1999 - Offense rules
Well, I guess I ran out of time to recapture old nationals. Maybe I'll do that if we do well this year. If we don't I suspect I will do what Zaz did, and after some self-analysis, will shut down the blog for a period of mourning. Regardless, the hands of time revolve backwards towards 1999...(cue strange sounds) The Northwest was still in turmoil, as a whore team had grabbed all the talent they could and spoofed the DoG name in an effort to take over their national title duties. After 3 years of losing in the finals, and then an upset year of not even making nationals, Seattle had disbanded and a few of their studs had looked up a few other studs, and BoG (Blaze of Glory) was born. While not exactly striking terror into people's hearts (coming in 3rd in the competitive Northwest), BoG would eventually come in 8th, although they were doing well until... they weren't.
This was also the first year that nationals expanded to 16 teams, enabling that 3rd squad to finally make it out of the NW. DoG had an inauspicious season, losing Easterns to Florida (can't remember losing to them before or since...). While we won Worlds at St. Andrews with a skeleton crew of 16 (and only 8 then DoGs), which still ranks as my most exhilarating, unbelievable and unexpected tournament victory ever, we were incorporating a bunch of new youth onto the team that fall (first time our roster had been bigger than 20 since 1994, and we smashed that level with a large squad of 25) and were still having problems getting things together. We lost twice to Furious at Tuneup, including in the finals. But we were unproven, and the youth movement, similar to what Furious is doing this year, was still in its infancy. The practices right before nationals were terrible, right on schedule (I think we've had good practices leading into nationals maybe twice in 10 years. This year was no different...).
However, once nationals started, look out! The offense, which had been fitfully present, rocked. Before the semifinals, the offense gave up no more than 3 points in any one game. To give you an idea of our utter domination, that was the first and only nationals that I played EVERY single point of offense. For that to happen means that 1) I was playing well, 2) the O was playing well, 3) the O was playing efficiently (not a lot of multi-turnover points), because otherwise I would have felt compelled to take some subs. This was all leading into a highly anticipated semifinal showdown with Furious. There was unfinished business between the two teams. Furious had unexpectedly beaten us TWICE at the '98 World Championships to take home the title, we had gotten them back at Nationals, they beat us at Tuneup, it was going to be a clash of titans. Well, the game was as good as advertised. This was probably my most overtly impactful game that I ever played with DoG. (Unfortunately, I got caught in an rsd snare of my own creation here, which is why to this day I still don't post anything on rsd for the most part, having gotten burned too much that one time).
Actually, reading the rsd thread, I found a bunch of stats for the 99 nationals. In the entire tournament, the offense was scored on 12 times in 8 games, for an average of 1.5 goals per game. Given these stats, it is not surprising that we won, although Furious gave us an incredibly tough game. While we only gave up 3 points, they were poorly-placed. I believe we gave up the last two of the half to give Furious the lead at half, 9-7. AND they were receiving to start the second half. I have to admit that I was worried coming out of halftime. This didn't have the same feel as the Ring semifinal comeback (also covered by Jim), but the margin also wasn't as large. Fortunately, the D came out and won half-time by stuffing and scoring to start. We slowly chipped away at the lead, until we finally broke through to lead 15-14 (games to 17 back then). Another HUGE stuff and score gave the O some breathing room, and we served out to 17-15.
This semifinal was similar to our 95 semi against NYNY, which Jim so ably recapped already in his blog. This was another big-play game us, with many completed hucks. This was back when Forch was still fast, and I ended up completing 5 full-field hucks for goals including the game-winner, most of them to Forch. BTW, Tony Leonardo does a fine writeup on that day on the nationals website
here.
And the finals were a continuation of that offensive dominance. For the 13 points that the offense was in, we scored on the first possession on 11 of them, gave up one goal, and scored the final one after we got it back. Of course, the one goal we gave up was on the first point, and it was my turnover, on an inside out forehand to Jay Bickford off a stoppage that he apparently did not realize was wide-open and he cut away from it. Hey, I didn't say I didn't have any turnovers, just that the O was a force this tournament.
Looking at the talent out there, it is going to require a similar effort this year to have any chance at making noise. We have shown glimpses throughout the year, but never more than a few points or at most one game in a row. Do we have it in us? We'll see in a few days. I'm looking forward to it.
