Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/24/10
Team USA will attempt to reclaim its spot as the world best lacrosse team today when it meets defending champion Canada in the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship finale at Manchester, England.
The game will be telecast live on ESPNU at 11 a.m., Eastern Standard Time.
Canada defeated the US squad, 10-9, when the teams met in pool play a week ago. Since then, the teams – as expected – have dominated, as they began to prepare for the rematch.
The U.S. has won eight of the past 10 world tournaments – played every four years – with Canada taking the other two, in 1978 and the last one in 2006.
The US team this year has been led in scoring by Brendan Mundorf (15 goals, 9 assists), Paul Rabil (13 goals, 7 assists), Drew Westervelt (12 goals, 1 assist) and Michael Leveille (11 goals, 8 assists). Ned Crotty and Ryan Powell each have seven goals and longstick midfielder and Springfield-Delco grad Kyle Sweeney has been a weapon on offense with six goals.
Several of the keys to the game involve Philly players. In goal, veteran US netminder Brian Dougherty (Episcopal Academy) is hoping to outplay Canada’s Chris Sanderson, a former Philadelphia Wings assistant coach whose story of overcoming cancer has made him a popular player.
At the face-off X, Team USA’s Alex Smith (University of Delaware grad) will go up against Geoff Snider (Philadelphia Wings). The two played to a draw last week, each winning 10 face-offs. The play of the wings is also crucial; Team USA relies heavily on Kevin Cassese (Lehigh coach) as well as Sweeney, Max Seibald (Wings) and Chris Schiller.
Leave a Reply