We’re now just two days away from the start of the 2018 World Lacrosse Championships in Netanya, Israel. 46 national teams will be taking the field this week in Israel playing for a world title. It’ll be the biggest FIL World Lacrosse Championship to date but let’s just get honest here for a moment. This is a really a 3 team tournament that will come down to the reigning champs–Canada, the greatest lacrosse nation in the world–USA, and the Iroquois Nationals. There are certainly going to be a few more teams in the mix who can be competitive and make things interesting. Those are teams like Australia, Israel and England. But there have been 12 World Lacrosse Championships before. USA has won 9 golds and 3 silvers. Canada won gold each of the 3 years that USA got silver, as well as winning 5 silvers and 4 bronzes. And then the Iroquois team has only been able to participate in one WLC before, where they won bronze in 2014.

Now before we get into the preview here, there is a little bit of news to follow as we’re 48 hours away from the start of the tournament. In the months, and even weeks, heading into the tournament there was one major team that was in jeopardy of not participating in the tournament. That team was Canada as the players association and the Canadian Lacrosse Association were in a dispute over insurance policies. For a while it looked like Team Canada was going to sit this one out before the two sides finally came to an agreement and now Canada is in Israel to defend their 2014 world title. But right now, it looks like another team could be in jeopardy as well because the Iroquois team is having some trouble getting out of Canada to travel to Israel.

FIL – The unique nature of the Iroquois Nationals has led to challenges procedurally using Haudenosaunee passports for travel and entry into Israel.  The Iroquois Nationals are comprised of players from the Haudenosaunee, which is a federation of six Indigenous Nations, including the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Nations. The Host Committee for the event and FIL are working together with the Iroquois Nationals to solve the current challenges and expect that these issues will be resolved in time to allow the team to be present for their opening game in Netanya Stadium against the USA on July 12.

So it sounds like the team will hopefully have their passport situation figured out in time for them to be in Israel for their opening game against Team USA on Thursday, but it might end up being one of those “get dressed on the plane because we’re heading straight to the game” type of scenarios. If anybody remembers, the Iroquois Nationals were supposed to participate in the 2010 WLC in England but were unable to attend because their passports were not considered valid in England. It doesn’t sound like we have another 2010 situation on our hands here but they were supposed to leave last night and they still haven’t sooo….. But anyway, let’s get on to the preview and just assume that they’ll be there in time for the tournament opener.

Format:

There will be 14 groups at the World this year. Most groups only have 3 teams, with one team making it past the group stage and on to the elimination round. A lot of these groups are filled with countries that are still trying to grow their national programs. The red group is probably the strongest out of of the bunch with Israel and Jamaica both teams who could end up finishing ranked in the top 10. But the Blue Group is where the tournament will really come down to.

The elite group has the top 6 teams in the world and 4 of them will be moving on to the knockout rounds. Canada comes in ranked #1. USA is #2, Iroquois at 3, Australia at 4, England at 5 and Scotland at 6. If I had to put my money on it right now, it’ll be those top 4 advancing to the knockout rounds with USA and Canada each getting a bye to the semifinals. But yeah. We’ve got 4 teams coming out of the Blue Group, and 1 team coming out of the rest.

Schedule:

You’ll be able to watch every WLC game on ESPN+ so you’ll just have to check the schedule and times for those. But as far as televised games go, you’ll be able to see every USA game of the group stage as well as the semifinals and championship on either ESPNU or ESPN2. You can see the whole broadcast schedule here.

The fact that the championship game is going to be on at 3am on Saturday the 21st is pretty fucked but whatever. Cleary the biggest games here are any time either USA, Canada and the Iroquois play against each other. So set that DVR for Thursday at 1:30pm, Sunday at noon and then Monday at 2pm.

Teams To Watch:

USA | 2014 Finish: Lost to Canada in Gold Medal Game 

Let’s just start off by naming a few guys on the roster. In net you have John Galloway and Jack Kelly. Defensively you’ve got attempted murderer Tucker Durkin

As well as Jesse Bernhardt, Joe Fletcher, Kyle Hartzell and Joel White. Those guys will probably have it easy, however, because the chances of Team USA losing faceoffs this tournament are slim to none considering they’ll have a combo of Greg Gurenlian and Trevor Baptiste taking draws for them. And when those guys are winning 80+% of their faceoffs in this tournament, they’ll be getting the ball to the most elite group of offensive players in the world. Led by Paul Rabil, Rob Pannell, Jordan Wolf, Tom Schreiber, Matt Danowski, Ned Crotty and Marcus Holman. Team USA has elite players in all 4 areas of the field. Not that that should be any sort of surprise considering the United States is the largest lacrosse playing nation in the world. I’m just stating facts here. There have only been 3 times when the US haven’t left the World Championships with a gold, and in each of those times they ended up with silver. And with a roster like the one they have in Israel this year, you have to imagine this will be 13 in a row playing in the final game.

