Brazil III - Pool Play (II)

Here we go agin. After getting a whopping three and a half hours of sleep, I got up for food and warmups. I made it to the fields around 9:15 and began warming up down by the beach fields (our game against Germany was on the main stadium field, but it was occupied). Anyway, the Germans had played a game already that day, so we knew they'd be warm and that we couldn't afford to come out cold against them. Well, we were probably more ready for this game than any other of the tournament. We started out on O (as was our want seeing as we were playing timed games with no halftimes) and converted. On our first D point I guarded Rue and got a D when they had to try a bail out huck to him. We then converted the break and were on our way to victory. Somehow, I wound up guarding more handlers than cutters latter in the game because we had a lot of tall guys on D. Anyway, the strategy they were employing in terms of dumps was to break the mark without having the handler move. After a lot of yelling by one of the masters guys watching the game (I heard he coaches Florida), we adjusted and started playing right on the dump's hip. Well, this adjustment led to me getting a layout catch D on a dump pass then throwing a goal. Over all, I think this was my best game of the tournament, we wound up winning 11-7.

After the game we had a great rapport with the German team, and, luckily, we had a great cheer that was set to an old German drinking song. Well, after hanging out with the germans for a bit we had a long break until three, at which point we were to play the Canadian team.

Going into the tournament we had all assumed that the Canadian team would be strong, and that playing both them and Germany on the same day would really test us. Well, much to our surprise, the Canadians were floundering for the first few days of beach worlds. Our game with them wasn't necessarily representative of their abilities due to the very windy conditions on the beach fields that day. I don't remember too much about this one, I think Tucker got his callahan in this game (another tall guy eats up a floating upwind dump pass), and we won easily 10-2.

Well, after having only two games we all stuck around the fields to watch the game between Great Britain and the Philippines on the showcase field. It was the only game going on at the time, and as such had a huge crowd. It was during this game that everyone at the tournament fell in love with the Philippines team. They had a total of 8 players, one of whom was a woman, and another was a water boy during important games. So, they were playing one of the top four open teams at the tournament with a rotation of 6 players, and because there were only 60 seconds between points, the Philippines players would drink water on their way back to the line.

The O that the Boracay Dragons ran was very give and go heavy and made great use of the amount of touch they had on their throws. Basically, they'd overload one side of the field with 4 players, letting the 5th rest upfield from the disc on the far sideline. They'd then throw as many quick passes as they could to gain yards, and when the D adjusted they'd either reverse the field and use the resting player, or they'd swing, and the player who wasn't involved would cut deep. Every possession they had was a ton of fun to watch with multiple rediculosly athletic plays. Also amazing was how GB kept hucking, assuming they could get jump balls over the smaller Philippino players, but inevitable, one of the Dragons would make a sick play, and they'd get the disc back. I think my favorite part of the game was when the game was clearly already won by the Boracay Dragons and the relented to the crowds chants of "Number 9! Put her in!" It was really cool to see the whole team get playing time, especially in such a big game.

Well, after the game we had an impromptu west vs. east us scrimmage, which turned out to be very fun, with the west dominating (I don't actually remember how it went down, but I'll at least claim we rocked house). Anyway, after the fun, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up then off to a team dinner at pretty nice Brazilian all you can eat place. The food was good, and it was nice to hang out as a team. After dinner we went as a team to the party. I really enjoyed the dinner to party transition, it lead to a warm team bonding sort of feel to the whole night, and I think it translated well onto the fields in the following days.

The party that night was at a large beer themed bar that had a very fancy all you can eat place in the back (if only we had known that ahead of time). The place had a very classy feel with good lighting, hardwood floors, a large outdoor patio, and a stage and two bars inside. All the classiness and chillness almost made me feel bad for sneaking in some jungle juice, almost. There was a cover band playing classic rock like the Beatles and Pink Floyd. They rocked some harder stuff towards the end of the night, but it was all good. I think it helped the social atmosphere, but there was still a sweet dance party. The biggest effect the music had was determining who won the party. Even though some of our team stayed until the end, the swiss were there in force, rocking out. It was a decided swiss victory.

The next morning we had an early 8 am start (our first of the tournament) against the winless host team Brazil. It was a chill game, and we wound up winning 18-3. I don't remember to many stand out plays, but there is a big one I'll shout out. Grant got a layout callahan on a dump pass, where he landed on his knee, thus staying in bounds for the goal. So, that made four of us with callahans on the tournament, we joked we should make "I got a callahan in Brazil" T-shirts, I still think it's not a bad idea.

With our victory against Brazil we secured an afternoon by and our spot in the finals. Still, we were left with a final pool play game against the Spanish team that was ineligible for the finals. We had to play them on the windy beach fields, and they were incredibly motivated to beet us. Well, we had a turnover riddled windy zone-y game and they wound up winning. We had a lot of trouble stopping their three woman possession oriented O, and he had even more trouble scoring up wind. This was also the first time we didn't come out strong in a game, something that was troubling, especially since our only remaining game was the finals. Well, even though we were humbled by a loss, I don't think it helped us in the next game. After the game I went to lunch with Kali before her women's devision semifinal with Australia. After lunch we went back to the fields where I watched and supported the other US teams in their bids to make the finals.

After the games ended that evening there was a lot of drinking and a pickup game between the pickup teams at the tournament (Currier Island and the Peace Team). I played with my hommies on the peace squad, and I'll say we won the battle of the pickups. I then headed back to the hotel before going to the trade night at the point.

Trade night was held in the cleared out banquet room at Hotel Ponta Verde (the sight of player registration). The room was very bright and different teams had their own sort of trading stations set up around the room. Also, Michele played some music for the people. I had a blast and got to see a lot of sweet jerseys and shirts from around the world, and I also arranged trades for Brazil shorts and sandals, and a Philippines jersey. After the trading I headed out to dinner with the guys from the Peace Team, some of the younger guys from the US open team, and J9. We had dinner at the all you can eat place close to the fields. Dinner was light (relatively) and I capped it off with an espresso before heading out to the party.

Due to some confusion and accidental misinformation we thought that the party bar was close and easy to get to, so we decided to walk. Well, it was relatively close, but out walk was mad sketchy, and we probably should have been a lot more nervous then we were. I guess we were to excited about meeting sweet people and being in Brazil to be overly concerned about where we were walking. We wound up making it to the bar after about 20 min.

This party was awesome. All the teams that had been eliminated were getting real shitty (especially the US guys and the Australian women). Anyway, for a team with an early finals game the next day we made a great showing. Dave, Ken, and Erol were their with the Brazilian girls they had met earlier in the week, X was there being his usual 24 hour party self, and J9 and I were busy meeting new people (and trying to mediate the stolen hat affair going on between the US open team and the Australian woman's team). Well, despite our presence, we were outlasted by one German man. That's right, in the battle for the party, we lost because one guy from the other team held down the fort (to be fair, he was their with his hot girlfriend from the Spanish team).

Well, we all made it back in time to get at least 6 hours of sleep before the finals the next day. I guess that wraps up pool play, at least I made my personal goal of getting this post up before the end of January. Still, I have to write another Brazil post and a Lei-Out recap in the coming weeks.

P.S. I hope you enjoyed my lack of proof reading.