USA U-20 National Team Roster

[Womenslaxxfan]

Kudos to all the players for being selected to our u20 national team. It’s definitely an honor.

But the ridiculousness of the scores when Canada or the us play anyone else makes me question the need for a world championship tournament.

Its more of a jamboree….

[Sunnylax]

This is nonsense. Can't imagine anyone (even those parents who have a daughter on team) find this entertaining.

[laxfan9999]

I am curious why World Lacrosse changed the format. They used to have the top bracket with 5 or 6 of the top teams and they all would qualify for bracket play and then others would get 1 or 2 in depending on whether 2-4 bracket. USA would play Canada, Australia, England, etc. They would still have blowouts but not all super uncompetitive games.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Greetings from Hong Kong. The dim sum, night markets and Buddhist temples are all as-advertised. However, this Upstater is on full sensory overload and finding it hard to open my laptop. Apologies for my lack of commitment.

Entering the knockout stage, one of the biggest headlines has been the weather. The near constant rain (not seasonal, I’m told, just bad luck) has moved games away from the natural grass fields and disrupted the schedule considerably. The upside, I think the rain actually cuts the humidity here and definitely has spared the players from the scorching temps. Otherwise no major surprises from the US perspective, other than being the #2 seed heading into the playoffs.

I totally get the mixed feelings regarding goal differential—it is uncomfortable here in-person, as well. It is understandable to want to slow down the scoring even more (they could have scored many more goals) but, with no shot clock, it is insulting to play keep-away and it limits the opposition from getting a chance to touch the ball. Rest assured, USA coaches are rolling lines like a hockey game and sitting apparent starters for long stretches. Perhaps the most telling is how the opposing players (and parents) respond after the games—nothing but hugs, selfies, love and respect all around. The US women are playing beautiful team lax and conducting themselves in a manner that, I believe, would make you all proud.

As for the parents, no arrests thus far to my knowledge.

Great report Red; thanks very much!!

[ultravisitor]

Kudos to all the players for being selected to our u20 national team. It’s definitely an honor.

But the ridiculousness of the scores when Canada or the us play anyone else makes me question the need for a world championship tournament.

Its more of a jamboree….

It does seem kind of ridiculous, but I think it's a good event for countries where lacrosse is at a lower level of development. I'm guessing a lot of the players in those countries wouldn't be getting much, if any, exposure to high level lacrosse without an event like this.

[uncfan1013]

Kudos to all the players for being selected to our u20 national team. It’s definitely an honor.

But the ridiculousness of the scores when Canada or the us play anyone else makes me question the need for a world championship tournament.

Its more of a jamboree….

Without a world championship, how would other teams improve and start to get better development? Yes, the scores stink when the USA runs over teams but the more we grow this sport the more competitive it gets.

The USA currently runs the sport of lacrosse because of how good development is & the popularity in the USA. Yes, they are basically running over every team so far but the USA isn’t the only team that team will play.

[uncfan1013]

I see Canada doing very well too. Both the US & Canada will most likely make the final, will it be close? USA’s offense is far better but is Canada’s defense better?

[laxfan9999]

USA wins by 15 plus goals vs Canada.

[Kismet]

I see Canada doing very well too. Both the US & Canada will most likely make the final, will it be close? USA’s offense is far better but is Canada’s defense better?

How did Canada get the 1 seed? What's the process for that?

[njbill]

Goals against. Canada had 6, USA had 7.

[njbill]

USA wins by 15 plus goals vs Canada.

Canada beat the USA in 2015. The USA beat Canada 13–3 in 2019.

We shall see what happens on Saturday.

[laxfan9999]

2015 USA didn't have college players. Canada did.
2019 Canada and USA played once in preliminary play and were able to make adjustments.
2024 Canada doesn't have a player who would make the USA team and Scott Teeter isn't the coach for Canada. USA will dominate the draw and win by 15 plus.

And I am Canadian.

