Day Four: Brackets now close to set

The pool stage of every division is done, and power pools are finished outside of the final games in the Women’s division tomorrow morning. Both Open and Mixed had thrilling finales to the power pool stage, while Women’s saw the biggest teams battle for positioning in the semi-finals as we now know who’ll be in the top four. Let’s look in more detail.

Open

The final pool games saw both pools waiting for the final positions to be confirmed. Switzerland were already done and had confirmed their spot in quarters with three wins and three losses, including a 15-13 win over Colombia and a 15-13 loss to Great Britain. The final spot in the quarters from Pool A was going to either of those two teams, who played each other. If the Colombians won by three or more points, they would go through in a three-way tie in fourth and Switzerland would take third. If GB won or lost by one, they would go through in third and Switzerland would go through in fourth, but if GB lost by two they would be fourth and the Swiss third.

The game started with holds from both teams until 4-5 to Colombia, when they drew first blood and broke for 4-6. The teams traded out to half with Colombia leading 6-8, and GB held out of half. The next few Colombian offensive points were holds, but they were holds under intense pressure with GB having several chances to snatch the break back. Several times the British had the opportunities, but every time the Colombians found an answer. Thomas Cortes and Miguel Agudelo both had stellar games in propelling Colombia on and pushing their lead to 14-12, one point away from taking their place in the bracket with a break.

Alexander Yecies makes a catch against GB Open. Photo by Carl Mardell.

Great Britain’s offence worked down the field with the Colombians right on their shoulders and making several bids. The disc was tossed up to Sam Hill to catch the score, but he fumbled the high grab. The disc popped up into the endzone and Hill managed to chase it down and keep his feet in bounds to take the score and make it 14-13. At that point, GB had qualified for the quarters. It did not seem that either team was aware of that fact. GB took a timeout and put out another strong line, this time getting their first break of the game to push the contest to Universe Point and take third in the pool. Colombia were able to gather themselves and execute a hugely impressive offensive hold to take the game, sparking wild celebrations from the whole team while several GB players sunk to the turf filled with emotion. Once the outcome on bracket placings became evident, the atmosphere changed slightly. Colombia go into the lower bracket but do so with huge credit and some outstanding performances against good teams.

Going with them from Pool B will be the always-entertaining New Zealand, who defeated Germany to finally win a tough game, 15-10. The Kiwis started with a three-point run, but Germany hit back with one of their own. The difference came either side of half when New Zealand took a 5-6 deficit and turned it into an 11-6 advantage. Germany took back a couple of breaks but three points in a row from New Zealand closed the game out just as it had began. The Kiwis had needed to win while Japan defeated Belgium to reach the quarters. While they held up their own end of the bargain, Japan couldn’t hold on against an aggressive, loud Belgium side. Both sides took two breaks in the first half leaving Japan up 7-8 at half, but a Callahan for the Belgian O-line after a turn seemed to get the team even more fired up than they had been. Two breaks in a row meant they wen tup 12-10 and the teams traded out for a 14-12 final score. Belgium progress to the quarters in fourth spot, while Japan finish third. New Zealand and Germany, both good teams that have had some wonderful performances, miss out on the top eight.

Hunter Cochrane extends for a high grab against Italy Open. Photo by Carl Mardell.

The top two of each pool played each other to see who would be the top seeds going into the bracket. Neither game was particularly close, with North American powers topping the current class of Europe. The USA beat France 15-9 with a clean offence throughout, while Canada only gave up two breaks while defeating Italy by the same score.

Lower down, Ireland finally took their first win by beating China. Ireland were up the whole way but faltered right at the end, going down 12-13. They responded by scoring the final two points to win a cathartic Universe Point game. The Chinese continue their own search for a victory. Singapore join them in that search after Australia scored the final three points of their game to take a 15-12 win.

Tomorrow we have the quarters. USA against Japan, Italy against Great Britain, Canada against Switzerland and France against Belgium. Our winner will come from those eight teams.

