Day Five: Final fours emerge

The tournament is now into the final four stage in every division. The semifinals are set, and the quarters that led to them featured plenty of excitement and intrigue in Open and Mixed, as well as those amazing power pool games we talked about earlier in Women’s. The afternoon belonged to the Open teams with minimal action in the other divisions, but let’s see who’s still in the running.

Open

The United States and Canada showed their class in the quarters. America took a break early but Japan were in the running at 4-3 down, pressing to try and get back into the game. The relentlessness of the US was unforgiving, though, and two more breaks stretched the lead to 7-3. The second half got even better for the reigning champions - after taking half 8-4, they won the second half 7-1 and won in just over an hour against a Japan team that had looked good in the pool stage. Canada, on the other hand, made an early statement against Switzerland. They went 5-1 up and took half 8-2 in just over half an hour, a punishing performance that left the Swiss scrambling for answers. While Switzerland were able to pull together their offence and trade the first six points of the second half, Canada regained control and won the game with a Callahan after a monster pull left Switzerland struggling at the back of their own endzone. The North American powers look to be peaking at the right time.

Silvan Hartmann comes up short on a layout bid against Canada. Photo by Carl Mardell.

The other two semis spots looked to be a bit more interesting. France and Italy have been the two best teams in Europe for the past few years at this level, but Great Britain and Belgium have had some talented players come through the ranks and both had won tight games against good opponents in the pool. GB against Italy came first, and both teams started with a run of three points. Italy broke three times in a row to start so were still a break up after GB hit back with their run, the final one coming on a mammoth point that took over 15 minutes. After some trading, the crucial point in the game came at 5-4 to Italy. They were able to generate turns on GB’s offence with a zone, limiting the options the British throwers had and testing their patience, and took two more breaks. The second was another marathon, over 10 minutes, as the defence from GB was stellar but their offence couldn’t find a way through. Italy took half 8-5 but GB broke on the first point to give themselves some hope. Another Italy break came to make the score 10-6, and despite a late break back from GB, the Italians punched their semis ticket with a 12-9 win.

Ben Askham makes a big catch against Italy. Photo by Carl Mardell.

France conceded two breaks to start the game against Belgium. The Belgians were flying, sniffing an upset, but France gathered themselves and took one of the breaks back. The teams traded for a few points with France getting ever closer to a break before they pulled the game back on serve with a break at 6-5. The broke again to take half 8-6 and never looked back; they scored the first six points of the second half and won 15-7.

All this means we have the four teams that most observers would have predicted in the semis. The USA will play Italy, while France will play Canada.

Two French players catch the same goal against Belgium. Photo by Likkan Chung.

Elsewhere, New Zealand beat neighbours Australia 15-12 to remain unbeaten in the lower pool, while Colombia beat China 15-9 and Germany beat Singapore 15-8. New Zealand face Singapore tomorrow in a game they will be heavy favourites to win, while Colombia play Ireland in a similar game. New Zealand lead the pool, with Germany and Colombia both behind on a single loss. Germany have played one more game so only play Australia tomorrow, again a game that the Germans should win, which would potentially leave New Zealand against Colombia as a vital game in the battle for ninth. If the Kiwis win, they take ninth. If Colombia win it would leave three teams on one loss and we’d go to a tie-breaker. Colombia lost out on quarters on a tie-break and they lost to Germany 15-9 so it would take a massive swing for them to come out on top this time around. New Zealand beat Germany 15-10, so Colombia would likely need to win by eight in that final game to take the top spot. Still, there’s some intrigue ahead in the lower pool.

Mixed

The quarters all happened this morning, so this afternoon was the lower bracket games. Beaten quarterfinalists France and Austria faced off in the fifth-place bracket, as did Colombia and Italy. France defeated Austria 15-10 in a game they led all the way after breaking to go up 3-2. Italy and Colombia played out another tight game after meeting in power pools but Italy were unable to exact revenge for their loss there, falling again to the South Americans. This time the game went to Universe Point but Colombia held their nerve and will face France for fifth tomorrow.

Jade Hansma makes a throw against Latvia. Photo by Likkan Chung.

Lower down, Mexico again came from an unlikely deficit to win a game, this time turning over a 1-6 lead to win 14-13 against Latvia. They will play for ninth tomorrow against Poland, who dealt with China 15-6 to continue their roll through the bracket. The Netherlands defeated Panama 13-8 and will meet Switzerland for 13th after the Swiss beat Hong Kong, China 15-4. Hong Kong, China remain the only team without a win and will face Panama for the second time after the Central Americans beat them 14-6 earlier this week.

Mexico take down a catch against Panama. Photo by Graham Shellswell.

Women’s

Again, most of the action in this division took place this morning (and what action it was). There were only three Women’s games in the afternoon: in the bottom pool, Singapore beat Ireland 15-1. Australia have two games tomorrow against these two teams, with the final game against Singapore likely to determine who finishes ninth. Australia won that contest 11-9 earlier today.

Singapore and Australia match up earlier today. Photo by Likkan Chung.

In the fifth-place bracket, New Zealand and Germany crossed up against Great Britain and Japan respectively. New Zealand rode the wave of positivity that topping the lower power pool provided and comfortably defeated a scrappy Great Britain 15-3. New Zealand’s zone after big pulls exerted a level of pressure that the British team struggled to deal with and the Kiwis kept their foot on the gas throughout. Germany couldn’t find the same energy and went down 6-1 early to Japan, who rode the game out and took a 15-8 win. The teams have all played each other before - Japan won 15-8 against New Zealand in the pool stage, while GB won 15-12 against Germany in the first game of the tournament. We’ll see what happens after five draining days for all the teams here in Birmingham.

Link photo by Tom Kiddle.