The Road to # 1 2010


BY WILL RANSON #24 CO-CAPTAIN, TEAM CANADA


Our team was now gathered in Florence,


after getting our legs moving in a short practice during the day, we’re on our way to the opening ceremonies. The Women’s and Men’s teams took off from the hostel, rolling some fifty U23s deep in their sharp red sublimated Canada jerseys. All the teams gathered in their gear in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, playing street fighter, WHAA and other games. It was our first taste of some international competition. All the teams went into the Florence City Hall to be welcomed by the Mayor, a suitable room considering it houses Michelangelo’s sculpture “The Genius of Victory.” The hall was breathtaking when I saw it the day before, but with 600 ultimate players gathered it was all the more spectacular. We then paraded on to the Piazza S. Croce for some throwing in the square and a freestyle demo. That night the Japanese would play the Swiss in the stadium, some folks got some scouting done, and others took naps. The next day we opened up our


tournament against Austria. They had the misfortune of playing a game just prior to seeing us and were pretty well cooked by the time our game got going. The Canadian Men beat Austria 17-4 in a fun game to get our feet wet. The Austrian men passed around a bottle of some delicious concoction. Wednesday the 21st


saw our biggest


match of pool play in the morning, Australia had been reportedly practising together for the six weekends in a row leading up to the tournament and were being hyped as a tournament favorite if only by themselves.


12 Ultimate Canada Magazine — www.canadianultimate.com PHOTO, PAUL SIMPSON


U23 Worlds Florence, Italy July 18-25th


We took it to them quickly adapting to


their German to huck offensive strategy; they kept the game close pushing in the second half. Canada won 14-12 over Australia. That afternoon Ireland was now up against the Canadian boys who were quickly developing their swagger. We put the game away quickly winning 17-3 as they were seemingly nervous to play us, but who wouldn’t be when our starting O-line is all over 6’2”. Thursday had us against the Italians first, a game we aimed to have fun with; we didn’t want to bagel the host country 17-0 it just kind of happened that way, which probably was the reason we didn’t win the spirit award, right? That afternoon was another big game against Sweden. Many of their players I recognized from Prague; all played on Vif. They battled and played more physical than other European teams just like we had expected. Aaron Liu had a dominant performance completely taking their star player out of the game, thus turning the tide early. He


had a catch up layout D in endzone that he had no business getting, complete with the patented blind man, glasses search, we call that getting Aaron Liued or Chess Clubbed. Canada beat Sweden 17-9. Friday was the biggest day yet, Columbia


in the morning, Quarters in the afternoon. The Columbians ran hard like we expected but we matched that and then some, wearing them down to nearly nothing by the second half. It probably helped us that Columbia had played in a hard showcase game against Australia on the turf late the night before. Canada beat Columbia 17- 12. The Quarterfinal would be the Swiss, a very friendly team, whom other than a sky over five big guys early, couldn’t really begin to match our depth and intensity. I think we scored about seven straight breaks to teach ‘em a lesson for the insult of being skied by a dude six inches shorter than the pack of huge wolves. Canada went on to the Semi winning 17-7 over Switzerland. The Semi-final was Columbia again, who beat out G.B. in the showcase game


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