Mixed

The final games of power pools saw the places set for pre-quarters. Pool E had been close throughout and wins by Singapore, 13-11 over Austria, and Colombia, 14-11 over Italy, saw them qualify directly for the top eight. The other pool had been decided already and the USA vs Canada and Poland vs Netherlands games were purely for seeding. The games turned out to be good ones though, as USA beat Canada 15-13 with a late comeback and the Poles beat the Dutch 15-9.

The lower power pools saw the top two seeds progress for a shot at quarters. France and Hungary had already secured pre-quarters spots but France’s 15-7 win meant they would play the Dutch while Hungary faced Poland. Mexico and China closed out their pool with wins over Switzerland and Latvia respectively. China would face Italy and Mexico would play Austria.

Arath Fabrizio Elenes Cuevas makes a catch under pressure from Killian Karner. Photo by Graham Shellswell.

All four pre-quarters were close. China took a four-point lead over Italy early on with a strong zone that limited the Italian flow. Italy took a break back and then, after China scored to go three up at 3-6, reeled off five points in six to take half 8-7 up a break. Both teams were playing zone and the game moved slowly, meaning just one mistake could be hugely impactful with the game very unlikely to go to 15. Italy held for 9-7 and the next point too over 15 minutes. Both teams had the disc a number of times before China eventually put in a massively difficult hold. The next point was another slog - this time an eight-minute affair that ended in a crucial hold for Italy. Time had gone with Italy up 10-8 so the game was to 11. A turn from China gave Italy a short field and they converted to win the game and take a spot in quarters.

Mexico and Austria played out another entertaining game that saw a number of momentum swings. Mexico scored four in a row at one point and took half 8-7 up a break. The Austrian start to the second half won the day, though, as they scored four breaks to start it off. The teams traded late breaks but Austria managed the game well and made enough plays to win 15-12. The French did the opposite; they won the first half with four breaks to one and went in 8-5 up with an offensive point to begin the second. The teams traded clean holds for the rest of the game giving France a 14-10 win.

Roth Mohring holds on under pressure from Chris LoFrese. Photo by Tom Kiddle.

Hungary and Poland played in the final pre-quarter (although they all happened at the same time, you get what we mean). Poland started brightly with a break, but Hungary seized control from there. Six points in a row put them in a commanding position and they took half 8-4. There were two mammoth points, one coming in at 17 minutes and the one for half at 11, with both teams battling fiercely for the win. The Poles gave it absolutely everything in the second half and took back a number of breaks and getting close to others. It wasn’t quite enough, though, as Hungary took a 13-11 win and progressed to the bracket.

So the top eight are set: Singapore will play France, Canada face Austria, Colombia will play Hungary and the Americans will face Italy.

Women’s

There was only one close game today, with Italy and Japan battling it out for positioning in the upper power pool. Japan took an early 2-4 lead but Italy really turned it on from there and took half 8-5. Two points in this game went for over 20 minutes with both teams relying on zone in blustery conditions. The game finished 10-7, reflecting just how much the teams were stretching out points with battling performances on both sides. Both teams took heavy losses later in the day, with Japan losing 15-5 to the USA and Italy falling 15-2 to a rampant France.

Canada lost 15-4 to the USA in a game that saw some unusual unforced errors from the Canadians. The USA played hard and pushed all the way as Canada seemed to lose confidence while the Americans completed a perfect 7-0 second half. Canada regrouped well and defeated Great Britain 15-6. Canada went up 12-3, after which the British were able to trade out and get some points on the board. France had earlier beaten GB 15-2 to show just how good they are.

Orphée Schoofs makes a catch against Great Britain. Photo by Carl Mardell.

The upper power pool is already set, with one round of games to go. Japan and GB will play for fifth, but both will enter the 5-8 bracket and will face New Zealand or Germany, both of whom are unbeaten in the lower pool. Italy will play Canada for third and the right to avoid the winner of the battle of the unbeatens: France against the USA. These teams have looked like the four best all week so it’s fitting that they’ll play for the title. It remains to be seen just what combination we’ll see in the bracket.

While Germany and New Zealand will meet to see who wins the lower power pool, Singapore and Australia will play to see who has the highest seed in the 9-11 pool. Both have beaten Ireland handily, 15-0 and 15-4 respectively, so could be well matched.

Link photo by Likkan Chung.