Day Two: The wind arrives

The first day of WJUC lulled players and spectators into a false sense of security: the weather was lovely. Today, the British summertime hit back with a cool, windy day that made it much tougher on the teams in Birmingham. The Mixed division concluded the first pool stage and will move to power pools tomorrow, while the Open and Women’s divisions are both roughly halfway through the first phase.

Mixed

The four initial pools are all finished, and the pool winners are now our top four seeds: Italy, Canada, Colombia and USA. Only Colombia remained in place of the initial top seeds, with the other top seeds Switzerland, Hungary and France all falling to the lower power pools. Second placed teams Singapore, Netherlands, Poland and Austria also move to power pools for a chance to make the quarters. But how did we get here?

Luca Peroni makes a catch for Italy Mixed under pressure. Photo by Tom Kiddle.

Italy dominated both games today, defeating both Netherlands and Switzerland 15-4. The Italians play a remarkably balanced game across the roster with almost everyone having at least one stat. They look to be a very strong possibility to do well in the tournament, having conceded only 15 points across their three pool games. The Netherlands defeated Panama 15-10 in a game they never truly seemed in trouble in, riding early breaks to go up 12-6 before staying firm in the face of a late Panamanian comeback to seal second spot in the pool. Switzerland defeated Panama yesterday so go into lower power pools as third, with Panama in fourth.

Canada were made to work early on by Singapore this morning, but a good run took the Canadians from 4-4 to 12-6 and they were able to ride the game out from there to take a 15-10 win. A 15-3 win over Hungary sealed top spot. Singapore beat Hungary yesterday so their 15-4 win over China in the last game slot sealed second place, while Hungary won a slower-paced game against China 11-9 to take third.

Pool C saw a game between the top two teams in the pool in the last game slot to see who would take the top seed, with Colombia facing Poland. Poland started with a hold and a break to go 0-2 up and were able to take the half 6-8, but whatever the Colombians discussed at half time proved decisive. They pulled an early break back and then went on a run from 8-10 down to go 12-10 up. Poland steadied the ship for 12-11 but the South Americans piled the pressure back on and rolled off three points in a row to win on a Callahan, 15-11, concluding a decisive 7-1 run. In the other game in that slot, Mexico handled Hong Kong, China 15-6.

Emily Zhang extends to try and beat Crystal Tong to the disc. Photo by Carl Mardell.

Austria pushed the USA hard in the morning, taking a break off the American O-line and going into half at only 8-5. The USA turned on the jets though and stormed to a 15-8 win, their closest game in the pool and the closest game any US team has had so far at the tournament. France defeated Latvia 15-6 but yesterday’s loss to Austria left them in third place.

All this means we have two upper power pools: Italy, Colombia, Austria and Singapore in pool E and Canada, USA, Netherlands and Poland in pool F. The two pool winners play both pool runners up in each power pool tomorrow, so the Italy/Colombia and USA/Canada fireworks will have to wait. The lower power pools offer a path back to pre-quarters for the top two teams in each, so the games tomorrow will go a long way towards sealing those spots.

Women’s

The different format in the women’s division means we are still in the pool stage but there were some significant results today. Australia had two games today, the only team in their pool to have to play twice, and suffered two tough losses. Italy were first up and came out with a 15-8 win thanks to a strong first two-thirds of the game, going up 12-4 before the Aussies were able to bring it back a bit towards the end. Next up was home team Great Britain, who started brightly to go up 3-1 but were pegged back to 3-3 after a good Australian D line zone. The British were able to rally, though, and took half 8-4. They accelerated in the second half and won 15-7, the final point dragging out to 10 minutes as both teams were still fighting hard for every pass despite having been playing for well over an hour and a half. The other game in the pool saw USA continue their intimidating start with a 15-0 win over Germany. Unless there are some very peculiar results tomorrow, it looks as though USA, Italy and Great Britain will progress to the upper power pool with a chance at semis. The Italy vs USA game tomorrow will tell us a lot about how each team stands - both teams have two wins but the only common opponent is Australia, whom USA beat 15-1 yesterday.

