughts. I would also love to see the stats of both teams, it would be great to analyze the data.
GOAT has taken huge strides this season, and this was not their best effort. A great opportunity has been lost, but the focus shifts to competing at UPAs and developing even further.
Furious has survived another challenge and should be saluted as great champions. They should be studied and duplicated where possible.
What makes Furious so good?
Is it team depth?
Is it the same old efficient stalwarts?
Is it conditioning or athletic ability?
Is it climate?
Is it something else?
2 comments:
"What makes Furious so good?"
My guesses:
-They believe they'll win (since they usually have)
-Their primary players have been together for a LONG time now
-and less importantly, inclement weather usually favors the more veteran team
aside: did Al Bob play? Anyone else substantial missing from FG?
Al Bob did NOT play for Furious. He played with Bostrich (BC Mixed 1st Seed) during BC Regionals, and I think he went down to TO for Nats, although I'm not positive on that. But I DO know he didn't don a monkey-suit.
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