After our game against Wildcard (Australia) got rained out yesterday, we spent much of the day running around Prague and trying to get in touch with our team.  We finally found out in the early evening that our game was rescheduled for this morning and that our other games were pushed back as well. 

This morning, we took the first bus from our hotel to the Strahov field site and arrived with just over 30 minutes to warm up.  Wildcard was deep into their warmup and I knew immediately that this could be trouble.  They jumped out to a 6-2 lead, capitalizing on every one of our mistakes and punishing us deep repeatedly.  Their tall handlers did a fantastic job of breaking the mark and moving the disc quickly.  We brought it back closer before Wildcard took half, but Wildcard surged ahead again to go up 10-6.  This was gut check time for us and we answered in a big way, going on a 7 point run to win 13-10.  A loss in that game would have left us hoping for some kind of point differential win to get an “easier” pre-quarters game.

After a bye, we traded with Brute Squad for a bit but when they went up 7-3, we opened up our lines knowing that we still had to face an athletic Zephyr (Canada) team.  They took the game easily with their handlers breaking us repeatedly.  We did a much better job of containing their deep game than we have in the past, but Brute dispatched us rather easily.

After yet another bye, we faced Zephyr feeling like we had something to prove.  We went up 7-2 but Zephyr fought back bringing it to 8-10 at one point.  We regrouped and took the game 13-8 to take second in our power pool.

The Woodchicas (Munich) upset Zeitgeist so we will face them in pre-quarters tomorrow morning.  Winner should see UNO (Japan) in quarters as far as I know.

I am currently on the bus on the way back from trading night with an Iceni (England) jersey and a pair of shorts from a Japanese open team in hand.  Also, my personal highlight of the tournament was a Singapore player who had read a college women’s ultimate resources manual I compiled finding me at trading night and giving me a disc to thank me for sending her a copy.  Just another reminder that ultimate is bigger than me, my team, and even ultimate in the US.

So here we are on night three of WUCC 2010 and it’s the first real chance I’ve had to post anything for the Huddle. Our week has been a frustrating one so far with 4 losses from 4 games. On day one we ran with Phoenix until 11s and then faded away to lose by 6. Later that day we were soundly beaten by the Australian lads, Colony, who I think will be a surprise in the  quarters. We’ll see how they go in the next few days when they play the big teams. On day two we had an epic encounter with Belgium’s Mooncatchers and despite forcing two turns in the final point we lost 15-14. Today’s game was bizarre. We faced Mor Ho! and started slowly, fought back and then fell way again. Cue lightening and a full blown storm. 20mins later we got back on the field (luckily – most teams didn’t get to finish their games) and rallied once more, but the gap was too big and we lost 17-14.  I’ve updated the DU Blog with all the details!

Elsewhere, the Open division is going to seed with US teams proving their worth. There’s been little or no time to watch many games unfortunately so it’s hard to tell exactly who’s on form or not.  Japan’s Buzz Bullets looked impressive in their win over Invictus this morning, Clapham (UK) also seem to be coming good with their 10 point thrashing of Nomadic Tribe but  it’s hard to look past Chain or Revolver.

As a whole the tournament has had it’s highs and lows in terms of organisation. The wait for buses to get from field to field/field to accommodation is frustrating but relatively understandable. There were huge queues at the start of the week for food but it seems to have been settled now. The dorm accommodation is old school Communist block in style with two people in a small room and 6 showers a floor (with 60+ people on each floor!) but works out fine. I’d imagine today was particularly tough for organisers with huge amounts of games getting cancelled, but the new schedule was out fairly fast and I’m sure everyone is ready to get back to the most important part of the week – playing. Well, that, and having fun…

We played Leeds (Great Britain) this morning in a rematch of our game at Boston Invite about a month ago.  Leeds made a lot of great adjustments from our last game, picking apart our zone and forcing us to stick with our man defense.  Their handlers moved the disc quickly and they got a good number of hucks off dish passes.  Despite a short lightning delay in the morning, we were able to finish the game 17-5.

