Team USA won the world games gold medal match 13-6 over Colombia this past weekend!
Colombian team thoughts:
- They're incredibly quick across the roster. I felt like they had a speed and quickness advantage vs team usa almost at all times, but especially in the pool play game.
- I think their quickness allowed them to get open in small spaces well and play an incredibly intense level of matchup defense versus team usa.
- The Colombian women are incredibly skilled at making great poach reads, making up ground and pressing the B button.
- I enjoyed watching the quick disc movement they were able to use.
- Speed kills: Quickness/Speed >> Height
- I also felt they were playing an offensively disciplined style that was stingy with the disc, especially in the pool play game. In the 2nd half of the gold medal game I felt like team usa was able to adjust and colombia started to rack up miscues.
Team USA thoughts:
- I would have taken Kami over Carolyn Finney
- I would have taken Joel Schlachet over Beau
- The last point was a full field jump ball from Georgia to Sandy.
- Most impactful players from the gold medal match for team usa, in order:
1. Lien Hoffmann
2. Georgia Bosscher
3. Nick Stuart
4. Grant Lindsley
- Lien Hoffmann's 1st half stat line was something like 2 goals, 1 assist, 2 Ds. Ridiculous.
- Lien Hoffmann is now officially the most successful alum of northwestern ultimate by a fair margin: 2 x club championships, 1 wugc gold medal, 1 world games gold medal. Ness has had a longer and arguably more successful career, but does not have the world games medal.
- I don't love the initial offensive position that a shallow ho stack provides. I think the underneath options are pretty easy to sag and poach off of, which forces impeccable spacing and timing as an entire offensive unit. Basically, I think it's easy to make sloppy spacing mistakes and the 10-15 yard gainers you earn can be a small return on a difficult investment. I think you have to be viably representing deep threats in order for the offense to be good. The ability to represent that deep option can vary with wind conditions.
- Anna Nazarov threw team USA out of some jams in the early going with some really phenomenal backhands to the inside lane.
- I don't think Jimmy Mickle is actually that good at defense. I think he's able to stay reasonably close, but won't really generate blocks except on floaty deep shots or poach reads. I also don't think he's great in small spaces. But on offense he was pretty much unstoppable.
- I think Beau isn't great at hander defense. In the first half it looked like he was getting crushed by the colombian handler core. I felt like he was kind of just on the field to run deep on a turn. Which he did pretty well, to be fair.
- Surge played well and looked good. I was worried she'd be still coming back from injury, but she turned in a great performance.
Other thoughts:
- I think it's dumb that team usa got to play 1 fewer game than team colombia due to weather
- I liked that team usa lost the first game, I thought it added a lot of intrigue as a fan
- The video streaming for this tournament was so much better than 4 years ago, even though it wasn't super well advertised
- I hope that parity continues to increase at this tournament
Colombian team thoughts:
- They're incredibly quick across the roster. I felt like they had a speed and quickness advantage vs team usa almost at all times, but especially in the pool play game.
- I think their quickness allowed them to get open in small spaces well and play an incredibly intense level of matchup defense versus team usa.
- The Colombian women are incredibly skilled at making great poach reads, making up ground and pressing the B button.
- I enjoyed watching the quick disc movement they were able to use.
- Speed kills: Quickness/Speed >> Height
- I also felt they were playing an offensively disciplined style that was stingy with the disc, especially in the pool play game. In the 2nd half of the gold medal game I felt like team usa was able to adjust and colombia started to rack up miscues.
Team USA thoughts:
- I would have taken Kami over Carolyn Finney
- I would have taken Joel Schlachet over Beau
- The last point was a full field jump ball from Georgia to Sandy.
- Most impactful players from the gold medal match for team usa, in order:
1. Lien Hoffmann
2. Georgia Bosscher
3. Nick Stuart
4. Grant Lindsley
- Lien Hoffmann's 1st half stat line was something like 2 goals, 1 assist, 2 Ds. Ridiculous.
- Lien Hoffmann is now officially the most successful alum of northwestern ultimate by a fair margin: 2 x club championships, 1 wugc gold medal, 1 world games gold medal. Ness has had a longer and arguably more successful career, but does not have the world games medal.
- I don't love the initial offensive position that a shallow ho stack provides. I think the underneath options are pretty easy to sag and poach off of, which forces impeccable spacing and timing as an entire offensive unit. Basically, I think it's easy to make sloppy spacing mistakes and the 10-15 yard gainers you earn can be a small return on a difficult investment. I think you have to be viably representing deep threats in order for the offense to be good. The ability to represent that deep option can vary with wind conditions.
- Anna Nazarov threw team USA out of some jams in the early going with some really phenomenal backhands to the inside lane.
- I don't think Jimmy Mickle is actually that good at defense. I think he's able to stay reasonably close, but won't really generate blocks except on floaty deep shots or poach reads. I also don't think he's great in small spaces. But on offense he was pretty much unstoppable.
- I think Beau isn't great at hander defense. In the first half it looked like he was getting crushed by the colombian handler core. I felt like he was kind of just on the field to run deep on a turn. Which he did pretty well, to be fair.
- Surge played well and looked good. I was worried she'd be still coming back from injury, but she turned in a great performance.
Other thoughts:
- I think it's dumb that team usa got to play 1 fewer game than team colombia due to weather
- I liked that team usa lost the first game, I thought it added a lot of intrigue as a fan
- The video streaming for this tournament was so much better than 4 years ago, even though it wasn't super well advertised
- I hope that parity continues to increase at this tournament
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