England v Canada Preview

After a much-welcomed victory for England against Japan today, Dave Elwood’s squad has an interesting match-up on day five. It’s a game you could throw everything at – who wouldn’t be famous if you beat the Canadians? It’s also a game that you can try and manage and just keep reasonable. Due to Australia’s loss to the hosts today, the actual result has little meaning – England are locked into fifth place in the blue division and will await the loser of the Germany v Australia play in game, but Canada still represents an opportunity to game plan for a higher calibre opponent.

The hosts are masters of doing just enough to get by, which actually makes teams more motivated to play them than the almighty Americans. Everyone knows that one day, just one day, one of the big two nations will trip up on a smaller opponent – and its way more likely to be Canada doing the falling over. Tonight they got themselves into a situation where they were level at 9 – 9 with the Aussies, and playing man down, having been cruising at 9 – 5 minutes earlier. They are notoriously casual, even when playing in the final, and their big stars, Gary Gait and John Grant Junior, will regularly take plays off. This all adds up to give them a hint of arrogance, which is why so many people like to go and really have a go at them.

Unfortunately, history suggests that unless you are the USA, Canada will let you think you are in the game and then take it away from you – ask the Japanese who were tied 6 – 6 with them with five minutes left in the second quarter on day one, but ultimately ended up losing by eleven goals. So do you play Canada like they are the USA – a nice experience that you can’t win, or like they are the Iroquois – a team more talented than you but definitely beatable?

I think England will load up their slingshots and send the starters out to take a few pops at Goliath, and I fully support that decision. The Canadians actually give up almost as many penalties as the England team, (England leads the division with Canada one and a half minutes behind), so if you do manage to get under their skin early they will keep you in it by playing man-down. Unfortunately, the reality is that England will have to stage a coup to even win half of the face-offs and then shoot the ball better than they ever have in their careers to threaten the hosts. They will also have to shutoff Grant for 80 minutes, as, with all due respect to the England poles, he is simply too good to guard straight up.

England produced their best lacrosse so far by playing loose and aggressive in the first half against Japan. Canada do nothing but loose and aggressive. Blow the whistle already, I can’t wait till tomorrow.