[forthelaxofit]

Kudos to all the players for being selected to our u20 national team. It’s definitely an honor.

But the ridiculousness of the scores when Canada or the us play anyone else makes me question the need for a world championship tournament.

Its more of a jamboree….

I know people will not like this suggestion, but in a tournament like this with the huge talent gap disparity you could have a draw mercy rule. In youth it was 10 a goal lead. But even say at 15 goal lead, let the other team take possession. Try and get the ball to the other end of the field at least in these blowouts. Looking at the combined stats, in 179 Draws, the USA has won 147 and lost 32. The USA opponents have a grand total of 23 shots!!! In 5 games! I haven’t watched the games, but appears the USA always has the ball. I know, I know – the purist would not like it. But isn’t that more sporting, and maybe just a bit more entertaining, than wins like 33-0 or 29-1.

[Kismet]

Goals against. Canada had 6, USA had 7.

Seems likke a pretty silly way to run a world championship tournament. What happened to pool play HTH for these two teams?

[forthelaxofit]

Looking at the scores, there have been 48 games played. 12 have been margin of victory of 5 goals or less. Over 50%, 26 of 48, have been victories of 10 or more goals. A draw mercy rule could help throughout this tournament.

[richard]

The tournament is not USA centric. Fortunately all the other teams are playing each other. That is where the competition is and the fun. USA gets to go too. They may beat the snot out of everybody else but it is not all about them.

[njbill]

2015 USA didn't have college players. Canada did.
2019 Canada and USA played once in preliminary play and were able to make adjustments.
2024 Canada doesn't have a player who would make the USA team and Scott Teeter isn't the coach for Canada. USA will dominate the draw and win by 15 plus.

And I am Canadian.

Yes, Canada did have a few players who had played one year in college in 2015. Is that why they won? I don’t think so. My impression at the time was that the US simply let the game slip away in crunch time at the end. The game was very winnable. Did the handful of Canadian players with one year of college experience help? Probably. Did the fact that the knuckleheads who chose the US team cut Sam Apuzzo hurt? Very possibly.

It wasn’t until after the 2015 fiasco that the brainiacs at US lacrosse finally decided to allow all age-eligible players to try out for the youth tournament. Prior to that they had only allowed high school kids (i.e., kids who had not played in college) to play on the team. That hadn’t prevented the US from winning all but one of the prior U19 tournaments.

Yes, the teams did play in pool play in 2019 which allowed both teams to make adjustments. Did that benefit one team or the other? Really impossible to say.

It’s probably always the case that nobody on the Canadian team could make the US team. I can’t think of anyone over the years, youth or senior. Of course the college kids who played on the 2015 Canadian team were not eligible for the US team that year. (Obviously, if you include Australia in that and go back a number of years, Jen Adams would have been able to make the US team.)

Don’t know really anything about the Canadian coach this year. You must think more of Scott Teeter as a coach than I do. I don’t think he’s anything special.

We shall see how the draw turns out on Saturday. In 2019, with Maddie Jenner taking the draw, you would’ve thought the US would dominate the draw, yet Canada I think won the draw in the gold medal game.

People always think US national teams should clean up in international competition. Look what happened in the Olympics with the two basketball teams. Both great teams, but both had to scratch and claw to win.

In 2022, you could probably say nobody on the Canadian team could’ve made the US team, yet they gave the US a very good battle, only losing 11–8.

I don’t know enough about this Canadian team to really make a prediction, but I would be surprised if the US won by 15 goals. As I said, let’s see how it plays out. We will know soon enough.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Bill, I think Erica Evans could have made the US Women's team. Maybe Lasota.

[cdb]

USA trounces Australia (sorry if his already posted and I missed it)

https://www.usalacrosse.com/magazine/na ... ong%20Kong

[Kismet]

USA trounces Australia (sorry if his already posted and I missed it)

https://www.usalacrosse.com/magazine/na ... ong%20Kong

34-1
Embarrassing.
What happened to basic sportsmanship?