This was also the first year that nationals expanded to 16 teams, enabling that 3rd squad to finally make it out of the NW. DoG had an inauspicious season, losing Easterns to Florida (can't remember losing to them before or since...). While we won Worlds at St. Andrews with a skeleton crew of 16 (and only 8 then DoGs), which still ranks as my most exhilarating, unbelievable and unexpected tournament victory ever, we were incorporating a bunch of new youth onto the team that fall (first time our roster had been bigger than 20 since 1994, and we smashed that level with a large squad of 25) and were still having problems getting things together. We lost twice to Furious at Tuneup, including in the finals. But we were unproven, and the youth movement, similar to what Furious is doing this year, was still in its infancy. The practices right before nationals were terrible, right on schedule (I think we've had good practices leading into nationals maybe twice in 10 years. This year was no different...).
However, once nationals started, look out! The offense, which had been fitfully present, rocked. Before the semifinals, the offense gave up no more than 3 points in any one game. To give you an idea of our utter domination, that was the first and only nationals that I played EVERY single point of offense. For that to happen means that 1) I was playing well, 2) the O was playing well, 3) the O was playing efficiently (not a lot of multi-turnover points), because otherwise I would have felt compelled to take some subs. This was all leading into a highly anticipated semifinal showdown with Furious. There was unfinished business between the two teams. Furious had unexpectedly beaten us TWICE at the '98 World Championships to take home the title, we had gotten them back at Nationals, they beat us at Tuneup, it was going to be a clash of titans. Well, the game was as good as advertised. This was probably my most overtly impactful game that I ever played with DoG. (Unfortunately, I got caught in an rsd snare of my own creation here, which is why to this day I still don't post anything on rsd for the most part, having gotten burned too much that one time).
Actually, reading the rsd thread, I found a bunch of stats for the 99 nationals. In the entire tournament, the offense was scored on 12 times in 8 games, for an average of 1.5 goals per game. Given these stats, it is not surprising that we won, although Furious gave us an incredibly tough game. While we only gave up 3 points, they were poorly-placed. I believe we gave up the last two of the half to give Furious the lead at half, 9-7. AND they were receiving to start the second half. I have to admit that I was worried coming out of halftime. This didn't have the same feel as the Ring semifinal comeback (also covered by Jim), but the margin also wasn't as large. Fortunately, the D came out and won half-time by stuffing and scoring to start. We slowly chipped away at the lead, until we finally broke through to lead 15-14 (games to 17 back then). Another HUGE stuff and score gave the O some breathing room, and we served out to 17-15.
This semifinal was similar to our 95 semi against NYNY, which Jim so ably recapped already in his blog. This was another big-play game us, with many completed hucks. This was back when Forch was still fast, and I ended up completing 5 full-field hucks for goals including the game-winner, most of them to Forch. BTW, Tony Leonardo does a fine writeup on that day on the nationals website
here.
And the finals were a continuation of that offensive dominance. For the 13 points that the offense was in, we scored on the first possession on 11 of them, gave up one goal, and scored the final one after we got it back. Of course, the one goal we gave up was on the first point, and it was my turnover, on an inside out forehand to Jay Bickford off a stoppage that he apparently did not realize was wide-open and he cut away from it. Hey, I didn't say I didn't have any turnovers, just that the O was a force this tournament.
Looking at the talent out there, it is going to require a similar effort this year to have any chance at making noise. We have shown glimpses throughout the year, but never more than a few points or at most one game in a row. Do we have it in us? We'll see in a few days. I'm looking forward to it.
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 9:05 PM
4 Comments:
i almost forgot how funny kd is...
Actually, I also got very few touches that game compared to the other games. That game really was all about the receivers. We rarely had to reset the disc. As you put it, the receivers were open all day, and we shredded.
Ahh.... the glory days of RSD...
Top players contributing instead of the non-name nobodies with aliases...
Dobyns at his antagonistic best...
Boston guys self-righteously defending themselves...
Canniff being a sycophant while calling others the same...
Wait... He still does that, right?
Is it ironic or ridiculous that I'm typing this anonymously?
Or maybe both. True, you don't see much trash talk from the elite players on rsd these days. Oh, to harken back to the '94, when DoG talked some serious trash, and then fortunately packed it at nationals.
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