US Open vs. New Zealand: New Zealand gave us our most challenging game yet, and they really benefited by having some dogged deep cutters that really refused to settle for incuts. As a handler, I love it when I have an athletic guy that doesn’t always settle for ‘taking what they give you,’ but really drives deep and tries to open up margins, even when they are being backed by a yard or two. The Kiwi deep cutters really did a nice job of looking for opportunities off of swings and then drove through their first 6-7 steps full speed, and THEN read the defense.

For young deep cutters, if you find yourself in the perfect spot on the field, you can take the under or the deep option and hurt the defense either way. Inevitably, though, you will end up in a suboptimal spot (much like the outside position in a flat stack) and getting a little greedy/aggressive can be a nice habit.

Other games I noticed…

The Finnish women played two devoted lines; they would alternate points regardless of O or D, so one group was always going upwind and the other always downwind. Their downwind line was very successful against Fury for the first 4-5 offensive possessions, hucking really smoothly for seemingly easy goals. When they finally did give up a break, though….now their upwind line was on offense for the first time in the game. This seemed to lead to runs of breaks for Fury. Interesting strategy though, I’ve never seen it in the states and I don’t think I fully understand the benefits yet. They must be there, cause the Finns are damn good.

Aussie Junior Women beat the US. Whoever #13 is, that gal can friggin play. Nice, relaxed pivoting styles helps her see the entire field without being rushed.

US Masters came back to beat the Canadians 16-14 (I think). The speed of Hollywood/Namkung/Dugan is going to be really tough to beat, and it was Dugan to Hollywood that pushed them upwind for the final break point. Bill Stewart, a longtime Massachusetts players and really cerebral, hustling defender is one of my absolute favorite players to watch play. It takes watching him for a full half before you really see the intention behind his gangle, and I love defenders that think well. I got to play with him once and definitely stayed at this game longer to watch him chase handlers around and bait for disruption.