Ichika Shimada extends for a catch against Canada. Photo by Graham Shellswell.

Pool B saw much more action today. Canada emerged with two wins, first a competitive 15-9 against a talented and resilient Japan team that came from 7-2 down to make it 7-5 at one stage. The Canadians’ superior athleticism and defensive pressure told, though, and they eased away in the second half. A 15-0 win over Ireland was a perfect follow up for the Canadians, who look well-placed to challenge their neighbours here. One of the teams they’ll have to get through first, though, is France. The French took their own 15-0 win over Ireland and then defeated New Zealand 15-7, an impressive-looking result given that New Zealand had only conceded five points across two dominant wins beforehand including a 15-3 over Singapore this morning. Japan also defeated Singapore, 15-5, leaving a strong possibility that the final game slot tomorrow will see a vital game between Japan and New Zealand where the winner progresses to the upper power pool with a chance to make semis and the loser goes to the lower power pool, out of the bracket altogether. Canada and France, meanwhile, will meet at the same time in a game to likely win the pool.

Australia celebrate a goal. Photo by Likkan Chung.

Open

There were two close games in Pool A today, one in each half of the day. This morning Colombia staged a comeback from 6-8 down against Australia to run out 14-11 winners in a game filled with highlight-reel plays. It was the only game of the day for the South Americans, but Australia suffered a second loss against an athletic, aggressive French team in the afternoon, going down 15-6 after the game was 6-4 in the early going. France also beat the Swiss this morning, 15-9, but Switzerland kept their afternoon game much closer. Hosts Great Britain played once yesterday and only once today and recovered from being broken on the second point of the game to take half 8-6 against their Swiss opponents. The Brits received out of half and held to extend the lead, but the Swiss fought back to bring the game level at 11-11. The teams traded highly entertaining points until 14-13, when a well-timed GB zone forced a mistake and a quick start offence gave them a 15-13 win. In the final game of the day in this pool, the USA beat Singapore 15-3. There’s still two days left in the Open pools so there’s plenty of time for teams to change their fates, although the USA and France are already sitting pretty with three wins so will be in the bracket. The teams are separated only by three goals at the moment and their matchup on Wednesday already looks like a big one.

Nathan Hulme is a beat too late for the block against Switzerland. Photo by Carl Mardell.

The other pool had more games today but only two were close, with a lot of teams showing their ability and closing out games professionally. Canada beat Ireland 15-1 and Japan 15-8, while Germany beat Ireland 15-2. China registered losses against Belgium, 15-4, and New Zealand, 15-1. Both Ireland and China are playing hard but struggling in a very talented pool, so their game on Wednesday will be a huge one for both teams as they look to move onto the next stage with positive momentum. Italy dispatched Germany 15-7 this morning with a 4-0 run to open the game and a 5-1 run to close it, and looked to be well set up to a Belgium team that struggled yesterday against Canada. Belgium had not read the script, though, and played fearlessly against their favoured opponents. Some of the options were a little too fearless with hammers hitting the deck, but some outstanding catches and excellent offensive flow pushed them ahead 4-5 after both teams went on runs. The Italians rallied to take half 7-5 but were never comfortable, eventually taking a very fun game 13-10. Italy and Canada lead the pool with three wins each but the Canadians have seemed much more serene.

Two Canadian players go up for a disc against Japan. Photo by Graham Shellswell.

The final game to mention in this pool was perhaps the game of the day in any division; Japan against New Zealand. Katipo got their noses in front 0-2 to start the game but a 4-1 run for Japan meant they took half 8-7 with the game on serve. Japan broke out of half to extend their lead but Katipo was able to snatch the break back to level the game at 12-12. Both teams were playing incredibly hard and playing clean offence despite the pressure they were under until the final two points, which dragged out as players threw everything at it. New Zealand held to force a Universe Point, and Japan maintained their composure to calmly work around a Katipo zone until finding a sliver of space for Tatsuki Hirao to send a deep shot. A desperate bid from a defender got a touch on the disc but Shoma Ando caught it against his face to seal a 14-13 win in an instant classic.

Link photo by Likkan Chung.