Worlds 2000, US versus Sweden, round II
For those of you who have been following these threads hoping to learn something about about 'the call' in the 2000 finals, we're almost there. Unfortunately, there won't be anything really refreshing or new, and there will be no 'unburdening' of my conscience (because there is no burden), but read on if you're interested in my perspective.
By now we had smashed through NY, NY's record 5 consecutive national championships. In the fall of 1999, fresh off the World Championship victory in St. Andrews, we beat all comers in San Diego with our huge squad of 25 to win our 6th straight. This included a 4 turnover final (17-12) against the Condors, 1 more than our 3 turnover final against Seattle in 95 (21-10).
We were fortunate that they didn't move the 'Olympic' World Championships to once every 4 years until after 2000, which meant that as National Champions in 99, DoG was going to represent the US a third straight time in 2000 (after 96 and 98).
10. 2000 - WFDF World Championships - Heilbronn, Germany - Team USA (DoG)
http://wugc2000.ira.uka.de/en/home.htm
After the debauchery and loose play as complete underdogs in St. Andrews, Heilbron was a little different. We were now representing the US as the #1 seed at the tournament. We brought almost our entire squad to Worlds. Canada was on the rise, and Sweden was still right up there on the international scene. Heilbron was also very different from England. I don't know how much this had to do with the tournament site, Germans in general, or what. As Jim described in one of his summaries, with the Germanic insistence on conformity and precision to the exclusion of common sense, Hogan's Heroes seemed a lot more plausible.
The tournament site was not quite as convenient as St. Andrews. The fields were scattered about the complex, with no more than 2 fields right next to each other, so it was hard to catch a lot of games. Furthermore, on the first two days, we had 9am and 5-6PM games, which, while allowing sightseeing and other game watching, was mentally taxing. Fortunately, none of these early games were particularly challenging.
One thing that was pretty cool was the 'feature' game, which was played in the stadium every night at 6:30. Our feature game was against the Germans, with the stands replete with hometown fans. Fortunately, we came through 15-9.
Our first challenge was day 4, when we played the Canadians in the morning, prevailing 15-13 in an offensive battle. Next up was the Japanese team, and we never got it going, ultimately losing 15-12. We played Sweden the next day in pool play after both teams had qualified for the semis. They rested a few of their studs, and we ended up winning 15-11 in a straightforward game. This set up semifinals matchups US/Germany and Sweden/Canada. Despite the urgings of thousands of hometown fans (or not), we beat the Germans 15-10. Over in the other bracket, Sweden was a 15-13 victor, setting up a rematch of the 1996 Worlds final.
After 'storming' out to an early 3-1 deficit, the offense did not turn over the disc for the next 12 possessions/points. Normally, you would expect a game like this to be well out of reach, and yet the defense only scored 3 during that entire run, resulting in our receiving the pull at 16-15 in a game to 17. What was even more shocking was that most of this was while running the Brown offense, which we had barely played all season, much less that tournament. Game-point Fortunat (need to remember not to put him in...) promptly underthrew a long forehand to Parinella which was D'ed by Stefan of all people (played with DoG in 1999). Sweden forced a throw to my guy for the goal and I looked pretty stupid awkwardly jumping to try and to block it. 16-16. Over the next few points, the offensive juggernaut of the previous 12 points disappeared as we made turnover after turnover. Fortunately, Sweden did not fare any better, but we had at least 2 or 3 more turnovers before the final point of the game, when we received at 18-18, double game point.
After a few passes, Jim Parinella was trapped on the forehand sideline about a 3rd of the way up the field and I was 5 yards away waiting for the dump and being covered by our old friend Anders Jerhamre. At stall 6, Jim looked at me, I cut dump, and he threw an unassertive backhand. As I reached to pancake it, Anders was also lunging for the disc and slapped the back of my left hand. I promptly called foul, and he started cursing me out and jumping up and down, as I was pointing to the back of my hand that he smacked. After the obligatory argument, he started walking away and egging on the crowd, after which I immediately told him to fuck himself and gave him the finger, I was so pissed. I knew that my tournament was ruined, win or lose. If we won, that call would forever tarnish the victory, and if we lost, I would never hear the end of it either.
We immediately called timeout, and while the play was being called, I told the team I was going to be out of the play on the far side of the field, trying to prevent Anders from getting involved in the D and making a big play. After a few passes we finally scored on a marginal pass and won the World Championships. While the rest of my team celebrated, I was unable to enjoy the victory at all, and still have no real enjoyment of that title.