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I’d say the one thing that USA really has going for them this year is the revenge factor. In 2014 they took care of Canada 10-7 in the group stage but then couldn’t keep the offense going in the final game when they lost to the Canadians 8-5. It was the 2nd time in 3 World Championships that the US lost to Canada in that final game. They’ve never lost 2 in a row but Canada owns the advantage over the last 12 years. A decent amount of these guys were on that roster in 2014 and you know they won’t want to come back without gold again this go around.

Canada | 2014 Finish: Beat USA in Gold Medal Game

Like I mentioned above, it wasn’t an easy road for Canada to get back to the World Lacrosse Championships. There were a lot of off-field legal obstacles in the way that came close to preventing them from defending their gold. But everything was sorted out in time for Canada to send their best 23 players to the tournament this year and just like Team USA, they are loaded all over the field. In net they’ve got Dillon Ward who was named the MVP of the championship game in 2014. Defensively they’ve got Brodie Merrill, Jason Noble, Latrell Harris, Graeme Hossack and Tyson Bell. If anybody is going to win a faceoff against the Americans, it would be Geoff Snider for Canada. And then we get to Canada’s offense which is an absolute fucking wagon of a lineup.

You’ve got Kevin Crowley who scored 5 goals in the gold medal game in 2014. Mark Matthews who was the MLL MVP this season. Curtis Dickson, Josh Byrne, Mark Cockerton, Jeremy Noble. You’ve got Ian MacKay who just finished lighting shit up at Vermont this year. You’ve got a couple of the best college players in the nation with Jeff Teat and Tre Leclaire. This offense is a great blend of young and old, and they’re a bunch of dudes who can fill the back of the net at will. Canada has never been able to repeat as world champions before. If you put the ball in the sticks of that offense enough, this could definitely end up being the year they do so. Just like every other World Lacrosse Championship to date, this one will either be USA or Canada with the gold.

Iroquois | 2014 Finish: Beat Australia 16-5 in Bronze Medal Game

The score of that 2014 bronze medal game was included for a reason. Because while there are 46 teams playing in the 2018 WLC, 43 of those teams will be playing for 4th place. That’s not intended to be any disrespect to those teams and programs. It’s just a fact. The world of lacrosse has USA, Canada, the Iroquois and then everybody else. And when you see the lineup at attack that the Iroquois Nationals are bringing to Israel, you’ll see why they are in that elite group.

Jesus Christ. You’ve got a couple of Thompson brothers and their cousin Ty. You’ve got the Staats brothers. You’ve got Tehoka. And then you’ve Kyle Jackson to round it all out. That attack lineup is flat out preposterous. That’s 7 of the best players in the world and if this were a box tournament, I’d say that group may even be better than Canada’s. Now I think the Iroquois are definitely still 3rd in line behind USA and Canada in this tournament, especially once you start looking past their attack group. Things start to get a little less elite the further you get from their offensive side of the ball. Their midfielders are good but not quite as deep as Canada and the US. And then defensively and in the cage, well that’s the difference maker that will have them losing in the semifinal round.

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But as far as creativity and entertainment goes? The Iroquois are going to be the most fun team to watch of the tournament. It’ll be an And1 Mixtape tour every time they have the ball on offense. You’ll be able to watch them 3 times on ESPN this week. Against Team USA on Thursday. Against Canada on Monday. And then in whatever semifinal game they end up playing in. If I were you, I’d make sure to circle all 3 of those games, park your ass on the couch and watch every second of them.

Australia | 2014 Finish: Lost in Bronze Medal Game

Israel | 2014 Finish: 7th

I think as long as Iroquois finish 3rd, that opens up the chance for Israel to make it to the semifinals.  They’ve got a pretty strong squad heading into this tournament, especially with Max Seibald playing for the Israeli team after playing for the US team that won silver in 2014. They’ve got guys like Seibald, Josh Offit, Noah Molnar, Dan Leventhal and Ari Sussman. A bunch of guys who have played at the highest level. I think outside of the big 3, this Israel roster has the best talent. They definitely aren’t deep and it may only be a few guys, but Seibald is the best player in this tournament not on a US, Canadian or Iroquios roster. And the fact that they are hosting the tournament will give them a little boost as well.

And that’s it for now. I mean obviously there are more teams and players to talk about and everything, but these are all the big names and dates you need to know as a fan heading into the World Championships. We’re going to get The Crease Dive going again for the tournament and we’ll have a preview episode out tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a few guys on from Israel throughout the week. So make sure to download and subscribe to that on iTunes.

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