During our bye, I watched the Brute (USA)-Wildcard (Australia) game.  Brute’s “rookies” from Godiva are all great pickups (obviously) and while they’re a good team now, I’m excited to see them in 3 months.

We faced Copenhagen (Denmark) in the afternoon and went up early.  The game got pretty chippy and sloppy, which was unfortunate.  Copenhagen had knocked off Jinx in the round prior and that and Jinx’s upset of Leeds created an interesting 3-way tie for 2nd in our pool.  With only the top 3 teams advancing to the power pools, Copenhagen was knocked out based on point differential.

We face Wildcard tomorrow afternoon, then Brute and Zephyr on Wednesday.  It’s been a fun couple of days, and we’re pumped for more awesome ultimate. Also, a special shoutout to our soccer stud turned frisbee player Shelby following from home. Can’t wait to have you on the field with us! :)

Showdown kicked off the tournament with a win over Jinx (Germany) 17-6 this afternoon.  We went up 6-1 early then faltered, letting them back into the game 5-7.  We took half 9-5 and closed the game out 17-6.  Jinx breaks the mark very well and their overall skill set was impressive.  The other two teams in our pool, Leeds (Great Britain) and Copenhagen (Denmark) battled it out next door to us, with Leeds winning by 4 or 5.  The overall level of play was quite good, and Copenhagen, the last seed in our pool, was utilizing lots of crossfield break throws to open up the field.  Both teams played good defense in the air, so that will be interesting for us tomorrow.  Also of note, our coach couldn’t come at the last minute, so that’s been something our team has been working with.

The other US women’s teams won their games and Doublewide (the Texas open team) won both of their games as well.  We had a chance to watch some of Backhoe’s game and they have a small roster, but took care of business fairly easily.  Brute Squad beat Zephyr (Canada) 14-6 or so, and we did not get a chance to watch Fury, Riot, or Zeitgeist, but heard that they all won.

I’m not sure what the experiences of other teams has been, but so far, we’ve been a bit frustrated with some of the communication regarding transportation.  It’s been a bit unclear when the buses are or are not running.  Things are pretty spread out around the city, so we’re pretty reliant on the tournament buses and/or public transportation to get around.  Our hotel is also a lot “different” than what was advertised on their website.  But hey, at the end of the day, we’re trying to keep it all in perspective.  We’re at Worlds, in Prague, playing ultimate with 22 of our best friends.  So life is good.

Tomorrow we play Leeds (Great Britain) at 8:30 AM and Copenhagen (Denmark) at 12:30 PM.  If we win those games and the other pool plays out as we expect it to, we should face our friends Brute Squad in power pools.  Our relationship with them has been an interesting one (in a good way- BRUTE DOWN 2010!).  They knocked us out in Quarterfinals of the Club Championships last year and this season, we are collaborating on a big 40-team fall women’s tournament.  They played host to us at Boston Invite and we will be both be headed to ECC in August.  So we’ll be seeing them about 6 times this season, which is more than we’ll be seeing any team in our region (or in any other region) for that matter.

It’s awesome seeing Prague being totally overrun by frisbee players.  There are even billboards advertising the tournament around the city!

Updates from here on out might be a lot shorter… I can’t see what I’m typing on the screen of my iPhone, so that makes writing a little difficult… Thanks to everyone following us from home!  We love you all.

Wow…it was a hot day…fields are great. A little small but even and soft. From what I saw the US teams were breezing through their games. M.U.C. (my team) lost to Boston 8-17. Had we played better it might have been sth like 12-17. Ironside is a solid squad though we didn’t challenge them enough to get a good picture of their abilities.

We beat the Frech squad Jack Suns 17-12. Solid overall performance. So winning tomorrow against the 4th seed of our pool will put us into the power pools. Jipiee.

Saw lots of excited and happy faces today. Met plenty of old friends. That’s one of the great things about WUCC…you get to meet people from all over and spend quality time with them.

Looking forward to an unforgetable week. Hope to catch some games tomorrow…keep rocking y’all.

Jens