I still resent the whole situation. I made a call because I thought was fouled, and was totally vilified. I was also pissed at my team because we couldn't close out the victory in the flow of the game. In discussions over email with Anders a year or so later (after being attacked by Anders for posting on Euro disc in his 'backyard' after I had seen some inaccurate posts about the call), he said he didn't think there was any contact (plus some less gentle commentary). I know I felt the contact. I have to admit, if there had been referees, and they had ruled against me, I would have lost my shit. And if they had agreed with me, there still would have been complaints. And unfortunately, the video coverage wasn't good enough to validate my call. And polling people who were right there, some thought I was fouled, others thought that he had gotten the disc.
During the post-game circle, Anders gave a dignified team speech, and then started cursing in Swedish (unless he was saying nice game?!?!). And to clinch it, after the teams were leaving the field, #5 on the Swedish team who was one of their more asshole players was looking at me over his shoulder at me as he is leaving the field. Finally, he stops and comes back towards me. I walk towards him, he reaches out to shake my hand, and then gives me his shirt, and says something really obnoxious that I don't remember. Well, let me tell you, I still proudly wear that shirt today. That dude was involved in more bad calls and arguments than anyone on their team, and this was about the only positive thing I took away from the game.
At least we won. It would have sucked after all that to have still lost the game. Then you had dicks like the drunk guy that came up to me at the party that night and started confronting me about how could I make such a bad call, because Anders couldn't possibly be wrong. Wonderful.
For some more commentary, I found a couple of Eurodisc posts, including one in which I defended the call, or rather, pointed out that I called a foul, not strip, which would have justifiably been a terrible call.
http://www.mail-archive.com/britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk/msg00063.html
and
http://www.ira.uka.de/~thgries/disc/EuroDisc-Archive/2000/Sep/018.09.2000.html
Memorabilia.
* Playing Russia and going up big (and trying to bagel them), up Jordan made the first turnover and then was immediately scored on.
* The tent city next to the fields that we played Russia on.
* Multiple beer gardens next to the fields. The Germans definitely had the right idea there.
* No ice in all of Germany. Poor Lenny. Remember, we were sporting a bunch of old guys who lived on post game ice. After walking into every restaurant we could drive to, we eventually had to empty the hotel that Mr. Haskell was staying at.
* Jordan's dad coming to Worlds.
* My wife flying in Friday morning, taking the train to Heilbron, and then asking directions and finding me watching the Canada/Sweden semifinal, walking up with her rolling suitcase. VERY impressive.
* The hotel we stayed at had a bar, but didn't open it for the first 3 nights, losing a buttload of money. Duh!
* Lenny literally leaving his cleats on the field after the finals. He has never played again.
* Doing a trade immediately after the finals while we were still on the field with a French player. I guess my game jersey now had some notoriety with it, because I was able to leverage it into a jersey AND a nice warmup jacket.
* The night after the final, Jim Parinella streaking across the field in the buff (didn't see this, but heard about it, and figured it was worth mentioning).
* The trophy was this huge bell in a wooden structure, weighing at least 70 pounds. It was eventually checked on a plane back to the states. I believe it is still with Lyn Debevoise.
* Conceiving my twins the night before the finals.
By now we had smashed through NY, NY's record 5 consecutive national championships. In the fall of 1999, fresh off the World Championship victory in St. Andrews, we beat all comers in San Diego with our huge squad of 25 to win our 6th straight. This included a 4 turnover final (17-12) against the Condors, 1 more than our 3 turnover final against Seattle in 95 (21-10).
We were fortunate that they didn't move the 'Olympic' World Championships to once every 4 years until after 2000, which meant that as National Champions in 99, DoG was going to represent the US a third straight time in 2000 (after 96 and 98).
10. 2000 - WFDF World Championships - Heilbronn, Germany - Team USA (DoG)
http://wugc2000.ira.uka.de/en/home.htm
After the debauchery and loose play as complete underdogs in St. Andrews, Heilbron was a little different. We were now representing the US as the #1 seed at the tournament. We brought almost our entire squad to Worlds. Canada was on the rise, and Sweden was still right up there on the international scene. Heilbron was also very different from England. I don't know how much this had to do with the tournament site, Germans in general, or what. As Jim described in one of his summaries, with the Germanic insistence on conformity and precision to the exclusion of common sense, Hogan's Heroes seemed a lot more plausible.
The tournament site was not quite as convenient as St. Andrews. The fields were scattered about the complex, with no more than 2 fields right next to each other, so it was hard to catch a lot of games. Furthermore, on the first two days, we had 9am and 5-6PM games, which, while allowing sightseeing and other game watching, was mentally taxing. Fortunately, none of these early games were particularly challenging.
