NETANYA, ISRAEL – The Iroquois Nationals defended their Bronze Medal ranking at the FIL Men’s World Championships for 2018 hosted this year for the first time in Israel, a relative newcomer to the sport.
It was a given that the two powerhouse teams of Canada and the USA would once again be the favourites to win Gold and Silver, in whatever order.
But last games in 2014, the I-Nats made lacrosse history by winning its first Bronze Medal, displacing Australia as the third best lacrosse nation in the world.
There have been many heartwarming stories of members of the Iroquois Nationals, as ambassadors of the game itself, were seen helping some of the lesser teams like Uganda with skills and drill ideas, in an effort to promote “The Creator’s Game”.
Anyone who knows the game of lacrosse will recognize the skills, strength and focus members of the Haudenosaunee Nation in particular possess and are somewhat in awe to meet the likes of the Thompsons, Randy Staats and others and get for autographs from what they consider, the best in the game.
Controversy tainted Team USA’s Gold Medal win over Team Canada.
A blown offside call by a tournament referee may have cost Team Canada the gold medal at the Men’s World Lacrosse Championships held this year in Netanya, Israel.
It was a titanic see-saw battle right down to the final minutes of the game with Team Canada leading by one as time clicked down and Canada with possession.
Inexplicably, the referee blew down the play and awarded Team USA with possession, which they scored in the last season of regulation time for the USA win.
During all the arguments between players, coaches and managers from both teams, it was alleged that time was added to the clock, which eventually factored in on the final USA goal by Tom Schreiber, which Canada says was scored after time had actually expired.
Team Canada discovered a discrepancy between the stadium clock, the one the coaches and players were relying upon all game, and official game clock which seemed to cause the confusion.
In the last seconds the American’s missed the net on two of chances on their final possession, prior to the game-winning goal, but it according to Team Canada and Canadian lacrosse fans that the game clock failed to restart when the ball was brought back into play. There was also issues on how much time should be left on the clock following Schreiber’s go-ahead marker.
“The play started and the clock didn’t move for four seconds, and it went on and on,” said said head coach Randy Mearns following the heartbreaking loss. “The U.S. took a shot and there was four seconds left and we were like, ‘How are we not already at zero.’”
“It was chaotic down there. I don’t know what else to tell you,” he added in reference to the scorekeepers area where the referees convened try and make sense of the situation. “They huddled up and their conclusion was that the goal was scored with time left on the clock. The refs made a decision, and they stuck with it, and we didn’t get another opportunity.”
It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise great world tournament hosted by Israel for the first time ever.
