Nation,
The World U-23 championships take place this week in Florence, Italy.
Canada has both a mens and womens team entered.
The mens team can be followed via the following link
http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1282
The womens team can be followed via the following link:
http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1283
Will Canada Win?
Given that the US will not be attending the tournament, the questions to you the reader is simple:
- Will Canada win in Open and Womens respectively?
- If so, who will lead both squads
- Who will be Canada's best rivals with the Yankees absent?
6 comments:
Tough questions, Steve. The international landscape could look totally different for U23 than for clubs. I'd be inclined to hold off on comments until I had some more data to go on, but I know that would be cheating at the predictions game.
Canada has one of the stronger juniors programmes in the world, not to mention collegiate competition, which gives our teams a solid background. However, it would be naive to try to base predictions using two-year-old juniors results, especially since so much of Team Canada did not compete in 2008.
So, what I have done instead is a peremptory glance at the rosters of the top-seeded teams, comparing them to the rosters of WUCC. U23 players in attendance at WUCC probably have the most to offer in skill, and if they were drawn from the same clubs, they'll tend to have more chemistry. Is this analysis flawed? Of course, but I'm working with what I have.
In the Open category,
Australia: 7@WUCC, 5 from HoS
Great Britain: 11@WUCC, 7 from CAF
Germany:5@WUCC, 3 from MUC
Sweden: 7@WUCC, 6 from Viksjifors
Japan: none @ WUCC
Colombia: none @ WUCC
(I can't promise I spotted every name)
Canada: 5@WUCC
However, Team Canada also carries about 6 GOAT players who were absent, and 4 FG players. Their chemistry and skill shouldn't be underestimated, either.
My prediction in the Open category is that Canada and GB meet in the final. Those Chevron and Clapham boys will put up a fight, but I think that Canada has a good shot at winning.
Many of the players from the colombian team played in the 2008 juniors that got the bronze (or 4th I dont remeber) . The guys didn't played WUCC, for reasons other than not making the team (maybe $$$) .. So they could also be a team to look in the finals
I had a suspicion that would be the case for the farthest-travelling teams (JPN, COL, AUS). It makes them that much more difficult to gauge.
Colombia has a wealth (far more than Canada) of fast players who can also stick any catch. I've written about Colombian tactics and skillsets before, so I won't go into that here.
Here are the Open juniors results from WUGC2008:
1) USA
2) Canada
3) Germany
4) Great Britain
5) Colombia
6) Australia
7) France
8) Japan
where I can read about the colombian tactics??
There is a blurb about Colombia here: http://canadaultimate.blogspot.com/search?q=Torneo
and some other comments in the last issue of UCM:
http://www.canadianultimate.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=14%3Adigital-magazine&id=26%3Aultimate-canada-magazine&lang=en
Okay, so here's a similar analysis for the women's top seeds.
Australia: 6@WUCC, 6 from Wildcard
Great Britain: 5@WUCC, 3 from LLL*
Japan: none @ WUCC
Colombia: no team @ WUCC, 2 from Revolution
Canada: 3@WUCC, + ~6 from Traffic.
*Is there a story behind Leeds' name? Seriously, it's a chore to pronounce out loud.
This is a very difficult division to make predictions in. Japan and Australia met in the finals of WUGC2008, but Japan's current roster is completely different now, and not a single one of these players attended WUCC2010. All I have to go on is that they just edged out Australia today.
I think Japan will be Canada's toughest challenge at these games, especially if the Japanese play with the agility and early throws for which their best teams are famous. After that, I think Canada is still pretty fairly matched against the other Commonwealth countries. I think Canada has a shot at a medal, but I won't bet on a gold.
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