One thing that was pretty cool was the 'feature' game, which was played in the stadium every night at 6:30. Our feature game was against the Germans, with the stands replete with hometown fans. Fortunately, we came through 15-9.
Our first challenge was day 4, when we played the Canadians in the morning, prevailing 15-13 in an offensive battle. Next up was the Japanese team, and we never got it going, ultimately losing 15-12. We played Sweden the next day in pool play after both teams had qualified for the semis. They rested a few of their studs, and we ended up winning 15-11 in a straightforward game. This set up semifinals matchups US/Germany and Sweden/Canada. Despite the urgings of thousands of hometown fans (or not), we beat the Germans 15-10. Over in the other bracket, Sweden was a 15-13 victor, setting up a rematch of the 1996 Worlds final.
After 'storming' out to an early 3-1 deficit, the offense did not turn over the disc for the next 12 possessions/points. Normally, you would expect a game like this to be well out of reach, and yet the defense only scored 3 during that entire run, resulting in our receiving the pull at 16-15 in a game to 17. What was even more shocking was that most of this was while running the Brown offense, which we had barely played all season, much less that tournament. Game-point Fortunat (need to remember not to put him in...) promptly underthrew a long forehand to Parinella which was D'ed by Stefan of all people (played with DoG in 1999). Sweden forced a throw to my guy for the goal and I looked pretty stupid awkwardly jumping to try and to block it. 16-16. Over the next few points, the offensive juggernaut of the previous 12 points disappeared as we made turnover after turnover. Fortunately, Sweden did not fare any better, but we had at least 2 or 3 more turnovers before the final point of the game, when we received at 18-18, double game point.
After a few passes, Jim Parinella was trapped on the forehand sideline about a 3rd of the way up the field and I was 5 yards away waiting for the dump and being covered by our old friend Anders Jerhamre. At stall 6, Jim looked at me, I cut dump, and he threw an unassertive backhand. As I reached to pancake it, Anders was also lunging for the disc and slapped the back of my left hand. I promptly called foul, and he started cursing me out and jumping up and down, as I was pointing to the back of my hand that he smacked. After the obligatory argument, he started walking away and egging on the crowd, after which I immediately told him to fuck himself and gave him the finger, I was so pissed. I knew that my tournament was ruined, win or lose. If we won, that call would forever tarnish the victory, and if we lost, I would never hear the end of it either.
We immediately called timeout, and while the play was being called, I told the team I was going to be out of the play on the far side of the field, trying to prevent Anders from getting involved in the D and making a big play. After a few passes we finally scored on a marginal pass and won the World Championships. While the rest of my team celebrated, I was unable to enjoy the victory at all, and still have no real enjoyment of that title.
I still resent the whole situation. I made a call because I thought was fouled, and was totally vilified. I was also pissed at my team because we couldn't close out the victory in the flow of the game. In discussions over email with Anders a year or so later (after being attacked by Anders for posting on Euro disc in his 'backyard' after I had seen some inaccurate posts about the call), he said he didn't think there was any contact (plus some less gentle commentary). I know I felt the contact. I have to admit, if there had been referees, and they had ruled against me, I would have lost my shit. And if they had agreed with me, there still would have been complaints. And unfortunately, the video coverage wasn't good enough to validate my call. And polling people who were right there, some thought I was fouled, others thought that he had gotten the disc.
During the post-game circle, Anders gave a dignified team speech, and then started cursing in Swedish (unless he was saying nice game?!?!). And to clinch it, after the teams were leaving the field, #5 on the Swedish team who was one of their more asshole players was looking at me over his shoulder at me as he is leaving the field. Finally, he stops and comes back towards me. I walk towards him, he reaches out to shake my hand, and then gives me his shirt, and says something really obnoxious that I don't remember. Well, let me tell you, I still proudly wear that shirt today. That dude was involved in more bad calls and arguments than anyone on their team, and this was about the only positive thing I took away from the game.
At least we won. It would have sucked after all that to have still lost the game. Then you had dicks like the drunk guy that came up to me at the party that night and started confronting me about how could I make such a bad call, because Anders couldn't possibly be wrong. Wonderful.
For some more commentary, I found a couple of Eurodisc posts, including one in which I defended the call, or rather, pointed out that I called a foul, not strip, which would have justifiably been a terrible call.
http://www.mail-archive.com/britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk/msg00063.html
and
http://www.ira.uka.de/~thgries/disc/EuroDisc-Archive/2000/Sep/018.09.2000.html
Memorabilia.
