Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/11/12
Team USA will shoot for its seventh straight title when the 2012 FIL U19 Men’s World Lacrosse Championships begin Thursday in Turku, Finland.
The finals will be played on Saturday 21st of July.
The stats: The U.S. under-19 men’s national team is 36-0 all-time in international play since the U19 World Championships were sanctioned in 1988. The US has won all six gold medals.
The tourney: There are 13 teams: Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Iroquois Nationals, Netherlands, Scotland, USA and Wales.
Venue: The main venue of the event is Yläkenttä which is located in beautiful Urheilupuisto park, walking distance from the city center. Yläkenttä is the home field of Lacrosse Club Turku Titans, the football team Turku Trojans and the women’s soccer team FC TPS. The stadium has a seating capacity of 1,000. Yläkenttä was built in 1988, but new third generation turf surface was installed in 2008.
Two other fields are located at the Kupittaa Sports Park. The Championships’ games will be played on the newer Kupittaa 2 turf field and Festival games on Kupittaa 5 field. There is free access to the games at Kupittaa area.
The Philly factor: USA does not have any players from Pennsylvania, but does feature midfielder Steve Pontrello (St. Augustine Prep, rising freshman at North Carolina) and midfielder-face-off specialist Tyler Barbarich (Bridgewater-Raritan, NJ grad; played for Twist lacrosse; rising sophomore at Delaware). Also, team Canada features goalie Brennan Donville (Hill School, Cornell) and coach Taylor Wray (St. Joseph’s University head coach, Philadelphia Wings).