* Playing Russia and going up big (and trying to bagel them), up Jordan made the first turnover and then was immediately scored on.
* The tent city next to the fields that we played Russia on.
* Multiple beer gardens next to the fields. The Germans definitely had the right idea there.
* No ice in all of Germany. Poor Lenny. Remember, we were sporting a bunch of old guys who lived on post game ice. After walking into every restaurant we could drive to, we eventually had to empty the hotel that Mr. Haskell was staying at.
* Jordan's dad coming to Worlds.
* My wife flying in Friday morning, taking the train to Heilbron, and then asking directions and finding me watching the Canada/Sweden semifinal, walking up with her rolling suitcase. VERY impressive.
* The hotel we stayed at had a bar, but didn't open it for the first 3 nights, losing a buttload of money. Duh!
* Lenny literally leaving his cleats on the field after the finals. He has never played again.
* Doing a trade immediately after the finals while we were still on the field with a French player. I guess my game jersey now had some notoriety with it, because I was able to leverage it into a jersey AND a nice warmup jacket.
* The night after the final, Jim Parinella streaking across the field in the buff (didn't see this, but heard about it, and figured it was worth mentioning).
* The trophy was this huge bell in a wooden structure, weighing at least 70 pounds. It was eventually checked on a plane back to the states. I believe it is still with Lyn Debevoise.
* Conceiving my twins the night before the finals.
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 1:51 AM
11 Comments:
so much for nicest cheaters in the game... my favorite spirit circle experiences have always been with scandahoovians... there was the chain/skoggys circle in 97 in some 12th place consolation stuff ... in halting english, some sven says, 'it was good game, very spirited, except for the arguments and you are all clearly smell bad from the drinking.' then sockeye/finnsomething in 1997, 'it was very spirited, except for one person.' it seems like europeans tend to whine. i assume jim would say it's because they are all a bunch of communists.
Funny you mention that. I've noticed the same thing over the years. Per the stereotypes, you would expect this more from the German, but every post game circle with the Nordic teams has been very dry. I think their sense of humor, such as it is, is unlike anything we can understand, or maybe they don't share it with we Americans, or, they just dislike us intensely (or all of the above...)
The few German players I know (one spent a lot of time in atlanta back in the day) are an affable boozy lot. not like the aussies, but they make an effort. perhaps i'm ill-informed because of the language barrier... in scotland the US teams ranged from, out everynight, let's have some fun, to ring of fire's 'hang out in the dorm, we're at worlds, dammit', so maybe there is more variety than i'm giving them credit for.
how bout some more post? what year are you up to?
I'm working on my final worlds recap, 2002 (sniff). Unfortunately, 2004 was not on my resume. And then comes the real contemporary, edgy stuff...
if this posts twice could you delete one?
1) edgy stuff?
2) i realize that the olympics are more important than summer camp, but i really hate the world games because they are...
a) coed
b) i like summer camp... and this 'santacruz beach games' 'panamerica games' etc... just don't cut it...
Yeah, but it's not real coed, it's elite players playing coed. It'll be interesting to see how they adapt. Rumor is that the women on the US team are considered the throwers. Hmm, maybe I'll take this to a real blog next week.
i think a better system would be to alternate boy/girl years for the world games.
where's the archived posts where alex is getting ripped. i don't want to read his responses... i want to read some euro-hate.
my vague recolections of scotland are that the only types of music are country and techno. comments? that might explain a lot.
google "Eurodisc", click on "archives", then go to August and September of 2000.
I would have preferred either men's or women's play to coed, but that was someone else's decision. Given that FloJo never played, there is just such a difference in speed that it makes for an awkward game. You can say that it adds strategy, but is it an improvement to add the strategy "must not throw long to a woman with a man within 15 yards of her"? (Of course, there are slow guys, fast women, etc., but this is the general rule.)
Oh, in case anyone is offended, this is Alex posting as Jim.
ah, yes. the french and their noted misogynistic character.
you can say... but i've never heard anyone say it. maybe i don't hang out in the right places.
awkward, yes. borderline dangerous. and that's not even bringing in, how did jim put it, sectional level player, joe spirit clubbing you awkwardly at every opportunity.
For the World Games, it shouldn't be borderline dangerous, as all the players ought to be good athletes and with enough field sense to avoid nasty collisions. On the other hand, it might be more dangerous if there is a collision since everyone will be going faster.
Recreational coed is especially dangerous for women, as Joe Macho smacks down Mary Clueless.
I did call timeout after the foul. I remember trying to call Moses in the play because I didn't want Forch turning it over.
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